I left buffalo 10 years ago to work in tech manufacturing and now working as an engineer with Pepsi. Friends in the area that I keep in touch with keep telling me of rumors of the FP campus. Is there any truth to it? I think East Aurora would turn into
a wasteland without FP as a community anchor.
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Marketing in EA is abysmal. Most are aged out and either have no kids of their own (so no real sense of what a mom wants at all) OR are older males again with no sense of what today's moms want. They have been at FP way too long and are clueless. They are definitely past their expiration date. Need fresh people with a better sense of marketing to today's moms. The last few toy announcements have been laughable at best - "role play your parent who is working from home" - really, with a Starbucks cup and zoom call. That should be a hit - LOL
The lines feel very stale except for a handful of spots. And the marketing does not seem geared toward today’s young parents. Needs new blood for sure throughout division.
Deciding not to develop in certain categories was only part of the problem. FP was also priced out of these categories by nimbler suppliers with better manufacturing costs. There were also pockets of growth in the past decade so you cannot fully say the current leadership is working. They do great when they create exciting and innovative toys that are marketed well. The entire FP business has been down for too long.
Remember when FP used to out toys that turned people’s heads? When taking risks were encouraged and people took chances. When (post pandemic) we’d socialize outside work with co-ed sports competitions? I miss those days. even when i transferred to the nyc office we had a kickball team. FP/mattel made the workplace a fun place.
FP lost its way when the late BS was in charge of Mattel. He brought in his own people and high paid analysis that said we needed to concentrate on the core business. FP dropped whole lines, sports, ride ons, role play, view master, preschool girls an other lines. That represented 100s of millions of dollars FP brought In every quarter, with no back fill of products, to recover the lost sales of dropped product lines.
FP never recovered, add in all the lay offs (I’m one) and there isn’t enough people to grow the business. Add in 3 or 4 FP CEO’s with no clue about toys. And you can see the problem. The new CEO is good, but it might be to late. Time will tell, if Mattel goes bankrupt and spins it off, or they make a recovery.
Not right now. But their business has been going down double digits for several years. The campus has diversified to supply more back end support to Mattel beyond merely FP business. But, where FP was once well over a billion in sales- they are far from that now.
It’s more a marvel AG still has a campus.
No truth to that rumor. They are still there. The model shop guys are back at work in EA.