Annual Statement Press Conference 2018

In 2017 the Ravenburger Group generated sales of 471.1 million euros in slightly declining markets. These figures are at level with results from 2016. Last year’s net income was 23.7 million euros, i.e. 5.0 percent return on sales after tax. 2017 was a year of change for Ravensburger: The group began to follow a new corporate strategy to invest in international expansion and innovation. As part of this strategy, the company has acquired US games company ThinkFun, which adds strategic and logic games to Ravensburger’s broad product portfolio. The new approach has already paid off: The innovative ball-track game GraviTrax® was best-selling game during last year’s Christmas selling season. Chairman Clemens Maier at the annual press conference: “Digitization is changing the markets fundamentally. That’s why we are realigning our business operations and making long-term investments in change. Thankfully, we are able to rely on our passionate employees who are fully dedicated to Ravensburger and our values.” The Company: Sustainable Business Development in Changing Markets In the past year, Ravenburger Group generated sales of 471.1 million euros, perfectly in line with the previous year. This resulted in a net profit of 23.7 million euros and 5 percent return on sales after tax. Adverse circumstances reduced earnings by 8.4 million euros year-on-year. In the face of the insolvency of two major international toy store chains, Ravensburger significantly increased their provisions. CFO Hanspeter Mürle stated: “We have achieved quite a respectable annual result. However, we now mainly focus on the long-term strategic alignment of our company.”

Business Divisions: Growing International Toy Business
For the first time in five years toy sales in five major European markets have been declining slightly. However, Ravensburger’s toy division, which is their largest business division and accounts for 85 percent of their total sales, remained in line with results of the previous year. Their toy brands generated sales of 398.8 million euros. In international territories, which account for two thirds of their total sales, Ravensburger toys grew by 5.5 percent on average. On the domestic market, sales declined by 10 percent. However, the year 2016 was dominated by a one-off special deal. Excluding this one-off effect, sales increased by 5.9 percent on the German market.

In the absence of bestselling books, the German market for children’s and youth books suffered a slight decline of 1.8 percent in 2017. In the course of one-off effects and the consolidation of this segment the Ravensburger division for children’s and youth books also decreased by 1.8 percent to 63.7 million euros. The core business developed positively and Ravensburger invested in new initiatives on the publishing sector – including the founding of a programme for literary children’s books in Hamburg.

The sales of Ravensburger’s leisure time and promotion division rose by 16.6 percent to 17.7 million euros – mainly thanks to a major order and the holiday resort Ravensburger Spieleland with its high number of overnight stays.

Long-term Strategic Alignment: Consumer Behaviour is Constantly Changing
The main reason for the realignment of the company group is a major change in consumer behaviour: Children tend to spend more time with digital games – mostly on mobile devices; parents increasingly purchase toys and books online; children and parents regularly communicate and seek information on the internet or via social media. Due to these major changes, Ravensburger has decided to pave new ways with their long-term strategy: They still focus on the tangible products, but expand play experience into the digital sphere. The development of extensive product worlds becomes key element. Products are distributed both in stores and online – via all retail channels that consumers use for their purchases. In terms of communication Ravensburger moves closer to customers with personalized approaches and tailor-made services.

In Times of Change: Ravensburger’s Mission and Values
In 2017 the company heavily invested in the execution of their new strategy. The first visible change: Ravensburger introduced new methods of product development to optimally align their articles with consumer needs and significantly reduce time-to-market. For the first time the company engaged interdisciplinary teams to create new product worlds and ideas by use of agile method in new development surroundings, including their “Innovation Campus”. Short time-to-market and cross-division development is what Ravensburger used to realize “tiptoi create”. The further development of the bestselling Ravensburger tiptoi® will hit the German market in autumn 2018. In a joint process their team realised not only the actual product, but also digital content, downloadable software, and a full-fledged marketing campaign.

These are the first steps of a long planned change at Ravensburger. It follows a distinctive plan and is the result of joint effort. People from different generations and origins are the key factor to the family business. This also is true for their workforce: About 20 percent belong to the baby boomers (53+ yrs), over a third to Generation X (38 – 52 yrs) and Y (23 – 37 J.) respectively, and about four percent to Generation Z (up to 22 yrs). 62 percent of the workforce is female; almost one half is working abroad. The balance and exchange of these groups lays the foundation for change at Ravensburger. The common ground is always grown values, shared interests, and solidarity, which contribute to the playful development of people on behalf of their company. That’s what all Ravenburger’s employees readily identify with – also in times of change.