The company that makes the famous plastic toys Playmobil announced today that it will cut 17% of its jobsof which almost half in Germany, due to the decline in sales worldwide.

“We are announcing a restructuring plan, which includes the elimination of 694 jobs worldwide by 2025. 369 of them are in Germany,” announced the German Horst Brandstätter Group, which owns the Playmobil brand.

The group invokes “current economic challenges” and the “global recession” which was caused by “the coronavirus pandemic” resulting in disruption to supply chains, from which it has not yet recovered. Raw material shortages caused by this disruption in supply chains and rising production costs were exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

The Horst Brandstätter Group (named after its founder, who died in 2015), claims that its profitability has declined in the past two years. During the financial period from March 2021 to March 2022, the company’s turnover fell by 2.8%, to 736 million euros. Playmobil’s turnover fell by 4.3%.

Due to the economic slowdown and inflation, sales were not as good as predicted and orders to Playmobil decreased.

The company, which is based in the small Bavarian town of Chirdorf, also faces a lot of competition from large toy manufacturing groups such as the Danish company Lego and the American Mattel, which benefited from the unexpected success of the movie “Barbie”.

With this restructuring, Horst Brandstätter assures that it will “guarantee” the safety of the remaining jobs in Germany and Europe.

Playmobil’s plastic dolls are mainly manufactured in the factory in Dittenhofen, near Nuremberg, and in 2024 they will be half a century old.