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Barbie dolls at a toy fair: gross sales rose 29 percent
Photo: Mark Lennihan / dpa
For decades, the toy company Mattel has been reproducing a questionable ideal of beauty of a wasp waist, long legs, and blonde hair.
After all, versions of gender-neutral Barbie dolls with wider hips, in different skin colors and a model with a hijab have also been produced.
But no matter in which version: Barbies are booming - and the high demand has made Mattel's sales soar in the past quarter.
The toy company had net sales of 1.63 billion dollars, analysts had expected 1.46 billion.
Gross sales at Barbie climbed 29 percent to $ 532.2 million - the highest quarterly sales since 2003 at Mattel, which also sells the toy car brand "Hot Wheels".
The adjusted profit was 95 cents per share, analysts had expected 39 cents here.
Mattel: Toy industry resilient in difficult times
Overall, the Hasbro rival earned $ 316 million in the three months to the end of September, 348 percent more than in the third quarter of 2019 - after poor figures in the same period last year. Revenues grew by around ten percent, driven by high demand for dolls and toy cars to 1.6 billion dollars, as the company announced on Thursday after the US market closed.
In view of these numbers, the share rose at times by more than ten percent.
Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said, "The toy industry as a whole has grown significantly and continues to demonstrate its resilience in tough economic times."
Mattel was able to leave industry rivals behind, as the group gained shares in the most important markets around the world.
For the fourth quarter, too, Mattel expects sales to continue to rise strongly due to the early start of the Christmas business.
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apr / Reuters / dpa