Toy manufacturer Simba Dickie (Fürth / Germany; www.simba-dickie.com) can look back on fiscal 2017 with limited satisfaction. It was a year shaped by consolidation and a slimming-down process. Sales grew 3.3% (adjusted for currency effects) amounting to just EUR 645m, compared to EUR 640m in 2016. Earnings developed better than sales, but the group did not give any precise figures.

CFO Manfred Duschl says, "Key core markets developed better than average in terms of revenues." On the other hand, foreign sales grew somewhat more slowly due to restructuring measures, reaching EUR 236m. Simba Dickie has reorganised several subsidiaries, including those of French company Smoby (Lavans-lès-Saint-Claude; www.smoby.com) in Germany and in Asia. In the course of this restructuring, Smoby's turnover fell from EUR 145m to EUR 119m. Its companies in Spain, Russia, India and the Middle East were also restructured.

The money is going into acquisitions in the areas of packaging design and digital entertainment, to which the company now has access. By focusing on animated films as a marketing channel, Simba Dickie is taking the same path as that adopted by competitor Lego and which Playmobil has also been taking recently (see Plasteurope.com of 02.02.2018). Another acquisition target is the Mattel subsidiary Corolle (Langeais / France; www.corolle.com), a plastic doll manufacturer.