The headquarters of Hasbro, Inc., an American multinational conglomerate holding company creating toys and games, is on Newport Avenue in Pawtucket. This photo was taken on Nov. 10, 2023. (Getty image)
To those waiting for answers on the fate of Hasbro Inc.’s Pawtucket headquarters: Keep waiting.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks in an email Wednesday to employees promised an update on the Rhode Island-based toy and game company’s “location strategy” in the first three months of 2025, per reporting by toybook.com. The update (or lack of update) comes amid planned layoffs of fewer than 100 workers amid efforts to “resize our cost base,” according to Cocks’ email.
It’s no secret that Rhode Island is at risk of losing its century-old fixture and one of the state’s top employers. Hasbro executives have been in talks with Massachusetts officials since at least April over a potential move across state lines into Boston, as first reported by the Boston Business Journal on Sept. 16.
Rhode Island officials and business leaders scrambled to come up with a plan to keep Hasbro in the Ocean State, even if not in Pawtucket. And with an official countdown revealed in Cocks’ email, the pressure is mounting.
“There’s definitely still a chance for Rhode Island to maintain Hasbro, but the state is going to have to recognize that we need to put everything on the table,” Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview Friday. “They are making decisions according to whatever their business criteria are. Sentimentality has taken a back seat.”
Indeed, Hasbro is no longer the quaint family-owned pencil box-maker of its 1923 origins in Providence. The publicly traded, multinational company with 5,000 employees — at least 1,000 of whom work out of Rhode Island — has spawned a game and toy empire, generating $223 million in profits for the three months that ended Sept. 29. Cocks was brought on as CEO in 2022 from Seattle, where he had headed Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast since 2016. He previously worked for Microsoft Corporation in Washington, though he spent time in Massachusetts as a student at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1996, according to his biography on the company website.
Cocks has no apparent connection to Hasbro’s local roots or its circa-1900 Pawtucket headquarters, purchased in 1962.
Cocks in a Sept. 16 email described the 312,000-square-foot industrial building along Newport Avenue as “showing its age.” Rumbles about the company’s desire for more modern buildings have surfaced multiple times in recent history, including in 2019 when Massachusetts officials made a pitch to bring the toymaker into its state.
They are making decisions according to whatever their business criteria are. Sentimentality has taken a back seat.
– Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce
The pandemic blocked a potential move, but not permanently, evidenced by publicly released emails between company executives and Massachusetts officials throughout the course of the year.
Did Rhode Island drop the ball? White says no.
“No one is putting out a press release saying, ‘We’re going to start looking for a new location,’” White said. “But it’s incumbent upon all of us to understand what the needs and concerns of our large employers are. We have to understand what they’re not telling us.”
The company has been planning for two years to shutter its six-story downtown Providence offices by the beginning of 2025, laying off more than 1,000 workers amid declining toy sales, according to news reports.
The latest public earnings report, published on Thursday, reveals ongoing revenue declines within its toy sector, suppressing total quarterly revenue to $1.3 billion. This marks a 15% decline over the third quarter of 2023. That also reflects losses recorded from the 2023 sale of its film and TV business, Entertainment One.
Hasbro’s financial pain points were partially offset by revenue growth in its games and licensing division, including Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: the Gathering, Cocks said in a Thursday morning earnings call with investors.
“The dynamics we’re observing across Magic and D&D in both analog and digital reinforce our confidence in the long-term health of the brands,” Cocks said. “Our competitive advantage as an IP licensor is also gaining steam as we see the staying power of Monopoly Go!, the resurgence of fan favorite brands like MY LITTLE PONY and strong POS growth in our out-licensed toy portfolio.”
Hasbro Inc.’s third-quarter revenue declines were partially offset by new product innovation and strength in consumer products licensing, the company reported. (Hasbro Q3 2024 Earnings PowerPoint)
The company paid $98 million in dividends to shareholders, with quarterly, diluted earnings per share of $1.73.
Plans to shave expenses through “operational efficiency” and supply chain “productivity” are expected to boost the company’s balance sheet next year, Cocks said.
“While we are still mid-innings in our toy turnaround, 2024 promises to show a significant uptick in profit, cash flow and operational rigor for the company that will set us up for 2025 and beyond,” Cocks said on the call.
The call with investors featured little detail on how forthcoming cost-cutting measures would affect Rhode Island. Half of the 100 upcoming layoffs will be Rhode Island workers, Andrea Snyder, a company spokesperson, said in an email Friday.
Federal law requires companies to notify state and local officials about pending layoffs at least 60 days in advance. The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training has not received any notice from Hasbro regarding layoffs, Edwine Paul, a department spokesperson, said in an email Friday morning.
‘Collaborative, modern environment’
Snyder did not answer other questions regarding the company’s potential relocation, referring to Cocks’ Oct. 23 email.
In the email, Cocks explained the need for a new headquarters — with a move no earlier than mid-2026 — with a “collaborative, modern environment,” in a location that is “prioritizing convenience to public transit” and that “works for our unique needs.”
All obvious descriptors for Boston. Or, as state and local officials are hoping to persuade Hasbro, Providence’s I-195 Redevelopment District.
White said Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Liz Tanner and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley have been drafting a pitch for Hasbro to relocate to a swath of the undeveloped, former highway land surrounding downtown Providence.
“Given what we’ve heard about Hasbro’s desires for a new, significant building, the 195 District would be ideal for that,” White said.
The area boasts an increasing crop of health, science, business and residential development, and, until this week, was a contender for a new central state public transit center.
State-enabling legislation passed in 2015 also gives the city of Providence authority to offer incremental discounts on city property taxes to district development projects.
While the city’s tax-stabilization agreement tool has come under fire, including from members of its city council, for benefiting rich developers at the expense of city residents, White said the state should consider every incentive available if Hasbro asks for it.
The city of Providence, Rhode Island Commerce Corp., and the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission did not respond to inquiries Friday regarding details of a Hasbro development in the district.
As for keeping Hasbro in Pawtucket? White seemed to think it was a lost cause.
“They’ve already indicated their first choice was not Pawtucket,” she said.
Grace Voll, a spokesperson for the Pawtucket mayor’s office, did not return inquiries for comment Friday.
Gov. Dan McKee’s office also did not respond to inquiries for comment.
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