Funko is a company known to all (although loved by some and hated by others). Its flagship product, the big-headed figures Funko Pop!they cover almost every corner of popular culture (film, television, anime, video games, music…) with funny and affordable figures, perfect for gifts or whims.
You probably have a Funko Pop at home right now, or have given one away (probably from Grogu, since Baby Yoda was his best-selling figure).
But the American company is not going through its best moment right now, and in its last financial meeting they published some financial data worrisome of the fiscal year 2022 (finished on December 31, 2022).
Thousands of unsold Funko Pop will be destroyed to reduce inventory costs
Funko increased its sales in 2022: $1.3 billion in net sales revenue, an increase of 29% over 2021.
However, they posted losses of $5.2 million, down 108% from the prior year, and in the fourth quarter of 2022, losses were $46.7 million, a 368% drop from the same year. period of 2021.
“It was clear from our last earnings meeting that our operations and business had reached an inflection point,” Brian Mariotti, Funko founder and new CEO since last December (via ICv2), said in the results presentation.
“A mix of macroeconomic factors and issues specific to Funko have disrupted our operating and financial performance to an unacceptable level.”
As a consequence, there will be many layoffs: they will reduce the staff 10%.
One of the most striking cuts are the destruction of excess inventory, with a value between 30 and 36 million dollars. That is to say, they will destroy thousands of figures and products that they accumulated in their new Arizona distribution center.
In fact, a good part of the losses this year are due to this failed distribution center project, opened in 2022, and to the container rental costs that they use to store all the inventory that they did not fit in the building.
Lots of Funkos, for which collectors and speculators can get to pay hundreds or thousands of euroswill be destroyed by Funko to cover costs…
