Hasbro, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Hasbro fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Ms. Debbie Hancock, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning everyone. Joining me today are Brian Goldner, Hasbro's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Deb Thomas, Hasbro's Chief Financial Officer. Today we will begin with Brian and Deb providing commentary on the company's performance, then we will take your questions. Our earnings release and presentation slides for today's call are posted on our investor website. The press release and presentation include information regarding non-GAAP adjustments and non-GAAP financial measures. Our call today will discuss certain adjusted measures which exclude these non-GAAP adjustments and will be versus pro forma adjusted 2019 results. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in the press release and presentation. Please note that whenever we discuss earnings per share or EPS, we are referring to earnings per diluted share. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during this call and the question and answer session that follows, Members of Hasbro management may make forward-looking statements concerning management's expectations, goals, objectives, and similar matters. There are many factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. These factors include those set forth in our annual report on Form 10-K, our most recent 10-Q, in today's press release, and in our other public disclosures. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made today to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this call. I would now like to introduce Brian Goldner. Brian.

Thank you, Debbie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The Hasbro team met the distinct and unique challenges of 2020 with tremendous resilience and excellence. They leveraged the breadth of our portfolio, the global footprint of our business, and the diverse and amazing talent in our company to lead our organization through the year. I cannot say enough about the quality of the people that I have the honor to work with every day. As consumers of all ages found themselves at home, they sought ways to connect and find joy. Hasbro is uniquely qualified to meet this need for every demographic. Our brands, toys, games, and content are valuable as they bring happiness and enjoyment to so many in this unprecedented global environment. After a very challenging June quarter, our performance improved in the second half of the year. Throughout the year, we advanced our commercial and retailer programs and supply chain capabilities to meet consumer demand while managing expenses and cash. We grew Hasbro's operating profit margin and finished the year with $1.45 billion in cash on our balance sheet. We finished 2020 with growth in revenues and adjusted operating profit in the fourth quarter, despite tough comparison with the successful theatrical releases a year ago. The 2020 holiday season was extended, starting earlier with strong consumer demand in October and November, but seeing some challenges for key weeks in December. The period then ended with strong point-of-sale growth, and this momentum has continued and accelerated into January. The comparison with frozen was extremely challenging due to our success in December 2019. If we exclude frozen from the data, Hasbro's POS grew 4% for the fourth quarter across the G11. We also gained share and recorded the fastest point of sale growth on Amazon and the toy and game market in the US and top European markets during the fourth quarter. For the full year, we delivered $1.8 billion in gaming revenue, an increase of 15%. Franchise brands Magic the Gathering and Monopoly each had their best year ever. Dungeons and Dragons did as well. and classic games like Jenga, Operation, and Connect Four, to name a few of many, had stellar years. Our gaming business grew in all regions but Latin America. The result reflects the ability of our supply chain, marketing, and commercial teams to pivot and meet the demand of consumers as they change their behaviors at pace. Gaming has long been a priority investment category for Hasbro. Our brands and our teams lead this market and we have clear growth plans in both face-to-face and digital gaming for the coming years. You'll hear more from Chris Cox, President of Wizards of the Coast, and Eric Nyman, Chief Consumer Officer, at our virtual investor event on February 25th. To meet the high consumer demand in gaming and other categories, we leveraged our global retail network and investments in new channels. By year end, the team drove more than a billion dollars in e-com revenues and a 43% increase from last year and representing just under 30% of our global revenues. This translated to close to a 10 percentage point increase. PurePlay and Omnichannel retailers led this growth and Omnichannel made significant strides to double their e-com revenue for the year. Our teams work closely with retailers, to expand their online offerings as many added click and collect to their capabilities during the year. With channel support and innovative tailored product, Hasbro also grew revenues with the fan channel last year. We augmented this with our own D2C capabilities, leveraging Hasbro Pulse to create authentic fan experiences. While Pulse is a small but growing piece of our revenue today, it is a unique experience that we're leveraging for continued growth and unmatched connections with the important fan community. In addition to our global retail network, our global supply chain capabilities and our evolving geographic manufacturing supplier base were essential to meeting demand. Due to COVID and changing consumer behaviors, we had disruptions from production to logistics, but the team worked tirelessly to meet the demand and successfully execute the year. We added new econ capabilities and identified opportunities to further enhance these going forward. We continue to diversify our manufacturing, reducing our reliance on any one country, ending 2020 with approximately 55% of production in China. To support new brand development and deeper brand engagement, we onboarded the E1 team and their expansive capabilities in brands and storytelling. While live action TV and film production were limited much of the year, we made substantial progress developing Hasbro IP for entertainment that we expect will lead to enhanced revenues and earnings power across multiple income streams. After returning to live action production in the third quarter, E1 revenues and profit increased versus 2019 for the last quarter of the year as deliveries resumed to our broadcast partners. Over the course of 2020, we completed production on 59 series across scripted and unscripted television and five feature films. With COVID-19 protocols in place, production continues around the world. While the near-term theatrical landscape remains uncertain, we see a path to its return and the opportunities in streaming and linear now and into the future are clear and compelling for both viewership and merchandise. The combination of Hasbro's portfolio and E1's expertise is unlocking opportunity to expand our brands and launch new ones. This takes time and investment, but we have established a robust and deep slate and a roadmap to drive growth in our business for years to come. Our teams are also on track to launch Hasbro developed, marketed, and distributed toy and game lines for the leading preschool brands Peppa Pig, and PJ Masks later this year. To further support our portfolio, we have fully integrated our consumer products organizations to drive immersive brand experiences across categories. With Hasbro's global retailer reach and brand category expertise, as well as retailers in the licensed consumer product space reopening and operating, we are expanding these brands. This is further enhanced by Hasbro IP like My Little Pony, which has been reinvented under the E1 family brands team leadership and is relaunching later this year. The E1 team will share more on our progress and plans at our event on February 25th. 2020 showcased how story and character executed via streaming platforms drives merchandise. Hasbro's Star Wars product revenues grew nearly 70% last year, despite it being a first year, without a theatrical release since 2014. This growth was driven by the strength of the Disney Plus global rollout of The Mandalorian. All regions grew versus prior year with the strongest growth in Europe, North America, and Australia. The child products were a significant driver of the business, including the child animatronic edition, our signature holiday item, and the number one item in the plush category in North America and several other markets in the fourth quarter, according to NPD. The success of this line helped Hasbro achieve the number one position in the plush super category across the G11 for 2020. Even without the child items, Hasbro's Star Wars lines grew significantly behind increasing fan engagement globally in Black Series and the Vintage Collection, a reemergence of our kids' business fueled by lightsabers and our new vehicle line, Mission Fleet, and a resurgence in casual pop culture fans in Star Wars overall. Hasbro's commercial and brand teams are executing meaningful global merchandise programs for streaming properties and supporting significant future partner brand initiatives, including with Disney Plus for Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney Princess and Frozen, as well as Hasbro-led streaming initiatives for our portfolio from children through adults. At the center of everything we did last year, and in every year, is our community of Hasbro employees and stakeholders. 2020 reminded us that living our purpose and values is imperative to continuing our legacy as a responsible corporate citizen. To drive this forward, we recently appointed Catherine Bellevue, a longstanding Hasbro leader in our CSR practice, as our first Chief Purpose Officer. I strongly believe Hasbro has both the opportunity and responsibility to lead as a corporate citizen across all aspects of our business. As we look to the coming year, we continue to see consumers and retailers turning to our categories and Hasbro. We have amazing new lines coupled with planned increases in theatrical, television, and streaming entertainment to drive the business. Investments in innovation and new growth drivers, including digital gaming and entertainment, will come to market. We believe we will grow in 2021 as we continue navigating through COVID-19 while leveraging our unparalleled portfolio of brands and capabilities in consumer products, gaming, and entertainment. I'll now turn the call over to Deb. Deb?