Earnings Labs

Mattel, Inc. (MAT)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 16, 2013

$14.70

-0.17%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+1.05%

1 Week

+2.84%

1 Month

+10.03%

vs S&P

+5.39%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Mattel's Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Drew Vollero, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Drew Vollero

Analyst

Thank you, Stephanie. As you know, this morning, we reported Mattel's 2013 third quarter financial results. We provided you with a slide presentation to help guide our discussion0 today. The slide presentation and the information required by Regulation G regarding non-GAAP financial measures is available on the Investors and Media Section of our corporate website, corporate.mattel.com. In a few minutes, Bryan Stockton, Mattel's Chairman and CEO; and Kevin Farr, Mattel's CFO, will provide comments on the results and then the call will be open for your questions. Certain statements made during the call may include forward-looking statements related to the future performance of our overall business, brands and product lines. These statements are based on currently available information and are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. We describe some of these uncertainties in the Risk Factors section of our 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K, and our 2013 quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and in other filings we make with the SEC from time-to-time, as well as in other public statements. Mattel does not update forward-looking statements and expressly disclaims any obligation to do so. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Bryan.

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Thank you, Drew, and good day, everyone. As many have heard me say before, we refer to the first half of the year in our business as the preseason and the second half of the year as the season. Overall, the season got off to a good start. I'm pleased with our performance in the third quarter, as sales grew, margins expanded, the balance sheet got stronger and we returned more capital to shareholders. I'll build out each of these points in a few minutes, but first, I'd like to provide a brief overview of what we're seeing from an industry-wide perspective. Globally, the toy industry looks much like it has over the last decade or so. According to NPD, the U.S. toy business, which is about 1/4 of the global market, is slightly up this year. The Western European markets, which comprise about 1/4 of the global toy market, are flat, and we view that as a positive sign given the region's economic challenges this year. Both these numbers are pretty consistent with the historical rates of growth for both regions. While NPD does not provide syndicated data for the rest of the world, our internal analysis would suggest that remaining toy markets are growing at mid- to high-single-digit rates, again, consistent with historical trends. As we look across the NPD toy categories, growth rates continue to vary. Overall, the faster-growing categories in the toy space are fueled by innovative products and brands. All 3 of Mattel's core NPD categories, dolls, vehicles and infant/preschool, are growing in the U.S. To continue my assessment of the industry, let me make a couple of comments about the retail environment. Overall, it looks a lot like it has over the past few years. Retailers had been cautious, and they remain cautious. They…

Kevin M. Farr

Analyst

Thank you, Bryan, and good day, everyone. As Bryan pointed out, we continue to make good progress this year as we remain focused on our company objectives: to consistently grow the business, to maintain financial discipline and to deploy the cash we generate effectively to reward our shareholders. In this quarter, I was very happy to see improvement on a number of operating metrics. For the quarter, sales momentum continued and was up 6%. Our gross margins improved in the quarter and is up 90 basis points year-to-date. We improved our SG&A spending leverage, even with our continued strategic investments to grow our business. And we saw good flow-through resulting in a 23.9% operating margin in the quarter. This strong operating performance, coupled with a favorable tax rate due to discrete period tax items, resulted in EPS of $1.21, a 16% improvement over last year. And while we had a very solid quarter, we recognize the need to continue to execute in the fourth quarter in order to deliver another year of strong growth to our shareholders. Now before I start reviewing the slide deck with you, I want to highlight a couple of key items in the P&L and touch on our capital deployment strategy. First, we continue to see strength in our gross margin. Our peak production season is behind us, and while there's been puts and takes in our input costs, our overall basket of costs for the first 9 months of 2013 are fairly consistent with what we had initially planned for 2013. And while there's still a number of factors outside of our control that can impact gross margin, including volatility in input and foreign exchange, we will continue to actively manage manufacturing efficiency and O.E. 3.0 cost savings programs, and we expect to benefit…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Greg Badishkanian with Citigroup.

Gregory R. Badishkanian - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst

First question is just, as you guys had talked about last quarter, you saw an improvement in Fisher-Price Core, Barbie and you saw that in the third quarter. How much left in terms of incremental improvement do we have over the next few quarters? Or do you think it'll kind of be a steady state for the next few quarters at this point?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Greg, it's Bryan. We're feeling, I think, encouraged by what we're seeing on both Barbie and on Fisher-Price. As we think about Fisher-Price, we like the fact that global shipments were flat for the quarter, with Fisher-Price Friends up about 14% and Core down 3%. As we think about the overall portfolio of Fisher-Price, we always think about Friends and that business seems to be doing pretty well. We like what we see in both Mike the Knight and in Thomas. Some of the partner brands that we've got there with Disney and Nick and BBC are doing well. So that part of the Fisher-Price portfolio has positive momentum, both in the U.S. and outside the U.S. As we think about the core business, we saw an improvement compared to the first half and there's a couple things that we like when we look at Fisher-Price. The first thing is really a couple of the segments like Imaginext and Little People and Laugh & Learn are doing pretty well. International -- and recall international is an important part of the Fisher-Price growth plan, it's only about 1/3 of Fisher-Price revenue for us globally so international is a key part, and we're seeing POS improve as we get some of the new programs and packaging out there in international. So we like that. The biggest challenge we have on Fisher-Price is really in the U.S. We need to improve consumer takeaway on the core business. We're really focusing on that in the fourth quarter as the new packaging and promotional programs and some space expansion come into play. So but we feel like we have more work to do on Core in the U.S. more specifically. But our plan is still on Fisher-Price to plan to grow that business overall. Again,…

Gregory R. Badishkanian - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst

Good, good. And just another question. Inventory, U.S. inventory was down. I think retailers seem to be managing inventory levels a lot more aggressively. And just wondering when you talk to your retail customers, has there been much of a change over the last month or 2 in terms of their outlook for the holiday? Or is that pretty consistent with a few months ago?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Well, I would start with the notion that retailers are really working hard to reduce inventories is not a new idea. That's something we've been working with them for the past couple of years. As you recall, in 2012, we were able to get our inventory retail down sort of mid-single digits. We're running at about that rate this year. We like that. It keeps the product more fresh at retail, helps inventory turns at retail. That's good. Mattel, as well, is also working on reducing our inventories, we were pleased, quite frankly, that even with all the new launches we have in place, our inventory is only up about 1%. So we like that. As we talk to retailers, everybody is focusing on executing well. As you know, we always suffer the pre-Christmas jitters, both at retail and here on the vendor side. But we think that the toy industry looks good. In the U.S., it's up marginally. It's kind of flat in Europe. So we think the outlook for toy is actually quite strong.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Gerrick Johnson with BMO Capital Markets.

Gerrick L. Johnson - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

I'd like a little bit more clarity on your point of sale. I think you said down mid-single digit U.S. Was that year-to-date, or in the quarter? And with shipments up slightly in the U.S., is there anything to be concerned about with that disconnect?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

We look at POS on a year-to-date basis, generally, because there's all sorts of puts and takes depending on the timing of promotional programs and holidays and things of that nature. So when we look at our POS and shipments, we would say across most of our brands and most of our countries, it's pretty well aligned on a year-to-date basis. We think that's a good place for us to be, as we go into the all-important fourth quarter and we focus on execution. It means we're in balance, even with retail inventories down mid-single digits. So we like where we are.

Gerrick L. Johnson - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

Okay. And can tell you us a little more about Playground Productions? I think that -- you did mention it in your preamble, but maybe you could tell us a little bit about it now.

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

Well, sure. As you know, we're spending a lot more time creating content, and that's a fundamental part of our brand-building strategy. As we look at successful brands in the toy industry at the moment, they tend to be the ones that have great consumer engagement, whether that's through television or movies or webisodes or any other kind of consumer engagement. And it's just our fancy term for a group we have internally here at Mattel that is producing terrific programs like -- things like Max Steel, for example. But it's not a studio in the purest sense of the word. It's a fancy term for a group of highly talented people here at Mattel that have been employees for a number of years. And they do a terrific job, as you can see, by all the content that we've been producing. And you look at Monster High, Ever After High, Max Steel, they're just doing a terrific job.

Gerrick L. Johnson - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

Okay. And I just want to sneak one more. Are you seeing changes in the way retailers are managing their inventory risk, meaning, less FOB, more domestic fulfillment? Any changes in how they are getting fulfilled this year?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

Not really. Every year, as we look across our customers around the globe, there's always changes at some customer somewhere, who wants to try something a little bit different. But as we look across our portfolio of customers, we're not seeing a growing trend one way or the other. But we partner with our customers every day to make sure that we optimize the execution of the flow of inventory and merchandising and driving POS. So overall, I would say no. And I'm sure there's an example somewhere out there, where somebody's made a change but, overall, for Mattel, it's not material.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jim Chartier with Moness, Crespi and Hardt. James Andrew Chartier - Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Research Division: Two questions. I just wanted to confirm, you still expect to grow Fisher-Price sales overall in 2013?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Yes. What we said is we plan to grow Fisher-Price. And when we talk about planning to grow Fisher-Price, overall, that's a combination of Friends, which is our owned properties like Thomas and Mike the Knight, as well as our license partners like Nickelodeon and Disney. And our -- also our Fisher-Price Core business. As we look at our Fisher-Price business, we've got momentum on the Friends business, both our own properties and our licensed properties, so we like that a lot. We are also working hard on the execution of Fisher-Price Core. As I'd mentioned, we like some of the momentum we're seeing in international, that's the key to Fisher-Price growth in the future. It's taken longer on the core part of the business in the U.S. to get that business turned around. It's all about POS and in-store execution and working hard to make sure we get everything lined up. We've always said it was a second half plan for Fisher-Price Core. We had the new packaging in place. We have new promotions and new space. But if you look at Fisher-Price overall, year-to-date, we're down about 2%. So it's -- we've got some work ahead of us to pull ahead, but it's our plan, and we're working really hard across both parts of our portfolio to do that. James Andrew Chartier - Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Research Division: And then just I know it's early, but can you compare the response to Ever After High relative to kind of Monster High at this stage in terms of, I don't know, YouTube downloads or other engagement with the consumer?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Well, it's difficult to compare, because Monster High was such a shocking thing to all of us, the way it took off. We would say based on what we've seen in terms of the response at Justice stores, not just on the toys, but on consumer products and the engagement overall, we like what we see. But it is just way, way too early. Shipments on this brand don't really start until later this quarter. So we like what we see, but it is pre-preseason for Ever After High.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jaime Katz with Morningstar.

Jaime M. Katz - Morningstar Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Morningstar.

Can you guys talk a little bit about what is resonating in, I guess, Europe and Asia Pacific specifically? And what you see as sort of the growth opportunities longer term for those businesses? It kind of looked like Latin America was sort of the drag in international. So I'm curious maybe what you're up in Asia Pacific like that made that work well outside of what we already know?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Morningstar.

Sure. Why don't I take you on a little tour around the world here. Let's start first with Europe. We like where we are in Europe. We think a couple things are happening there. Number one, we're executing well with all of our retail partners on our core brands, as noted with our Barbie performance, as well as launching new brands like Monster High and some of our partnered brands. We've also invested, we think, very wisely in Russia as a part of Europe and that's growing quite well. We've been trying to leverage our scale in core brands in Russia, so we like what we're doing there. And it's really about building momentum and leveraging our brands and our opportunities there. And as you look at Europe, what is most encouraging is that as you look across every market, it's positive across almost every market. And so it's not 1 or 2 countries driving it. It's pretty broad scale performance. As we think about Latin America, we've always loved Latin America. As you know, it's about $1 billion business for us. It's been growing. It continues to grow. POS continues to grow there. Our shipments are up there. The 2 key markets in Latin America are Brazil and Mexico, and we continue to see POS grow there. And we are really strong in fourth quarter execution in both of those markets. As you recall, those are 2 very, very seasonal markets. In Brazil, one of the issues that everyone is dealing with is the currency impact. And even with that, we feel quite positive about Brazil. So we think there's still more opportunity for growth in Latin America, particularly in the 2 anchors of Mexico and Brazil, and so we're quite positive about it. Asia, I think is a…

Jaime M. Katz - Morningstar Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Morningstar.

And then can you talk a little bit about the Wheels business and whether or not you guys are looking to maybe put some marketing dollars behind that to sort of reengage the consumer, since it looks like, was that a couple quarters of weak performance?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Morningstar.

Well, we like where we are in the Wheels business. We think we're well positioned with Hot Wheels, with some innovation in the fourth quarter, with things like the Car Maker, which is a really interesting and innovative new item. So we like where we are. And we really think about wheels in terms of everything that's sort of diecast. We have to look at Hot Wheels, we have to look at Cars. And, of course, Planes is really taking off, pun intended. And that appears to be some nice new incremental business for us everywhere where that brand has been launched. So if we look at our overall diecast business, we like it. Hot Wheels has solid momentum, again, with the Car Maker and some other new things. So we think we're well positioned to execute well in the fourth quarter and feel good about that business.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Tim Conder with Wells Fargo Securities.

Timothy A. Conder - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities.

Just a couple here. Bryan, a little bit more color, if you could, on Barbie. I know you commented on POS year-to-date in the previous -- answer to the previous question. But it appears on the NPD that, that had weakened quite a bit in the third quarter. Can you maybe kind of give us a little bit of color there? Was that primarily older product versus what you've now shipped in during the third quarter? Was that due to that bleed down of the old product? Or was there something else going on? And then the second question is Girls. Monster High, as you said, continues to do well. But you would think that, at some point here, the rate of growth is going to start to slow but still grow. So can you kind of comment on Monster High, Barbie, Disney Princess, how you see that growth going forward here as the Monster High growth comes down but still progresses?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities.

Sure. Well, let me start with Barbie POS. I'm really not going to get into a discussion of Barbie POS specifics and by month and by good product, old product, in between product. But what I would tell you, as I mentioned earlier, when we look at POS and shipments, because of timing and promotional programs, we tend to like to look at it on a year-to-date basis. And again, I would tell you that our shipments and POS are pretty well balanced, and we've gone through about 50% of the POS here in toys. And we had the next 50% ahead of us in the fourth quarter. So we like where we are. We've said we've got some positive momentum at Barbie international, we like that. We know that there's still soft POS in the U.S. In the U.S. we're addressing that through more space, better merchandising, some solid promotional tie-ins with our retail partners. We have 2 movies, A Pony Tale launches on October 22. That should be a terrific movie with a camper and a terrific remote-controlled horse that I know that girls are going to love around the world. So we're all about execution on Barbie in the fourth quarter, and we'll see where we end up. And again, we know that the big challenge is here in the U.S. The other question I think really talkies about our doll portfolio. And we like where we are in our doll portfolio. We have the leading brands of dolls between Barbie and American Girl and Monster High and Disney Princess. And obviously, with launching Ever After High, we have high hopes that, that, too, will become a solid success. And as we think about that portfolio, obviously, just as you manage your portfolios, we want the portfolio…

Timothy A. Conder - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities.

Okay. And it sounds like, Bryan, you're not too concerned that as Monster High growth rate starts to slow, but again, still growing, you're not too concerned about the Girls business on a go-forward basis?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities.

Well, I would tell you, Tim, that we feel there's still opportunity for Monster High to continue to grow. And what's driving that is, again, we see more growth in that base. And it's such a fantastic property to create new stories and new characters, so we like that. Ever After High is just launching, as I mentioned. It's beginning to take hold in Justice. At Disney, we have Sophia, which is really doing well. We like that a lot. Frozen, the movie launch is quite late to have a lot of impact on this year, but we think Frozen, like, as you'll recall the Tangled movie, should have some positive impact on us in the following year for us, 2014. And then there's American Girl, and we don't talk a lot about American Girl, but we sure love it. It's a $600 million business. It's growing strong double-digits. We have another store opening in Palo Alto here in a few weeks. And the growth in that brand is strong across the portfolio, whether it's portfolio of dolls or portfolio of locations or portfolio of channels. So we feel really quite positive about our Girls business.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Michael Kelter with Goldman Sachs.

Michael Kelter - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

I guess, first thing, there's a pretty big delta right now between your sell in and your sell through in the U.S. And you've touched on a few things, but I was hoping you could maybe walk us through the drivers of the delta in a little more detail?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Sure, would love to do that. We really think about a handful of things, as we look at how our shipments and POS and inventory are shaping up. As I mentioned, we -- as we look at our POS and shipments, we believe we're pretty well aligned across brands and across countries, again, as you look at them on a year-to-date basis. And we think that's probably the most reflective way to look at our POS and shipments. And we feel good about that even in the face of retailers managing inventory quite closely. And as you know, when they do that, they tend to buy what's selling, and that's why we feel pretty good. They're buying what our POS is driving, and that's why we feel pretty good about that alignment. Again, our inventory is down at retail, about single -- mid-single digits. Our inventory is down, we like that. And I think another thing that we think about with Q3, as I mentioned, we had a number of new launches. And when you look at those new launches, they're having an impact as we begin to gain more space and get these products on the shelf at retail. So we like the early signs of success on these new launches. So I would say that's kind of a handful of things, as we think about why we feel pretty good about the balance of the shipments in POS, why we're -- we believe, we're well positioned at the end of the third quarter to execute well in the fourth.

Michael Kelter - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

And then kind of a related question, I mean, you said on the -- U.S. POS is down roughly mid-singles year-to-date. And as I understand it, it's actually decelerated as the year has unfolded and maybe a little lower than that now. And it sounds like on the call, it sounds like you're treating it as business as usual, whereas I'd have expected a major sense of urgency to turn things around. And so I guess my question is what are you doing to adapt and adjust to what's going on in POS? Are you stepping up trade spend heading into Christmas? Are you reducing orders from some of the manufacturers you use in China? Are you pulling back on discretionary expenses? Are you doing things differently? Or you just kind of have faith things will come in, in the end?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Well, I would probably argue with your premise that our POS is decelerating. We're a global business, and we sell toys all around the world, not just in the U.S. And the U.S. is only about 1/4 of the world's toy market. It's about half of our sales. So as we look at our POS, we tend to look at it globally, not just with the U.S. The second thing I would say in terms of why we feel good about the fourth quarter is if you look at the shelf space gains we have, and this is a U.S. comment as well as an international comment. The level of support we're getting from retailers, if you look at the, I'll call it, the informal ratings of our products that we get on all the hot toy lists, and as I mentioned in my comments, we have 80 products on different lists from around the world. You look at the quality of the marketing efforts that we're putting in. The advertising is across the board, better than it was last year. Our spending levels are quite strong, including in the U.S. So I think we're well positioned to execute well in the fourth quarter. And again, we've said the POS is a little softer than we'd like in the U.S., but we have 50% of the industry and us ahead in POS. And the fourth quarter is what this business is all about. And I, frankly, think we execute as well, if not better, than anyone else in the industry.

Michael Kelter - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

And then just kind of a quick one here. Have you seen any impact to the industry or yourselves from the recent government stalemate? And I asked -- Wal-Mart maid some comments yesterday at their Analyst Day about seeing an impact to consumers. They weren't specific to toys at all, but as the largest toy company in the world, hoping to get your read on things.

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Well, it's difficult to say. If you watch television, you're not sure if you should be happy or sad. It depends on which 5-minute segment of what network you're watching. But what we would say is the toy industry has been pretty resilient, if you look at the challenges over the last 5 to 6 years. Recall in the fourth quarter of 2008, the wheels came off the bus, particularly in the U.S. In 2009, it happened in Europe. And as we always take a look at, every year, there's always something that happens in the industry. Hurricanes, dock strikes, U.S. politics, and we always seem to get through it. But again, if there's a short-term issue with U.S. politics, hopefully -- I think most Americans hope that will get taken care of, and we can get back to business. But this is a pretty resilient industry. And one thing we've learned, and I've been in this business 13 years and many of you have covered it a lot more than that, Christmas always comes on December 25. And there's always toys under the tree for kids. And we're proud of the fact that there are always more Mattel toys under trees around the world than any other company.

Michael Kelter - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

And last thing, can you just maybe talk us through the key sales drivers, not for Christmas or the next couple months, but for 2014 and '15, either movies or other things we should be thinking about that are going to help propel you forward?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst · Goldman Sachs.

Well, sure. I think if you think about what we've been talking about, the first thing we love is our core businesses. And I'll start with Barbie and Fisher-Price. Those 2 businesses, we've been talking about, trying to make some progress on them for '14. We expect to make more progress on that. Our doll portfolio is, really, I think, one of our key strengths. We have the top 4 brands in the world in dolls, all are performing well. We're launching a fifth with Ever After High. So we like where we are with that. With Max Steel, we have some new launches with that going on. But from an entertainment standpoint, we have a number of things going on with Planes, and again, what I would call the post-year effect of Frozen. But we'll review this in a lot more detail at our Analyst Meeting, which we hope we'll see you at in a couple weeks. But we feel quite positive about the '14 and the opportunities to grow.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Linda Bolton-Weiser with B. Riley.

Linda Bolton-Weiser - B. Riley Caris, Research Division

Analyst

I was wondering, in the Fisher-Price business, you had mentioned that there was some exit of some low-profitability areas. I wonder if that could be quantified? Does that make a material impact, causing some of that 3% decline in the core Fisher-Price? Or is it just too small to measure? And then my second question is on Max Steel. Maybe I'm just reading too much into your comments, but it just sounded like you were a little muted on your initial commentary about Max Steel. Is it just too early? Or is it getting a maybe slower start than you had thought? Or can -- maybe you could give just a little more color on Max Steel?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Sure, I'd love to comment on both. On Fisher-Price, we've had a number of categories and products, and I'll pick on one as an example. For example, Grow To Pro, which has been a number of outdoor toys that haven't really been as attractive as perhaps we'd like. And we're really trying to focus our toy line on Fisher-Price on 2 things: things that support the developmental nature of the brand and the advertising; and frankly, things that are attractive from a gross margin standpoint. So I'm not going to get into quantifying how much it is. But I think if you look at the Fisher-Price display this year versus the Fisher-Price display in past year, you would notice that we've got a more focused line and a line that better reflects what we're doing with Fisher-Price. On Max Steel, I wouldn't say I'm muted. I would just say we recognize the fact that this is a television property. It's not a movie property. As you know, movie properties tend to have a big bang, and then they kind of disappear. And we're essentially using the same formula outside of Latin America that we built this brand within Latin America, which is with, I would say, more ongoing support, whether it's promotional support or DVDs, et cetera. We like what we see with Max Steel in Latin America at the moment, the engagement of boys with the brand is quite strong. Again, the new product is just hitting shelves there, so it's a little too early to make a call. But I recall the POS, quite encouraging in Latin America. So we think all the work we've put into Max Steel at minimum is going to help make us a stronger and better business in Latin America. Outside of Latin America, when you look at other countries like the U.S. and Europe, for example, where we have pretty strong content placement, we see, I would say, brand engagement, what looks like the early days of Latin America, and we like that. Product is just getting to the shelves, and I think we'll have a good year, but it's not going to be movie-like. And then, frankly, we have some markets, and I'll mention the U.S. as an example, where we have some more work to do, in terms of content. We've been working very hard with Disney, for example, to strengthen the availability of Max, and it's been recently stripped on Disney XD, so we like that. But again, with Max Steel, like we did in Latin America, it's not any one thing. It's a number of engagement points with Max Steel. So we like where we are. We've never said it's going to be a big-bang movie. It's going to be a slow build. And that's what built that business to be the #1 action figure brand in Latin America, and that's what we like.

Operator

Operator

And our final question comes from Drew Crum with Stifel. Andrew E. Crum - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Bryan, I wonder if you could comment on your expectations for Ever After High as you sell it into retailers and what their plans are as far as placement? Is your expectation to grow the fashion doll category with this? Or do you cannibalize against some of the other properties? I wonder if you could comment on that. And then on the Fisher-Price side, how far along are you in terms of shipping Thomas Wood globally, as well as Mike the Knight?

Bryan G. Stockton

Analyst

Sure. Let me start with Ever After High. I'm going to go back to the comment I made earlier about our doll portfolio. And we work very hard, as you would expect, being the leading doll company in the world to understand what girls are doing and where whitespace exist. And we've talked about sort of the key insight on Ever After High being that girls wanted to sort of rewrite their history. They don't want to feel like their lives are preprogrammed for them. So it's a different play pattern. It's a different mindset than things like Monster High. And that's why we are believing that this could be potentially incremental. Again, we want to grow all of our brands in the doll portfolio, whether it's Barbie or Disney Princess or Monster High or American Girl, and now, Ever After High. So that's the objective. We look for whitespace and try to fill it. Now as it relates to, and as I mentioned before, when we have a new launch, it's hard to imagine these new launches not having an impact on the sales on some of our other brands. But we really think about this as a portfolio. We want to grow the portfolio. Ideally, we like to have all brands grow. But there could be, at any a given moment, some movement of sales between brands. But we like where we've been. The doll portfolio has been growing for 16 consecutive quarters, and we like that quite a lot. And the category has been growing high-single to low-double digits in most of the world. So I would say, as we think about our doll portfolio, the strategy is working, and we want to keep working the strategy. As it relates to Fisher-Price, and specifically, on Thomas and…

Drew Vollero

Analyst

Thank you. There will be a replay of this call available beginning at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time today. The number to call for the replay is area code (404) 537-3406, and the passcode is 58903743. Thank you for participating in today's call.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That does conclude today's conference. You may all disconnect, and have a wonderful day.