DIS Walt Disney Co

Mattel Inc.'s loss widened as a sales slump that has bedeviled some of its iconic brands such as Barbie carried into the March quarter.

The California toy maker, in an attempt to restore growth, has been rebuilding its management ranks, improving ties to retailers and patching up relationships with important partners. This year, Mattel also has to offset the loss of its license to sell toys based on Walt Disney Co.'s Princess characters. The licensing deal brought Mattel about $455 million in 2015, or about 8% of annual sales.

For the March quarter, the Barbie line reported a 3% decline in gross sales, compared with a 14% decline a year earlier. The Barbie brand had entered the quarter after reporting its first world-wide sales increase in two years and is one of the lines that Mattel has focused on as part of its turnaround efforts. Earlier this year, Mattel announced three new body types for the doll.

Its "Other Girls" brand, which includes fashion-doll franchise Monster High and the Polly Pocket dolls line, continued to weigh on results with a 62% sales drop in the latest period.

Gross sales of American Girl fell 12% in the latest period.

Fisher-Price, which last year had a 3% gross sales decline, reported a 3% increase in the latest quarter. Meanwhile, Wheels—which includes the Hot Wheels and Matchbox brands and sells replica toy vehicles and cars inspired by popular lines such as Star Wars—reported a 2% sales increase.

Over all, Mattel reported a loss of $73 million, or 21 cents a share, compared with a loss of $58.2 million, or 17 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring costs and other items, the operating loss widened to 13 cents a share from 8 cents a share a year earlier.

Sales fell to $869.4 million, a decline of 6% from the year earlier or a drop of 2% when adjusted for currency conversions.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected a loss of 7 cents a share on $861.1 million in sales.

Gross margin narrowed to 44.7% from 48.8% a year earlier.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 20, 2016 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)

Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024