Good day, and welcome to the Spin Master Corp. Q1 2022 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Sophia Bisoukis. Please go ahead, madam.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Spin Master's financial results conference call for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. I am joined this morning by Max Rangel, Spin Master's Global President and CEO, and Mark Segal, Spin Master's Chief Financial Officer. For your convenience, the press release, MD&A, and unaudited consolidated interim financial statements are available on the investor relations section of our website at spinmaster.com and on SEDAR. Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements, or any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to management and on estimates and assumptions made based on factors that management believes are appropriate and are reasonable in the circumstances.
However, there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, Spin Master cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statements will materialize, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as may be required by law, Spin Master has no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult our cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information contained in the company's earnings release dated May 4, 2022. Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars and all dollar amounts to be expressed today are in US currency. I would like to now turn the conference call over to Max Rangel.
Good morning. Thanks for joining us as we review our Q1 results. Building on the positive momentum we experienced in 2021, we delivered an excellent quarter to kick off 2022. We continued our growth by leveraging the power of our 3 creative centers with a diversified and innovative toy portfolio, engaging multi-platform entertainment content, and open-ended play as a service within our digital games offering. Our supply chain and commercial teams did an excellent job managing the ongoing logistics volatility to get our spring 2022 line to where it needed to be on time. This strong performance enabled us to move from the fifth-largest toy manufacturer in the quarter in the G10 countries to fourth per NPD. Q1 consolidated revenue grew 34%, and toy revenue grew over 37%, highlighting the global strength of our brands.
It's encouraging to see that our digital games creative center continued to increase its share of our consolidated revenue with approximately 50% revenue growth in Q1 . Adjusted EBITDA increased 161% over the last year, a testament to our cost management and focus on operational excellence. Overall, it was a great quarter and one in which our global team showed exceptional commitment to collaboration and operational excellence. I want to now provide you with a brief strategic overview and POS highlights. Let me start with toys. The strength of our innovative toy portfolio, coupled with our digital-first integrated marketing activations, resulted in very encouraging POS momentum in Q1. Over the past several years, we have made a concerted effort to diversify our toy portfolio through innovation of our existing brands and acquisitions in categories such as outdoors, games and puzzles, activities, and plush.
We've also focused on winning high-quality toy licenses such as Monster Jam, DC Comics, Gabby's Dollhouse, Wizarding World, and others. This quarter was a highlight for us as we saw our strong licensing partnerships bear fruit, with POS for our license portfolio up 40% across our G10 countries, measured by NPD. Overall, we significantly outpaced Q1 industry POS, driven by a combination of broad-based core brand and license strength and successful innovation. Now, let me share with you some important data. For the last two quarters, we have been the fastest-growing toy manufacturer globally among the top 5. In Q1, our global POS grew 2% year-over-year compared to -6% for the industry for NPD. This performance was even more impressive when you consider that Easter POS fell in Q1 last year compared to Q2 this year.
In North America, POS grew 3% in Q1 compared to an industry decline of 5%. In Q2, according to the latest NPD data, we are seeing continued acceleration of our POS growth with US POS up 40%, driven by the Easter shift and continued demand for our product line. Let me share some key toy category highlights with you, beginning with preschool, dolls, and interactive. Last year, we discussed the remarkable global performance of PAW Patrol, driven by the success of the award-winning PAW Patrol feature film. PAW Patrol is a massive franchise that continues to resonate with the preschool audience, maintaining its status as the number one preschool property globally for NPD. Global POS for PAW Patrol was down 5% in the quarter, but in line with the category trend, and was affected by the timing of Easter.
For context, PAW Patrol was up 25% relative to Q1 2020. The brand remains very strong. Demand for PAW Patrol remains robust. Brand awareness, penetration, and purchase intent are healthy, and we have exciting new things planned for 2022. We are ramping up plans for our 10th anniversary of the franchise in 2023. In March, I mentioned the very positive response we've been seeing to many of the new introductions in 2021 within dolls and interactive. Viewership for Gabby's Dollhouse continued to drive awareness and sales of the property as it enters its second year. It's the sixth on the top show list in the U.S. for girls 2 to 5 years old, and brand awareness continues to grow. The toys were a runaway hit in Q1, making it the number one new toy property globally.
The design team has done a fantastic job of bringing the magic of the show into homes with the Gabby's Purrfect Dollhouse, helping the item claim the No. 1 position in the playset figures and accessories class in the U.S. Purse Pets, our collection of interactive fashion purses, quickly became a top new toy property after its launch in 2021. The brand continues to inspire collectibility with new characters and micro versions, helping it to maintain its status as a top new global property in Q1 per NPD. In the U.S., Purse Pets was the No. 2 item in the fashion role play and dress up class. Last year, we launched the first of our licensed toys inspired by the Wizarding World stories and characters from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises, which performed extremely well in a non-movie year.
The momentum for this much-loved brand has continued into the spring, leading into the newest movie release, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which opened in April. We expect continued momentum from loyal fans and new audiences following the feature film. In activities, Kinetic Sand remains the number 2 brand within the arts and craft category and continues to gain share. Orbeez saw exceptional gains in Q1, growing POS by triple digits, driven by continued momentum for innovation launched in 2021. In games and puzzles, our core games POS grew 7% compared to the market, which declined 10% per NPD. We have several new titles within kids, adult, and family games launching this fall, and are also putting our full efforts behind the Rubik's Cube. We have now owned the Rubik's brand for a full year and are increasingly excited about the brand's global potential.
2022 will be the first year we are distributing directly in the U.S. and are planning for the upcoming 50th year celebration over the next 18 months. Within Plush, we are seeing the return to specialty stores, Gund's primary distribution channel, with pandemic restrictions easing. New launches such as Plushies and Drops, as well as the Cherish licenses and Baby Plush are driving growth. Within Wheels in Action, we achieved several key successes in the quarter, both with our internal innovation as well as with key licenses. Most notably, our DC Universe line, and specifically Batman toys, launched in conjunction with The Batman movie, and that performed very strongly. Batman is now the fifth Spin Master brand in terms of POS. We're excited for the future of the DC franchise with a blockbuster 18 months ahead. 4 new theatrical releases are planned.
We are very excited to announce the renewal of the DC Comics license agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products for the iconic Batman franchises and the other DC superheroes. This will take us from 2023 to 2026. Monster Jam continues to be another strong license and was the number 2 property in vehicles per NPD and the number 1 license within the NPD super category. Our global POS grew 15% compared to the category, which was down 2%. Finally, Tech Deck is reaping dividends from increased retail penetration with double-digit POS growth in Q1 as per NPD. The team has many exciting new collaborations planned with leading figures in the skateboard world, as well as key skateboard event sponsorships to continue to build the brand.
Now last year, we focused heavily on e-commerce execution, from customer management to enhanced product content to search, and we saw those efforts pay off. In Q1, overall e-commerce POS grew 24% and represented 32% of our total POS. This will continue to be an important distribution channel for toys going forward, and we are well-positioned for the future. Now turning to entertainment's creative center, we are creating multi-platform content that connects with audiences globally with exceptional storytelling and endearing characters. Entertainment is leveraging our existing own IP as well as developing new content, all in a channel-agnostic way. We continue to engage kids where they want to be, and a great example of this strategy is the recently announced Sago Mini Friends show in partnership with Apple TV+.
This is a very significant milestone for Spin Master and highlights our ability to leverage IP across all of our creative centers. Sago Mini Friends is based on the charming characters and artful designs from the characters in our Sago Mini World app. Centered around the theme of gratitude, the new series is our first with Apple. We continue to keep PAW Patrol fresh with a stream of new content for preschool fans. Planning is underway to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our beloved pups in 2023. As previously announced, our sequel to PAW Patrol: The Movie will be released in October 2023, and our first spin-off series featuring Rubble will also air on Nick Jr. in 2023.
Not only are we feeling and feeding our current audience with new ventures, new adventures, looks, and experiences, but we're also building a diversified offering appealing to different audiences, age groups, and platforms. Over the next few months, stay tuned as we share new and more exciting entertainment content currently in development. Our digital games creative center had another very strong quarter, with revenue up 50% led by Toca Life World. Monthly active users for Toca Life World grew 6 to 61 million at the end of Q1, nearly double the 33 million last year at this time. The entire Toca Boca ecosystem now has over 78 million monthly active users, up 50% compared to the 52 million in 2021 at this time. Active Sago subscribers were 309 thousand this year, compared to 286 thousand in 2021.
In March, Toca Boca launched their third online only clothing collaboration with H&M, this time focused on gender neutral, sustainable fashion. The collection launched worldwide online and allows kids to wear clothing inspired by their Toca characters and designs, both physically and within the digital ecosystems in the app. Engagement with kids is critical to Toca's continued success. This quarter we launched the Toca Time initiative on TikTok, which challenged kids to exercise at home and then create and share their stories using Toca characters on TikTok, generating over 22 million hashtag views. The Sago Mini Friends initiative with Apple will also be beneficial to the digital games creative center. The launch of the show on Apple TV increases brand awareness for Sago Mini World and drives engagement, familiarity and attachment to the characters.
Sago's association with a powerful brand such as Apple increases credibility for all of Sago Mini's digital games. Sago also partnered with Otsimo, a developer of game-based learning apps for children with special needs to launch Sago Mini First Words in April, a new app focused on early speech development. First Words is a powerful digital education solution to support kids and parents with speech training that is accessible in a listen, repeat format that children recognize and engage with. The app won the Apple Editors' Choice Award immediately after its release. We will share a very powerful video of this app later in the afternoon when we meet during our Investor Day. We continue to make progress with Noid, our newest digital game studio in Stockholm. Noid is well down the path of developing its first digital game using Spin Master's own IP.
Fredrik Loving will have an exciting announcement of our first Noid developed digital game launch later this afternoon. Now, with the power of the three creative centers, I believe we have an incredible opportunity to grow our reach and connection with kids and families on a global scale. While each of our creative centers have success stories to share, we are also starting to see the results of deep collaboration between toys, entertainment, and digital games. We are pleased to be able to raise our revenue and toy gross product sales outlook for 2022. While there are macroeconomic factors of concern, such as rising inflation and interest rates, ongoing supply chain volatility, and other factors such as the war in Ukraine, we also see some tailwinds that are positive.
The trend towards nesting, which started in the pandemic, remains strong and families are spending more time together. In general, disposable incomes are higher, grandparents are spending more on their grandchildren, and as COVID dissipates, birthday parties and social gatherings are coming back. More content, movies, licensing and social media events are increasing consumer demand. With that in mind, and with a rich slate of entertainment content for 2022 and beyond, a robust toy line for innovation and a growing digital games business, I am very excited for the potential we possess to harness and leverage the power of our three creative centers to create magical and memorable experiences for kids everywhere, and in turn, drive growth and value for our shareholders. With that, I will now turn it over to Mark.
Thank you, Max, and good morning, everyone. We carried the strong momentum from 2021 into Q1 of 2022 with excellent financial and operational results. We generated just over $424 million in revenue for Q1, a 34% increase over last year, driving exceptional profitability growth with adjusted EBITDA of $95.7 million, up 161% over Q1 2021. This performance was in part due to proactive management of our supply chain to hit on shelf dates for spring innovation, cost management and continued growth in digital games. This quarter, we introduced a significant change in our segment reporting, providing more transparency into our growth and profitability drivers and aligning our external reporting with our management structure. We now have three new reportable operating segments. Toys, Entertainment, and Digital Games.
Our three creative centers have different but complementary financial models and operating profiles, each one contributing to our overall strategy. We have provided historical quarterly results for 2021 for our three creative centers for comparative purposes. The metrics we are now providing will give you an insight into the key operating areas that management is focused on and which, over time, will allow us to further grow shareholder value. We will continue to focus on gross product sales, revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin for our consolidated business, but will now discuss adjusted EBITDA for toys as well as adjusted operating margin or EBIT for entertainment and digital games in addition to revenue. We will also share CapEx by segment. Let me briefly review Creative Center economics and performance for Q1. Firstly, Toys has a proven model for revenue and profit generation.
Our diverse portfolio of toy brands generates significant cash flow that enables us to reinvest in the entertainment portfolio. Our entertainment strategy involves developing traditional content in close alignment with toys to build our future portfolio of long-term franchises. Entertainment acts as a catalyst for our other creative centers, increasing popularity, driving sales, and turning toys into franchises. Our digital game strategy is built on a mix of organic growth and M&A. Organic investments will leverage established brands such as Toca Life World and new IP created in collaboration across creative centers. Digital games revenue is a combination of both in-app purchases and subscriptions and has a more balanced seasonal sales profile. Digital games have EBIT margins that are highly accretive to Spin Master overall.
Taken together, our three creative centers will continue to broaden our portfolio, diversify revenue, create a more consistent sales cycle, and lower volatility and operational risk. Turning to the quarter, total revenue was $424.2 million compared to $316.6 million. Coming off a strong 2021, we delivered a great start to the year with revenue growth driven by toys and digital games. Toy gross product sales were $397.5 million, an increase of $102.8 million or 34.9%. On a constant currency basis, gross product sales were up 36.6%. We are pleased with how broad-based our growth was across our diversified product portfolio during the quarter.
Preschool and dolls and interactive grew 56.2%, driven by Gabby's Dollhouse, Wizarding World, PAW Patrol, and Purse Pets. Activities, games and puzzles, and plush grew 16.5%, led by Rubik's, Gund, and Orbeez. Wheels in action grew 46.6%, led by DC Comics licensed products, mostly Batman and Monster Jam. Outdoor also grew 5%. As we discussed in March, we exited Q4 with a very clean inventory position at retail, leading retailers to restock their shelves earlier and in larger amounts than in prior years. Geographically, we delivered solid gross product sales growth across all markets led by North America, which was up nearly 40%. Europe saw growth of just under 28%, and the rest of the world was up nearly 30%.
International gross product sales represented 40% of total gross product sales, down from 42.1%, driven by strong growth in North America. Q1 sales allowances declined to 11.7% from 13.3% as a percentage of gross product sales, primarily driven by geographic mix, lower promotions and markdowns, and lower non-compliance charges. We've made significant operational improvements that have led to reduced non-compliance charges, and we have improved our inventory management, leading to reduced promotions and markdowns. This continues to be an area of ongoing focus, and I'm proud of our commercial team's ability to deliver incremental improvements quarter after quarter. Toy revenue or gross product sales net of sales allowances increased by $95.3 million or 37.3%- $350.9 million from $255.6 million.
Adjusted EBITDA for toys grew to $56.9 million at a 16.8% adjusted EBITDA margin compared to $5.1 million or just under 2%. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved due to higher gross margins from favorable changes in product mix, price increases, and improved operating leverage, offset in part by some product cost and ocean freight inflation. Entertainment revenue was $22.2 million compared to $26.9 million due to lower content deliveries this quarter. Adjusted operating margin was 51.4% compared to 43.1%. To emphasize this further, when we discuss entertainment profitability performance, we will focus on adjusted operating margin as this considers content amortization.
The increase in operating margin this quarter was a result of the improved mix of lower gross margin content deliveries and higher gross margin licensing and merchandising revenue, as well as lower selling, general, and administrative expenses as a % of revenue. Digital games revenue increased by $17 million or 49.9% - $51.1 million. The increase was driven by higher in-app purchases in Toca Life World. Adjusted operating margin was 42.3%, up from 39.6%, driven by a favorable mix of in-app purchases, partially offset by higher product development and personnel costs. From a consolidated P&L perspective, gross margins were 55.9% compared to 49.7%.
The 620 basis point improvement was largely driven by favorable changes in toy product mix and price increases, offset in part by inflation in product costs and ocean freight, as well as a higher proportion of digital games revenue. In addition, fewer content deliveries resulted in a lower proportion of program amortization, which positively impacted gross margin. SG&A was $158.6 million, representing 37.4% of consolidated revenue compared to 43.9%. Marketing expenses were consistent with the prior year, but declined as a percentage of consolidated revenue. Administrative expenses grew 15.5% due to higher personnel related costs, but declined as a percentage of revenue. Selling expenses grew to $29.6 million or 8.4% of toy revenue from 8.1% due to a higher licensing product mix.
In Q1, we recorded net income of $45.6 million or $0.43 per diluted share, compared to net income of $3.2 million or $0.03 per diluted share last year. Adjusted net income in the quarter was $57.5 million or $0.55 per diluted share, compared to $8.4 million or $0.08 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $95.7 million compared to $36.7 million, up 161%. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 22.6%, up from 11.6%. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by increased gross profit and operating leverage. Turning now to the balance sheet. Inventory at the end of Q1 was up $44 million to $148 million from $104 million at Q1 2021.
The increase is driven by anticipated sales growth in Q2. At the end of Q1, we had approximately $29 million of in-transit inventory, representing 20% of total inventory compared to $14 million or 14%. In general, we continue to use safety stock, pre-buys, and pre-builds to help mitigate any supply chain disruptions and maintain customer service levels. Free cash flow in Q1 was negative $79.4 million compared to negative $6.5 million, driven primarily by changes in net working capital, largely from payments in Q1 of year-end trade payables and accrued liabilities. This was partially offset by higher operating income and lower cash used in investing activities. We ended the quarter with $493 million in cash, a decrease of $70 million from the year-end balance of $563 million, but in line with seasonal cash usage patterns.
We continue to be in an extremely strong liquidity position with available liquidity of over $1 billion. This was a great start to 2022 and we are raising our outlook. We now expect toy gross product sales to increase low double digits compared to 2021, with the seasonality of gross product sales expected to be approximately 40% H1 compared to 30%-35% in prior years. We continue to expect the third quarter to remain our largest quarter from a top line perspective, but we now expect Q2 to be significantly larger than prior years as retailers bring in goods earlier to avoid potential supply chain disruptions to their fall planogram set. We are also increasing total revenue growth expectations to low double digits compared to 2021, excluding the PAW Patrol movie distribution revenue of $26 million.
Total revenue growth is driven by growth in toy gross product sales. We are maintaining 2022 adjusted EBITDA margin expectations, which are in line with 2021 adjusted EBITDA margins excluding the PAW Patrol movie distribution revenue of $26 million. While we've increased our top line outlook and our adjusted EBITDA margin in Q1 was well in excess of the comparable period in 2021, we are mindful of the fluid and rapidly changing macro environment that may affect profitability in 2022. We still have a long way to go. We are seeing increased input costs, although at a lower rate than what we saw in the second half of 2021. Rising interest rates and inflation may put pressure on disposable incomes, and the potential for further supply chain disruptions are high due to ongoing COVID-related lockdowns in China.
We have implemented stringent cost containment and productivity programs to offset increases as much as possible, and where necessary, we have raised prices for our fall 2022 line, which will start flowing through in Q2. We expect to remain margin neutral in our toy business, but it is something we are watching very closely. For all these reasons, we are maintaining a cautious tone in relation to adjusted EBITDA margin guidance for 2022. To conclude, we have advanced our strategic initiatives and made great progress across all three creative centers, continuing to demonstrate our ability to produce compelling entertainment and digital content, magical toy experiences, and to be a great licensing partner. We have built a strong and focused global platform and are incredibly proud of the effort and results that our employees have delivered. We remain deeply committed to growth with disciplined cost management, operational efficiency and productivity.
We continue to believe in our long-term financial framework and that at its core, our formula for innovation and growth across toys, entertainment and digital games is stronger than ever. That concludes our prepared remarks. We will now take questions. Operator, please open the line.
Certainly, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. Please make sure the mute function on your phone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, please press star one to ask a question. First, we will now take our first question from Adam Shine from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Thanks a lot. Good morning. Obviously, very strong results and good execution. As was noted, you know, pretty good follow through from how y ou ended last year very strongly. Mark, you know, you touched on some improvements on sales allowances. Is this something that we can watch to see improvements, you know, within that sort of 10%-12% type range? I think, you know, you'd been guiding to the upper end of that range because of, you know, maybe different dynamics in Europe and other considerations. But given the improvements you touched on, do you think you can sort of move things down, you know, closer to the midpoint of the range or even improve further? I'll follow up.
Thanks. Adam, good morning. I think a reasonable target for us on the sales allowance side would be in the 11.5%-12% range. The reason it's come down is twofold. One is, we are seeing tremendous operational improvements in our supply chain, and that helps us. We also had strong North American sales growth this quarter. North America is a lower sales allowance environment, so there was some geographic mix benefits. When Europe grows and picks up again, they're a higher sales allowance environment, so that's gonna pick up again. I would think for modeling purposes, Adam, 12% is a good number.
Okay. Max, I mean, it's an interesting year in terms of, you know, how much restocking is going on. Obviously, there's, you know, some interesting licensing opportunities that you're successfully exploiting. Can you characterize that within the context of perhaps some of the, you know, marketing spend or stepped up marketing activity that, you know, you talked about last year and how that might evolve this year, sort of the plus and minus? The plus being obviously the strengths you're seeing where maybe the product is ultimately destined to fly off the shelves, but the minus may be in terms of an inflationary backdrop and how you might need to push product a little bit further, in terms of awareness, into the back half of the year.
Absolutely. Good morning, Adam. We actually entered the year, as you might remember, with low inventory. Q1 was a restocking time for many of the retailers. Again, some of our brands, you have to remember that we rely heavily on innovation, and our innovation in Q1 has truly helped us. A lot of that inventory has not only actually flowed through, but is actually being consumed. Our POS growth on new items for our core franchise or items that were not present before is truly what is driving our growth vis-à-vis key competitors. We actually put a lot of marketing activation dollars behind it.
As we look to H2 , and as you well know, Q4 containing about 45% of the POS consumption for the year, we have really great plans, and increased marketing spend when you think about the margin of marketing we're investing on our brands in H2 . I hope you join us this afternoon. You're gonna see the slate of new activations we have along with innovation. We're super excited and there's more marketing for it.
I guess just to touch a little further. You know, last year, I think the comment was, you know, maybe around 10% of revenue. Given some of the strength we're seeing at the revenue line, can we think about that maybe more, you know, towards the 9% level or still in that 9%-10% zone is the appropriate level?
I will kick it off and then pass it on to Mark to give you more, the more depth on the numbers. On marketing, one of the things we're doing, and I give our team a lot of credit, is we're actually getting to ecosystems where kids are present, and the cost per eyeball acquisition is significantly lower. We're actually getting more efficient with our marketing spend. If we would have been spending on the same places we would have been spending a year ago, the marketing spend requirement would have been significantly larger, but we're a lot more effective. I'm talking about, you know, orders of magnitude decreased CPMs. I think this is one thing I wanted to make sure you have in context, and let me pass it on to Mark.
Thanks, Max. Adam, historically, as you know, we've always guided you to around 10% of sales for marketing. I think this year, as Max said, we are getting some efficiencies in the way we're operating. So a range of around 9.5%-10% would be the right range.
Okay, great. I appreciate that from both of you. Thanks a lot.
Of course.
Thanks, Adam.
Brian Morrison, TD Securities, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Well done on the cross-selling side of digital and entertainment. Can we expect much more cross-selling of these two segments as you expand both properties, introduce Noid? Second part of that question is, when I look at entertainment and digital, it's 45% of total EBITDA last year, certainly poised to grow as I look out to 2023. Can you maybe just talk about the cadence of growth here? By my numbers, it looks like it's gonna approach 60%. Just thoughts on where you expect this to progress to.
Brian, I just wanna clarify the first part of your question was in relation to the cost structure of the different entertainment and digital games, creative centers. Is that what you're asking?
No, I just want to understand the growth of it because you've had this cross-selling of Sago Mini from entertainment to digital, which, pardon me, digital to entertainment, which we haven't seen before. I wonder if there's going to be much more cross-selling opportunities as both segments grow and you introduce Noid. Then how far, like, what sort of total contribution in EBITDA can these two segments comprise? It's at 45% now. It certainly looks like it could be 60% plus as we get out to 2022 beyond.
Brian, we'll answer in two parts. I'll kick it off and then pass it on to Mark. You will see more IP leverage across our creative centers. That's the answer. We've already begun. Typically, we come from being more you know, entertainment and toy, and now you're basically seeing digital to entertainment, and you're gonna be seeing now, you know, toy to digital. I will basically urge you to attend this afternoon. You're going to see our first announcement of what that first IP that will be digitized will look like. It's actually quite cool, and we're excited. It goes into a massive segment of digital game players. We're gonna basically be able to leverage that and benefit from that.
There's gonna be significantly more cross-creative center revenue-gaining opportunities. That starts this year and extends into the future with a really nice portfolio of cross-creative center collaborations in 2023 as well.
Just in terms of how we look at this, from a financial perspective, Brian, firstly, when it comes to the creative centers, the digital games and entertainment creative centers, our focus internally is on operating income or EBIT. Particularly in the entertainment area, that's important because D&A in entertainment is pretty much like COGS is in toys. It's important to look at that. We are actually targeting to grow digital and entertainment share of total revenue quite significantly. In the case of digital games, to at least over 20% of total revenue over the next few years.
Entertainment is a little bit of an unusual creative center in the sense that it's a catalyst for developing IP and growing that into other toys, licensing and merchandising and digital games. From a margin perspective, you know, as we actually build out digital games and entertainment, we're gonna be putting some costs onto the balance sheet, then amortizing that. There will be some margin dilution over the next few years until these properties build up a critical mass. As they start to develop the franchises, the margins will start expanding and getting to a steady-state mode.
Okay. Did you want to take a stab at where you think this could settle as you go forward or no?
A stab in terms of what? Overall margins?
Total contribution to EBITDA in the two segments.
No, I don't think we wanna be that specific at this point. I think that, you know, each of the individual creative centers have got margin goals. I would say to you on the toy side, you know, we are looking to stay in the adjusted EBITDA range of around 15%-16%. In digital games, we wanna stay at around 35%-40%. In entertainment, the operating income, you know, around 40% is where we wanna be as well in the long term. You are gonna see some dilution in the next few years as we build out our content platform. As I said to you, that is a catalyst for growth in toys and digital games.
You have to look at entertainment in more holistic terms, and you also have to look at entertainment over a multi-year life cycle as we build the content.
Very helpful. Thank you, Mark.
Stephanie Wissink, Jefferies, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, excuse me, everyone. Mark, I wanted to just follow up on your comments about retailers taking more inventory and earlier. Can you just share with us a little bit about how that might affect the second half order book? When you look at the order composition or the buying composition, is there any sort of distortion into entertainment backed properties versus maybe some of the more classic play patterns we've seen over the last couple of years? Any other, you know, figures that you can share with us with respect to kind of the composition in addition to the volume? Thank you.
Good morning, Steph. Thanks. Yeah. We are actually seeing a shift in seasonality this year that we haven't seen before, and it's driven by what happened in 2021, given the logistics challenges that I think the industry and many other industries faced as well. What we're seeing is a shift from Q3 into Q2, and we expect to have a much larger Q2 this year than we've had before, which is driving our H1 seasonality to around 40% compared to an average of around 32%-33% for the last few years. Really it's a shift in terms of protecting the full planogram set in August and September. We expect H1 to be significantly up relative to prior years.
Most of that volume is gonna come out of Q3, so we expect H2 to actually show flatter growth compared to what we would have seen typically before, Steph. In terms of the mix of entertainment and whether there's any unusual patterns there, I'm not aware of anything, but Max, is there anything you would like to add on that?
With regards to our portfolio, Stephanie, good morning, I think you're gonna see in infant preschool continued strength because of the themes on PAW Patrol, but you also will see continued strength in Gabby's Dollhouse. Then outside of that, we've talked about our licensed portfolio, and particularly in wheels and action, with some continued strength in that area. Last but not least, we talked about girls and dolls and interactives, and we're gonna see new innovation that will continue to basically make our portfolio in the second half quite accretive to us and incremental versus what we would have had a year ago.
That's very helpful. Just really one quick cleanup question is on pricing. Have you taken the pricing that you need to take for 2022, or do you anticipate you could take an additional round of pricing as we get into the fall?
Stephanie, we processed all of our 22 price increases with retailers in the early part of 2022. That's point number one. Obviously, as you would expect, we balance our need for margin with obviously price point management. We have been really successful so far this year with our POS because we have in certain price points, outperformed the market materially, and we have been basically very thoughtful about that, and that will continue into the second half. Third, because our mix of new innovation, which has no, you know, previous context for what that would have cost a year ago, has truly helped us tremendously. We are overdeveloping bringing new items for our core and franchises or just brand new properties, and that is helping us quite a bit. That will continue into the second half.
All right. Very helpful as always. Thank you.
Thanks, Steph.
Martin Landry, Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and congratulations on your strong results. My first question is on the supply chain. You alluded to, you know, the COVID lockdowns in Shanghai and China overall. I'm wondering, do you anticipate having difficulties sourcing products this summer as a result of these lockdowns?
Martin, good morning. I would say to you the situation in China and Vietnam and Asia is somewhat fluid. I think our team over there has done an extraordinary job in terms of managing what we're actually doing. In connection with Shanghai, we did not see a major impact. The Shanghai factories in the outlying areas have continued to run at reasonable staffing levels. The shutdown that happened in Shenzhen and Dongguan only lasted a few weeks. Vietnam and India is operating at relatively full staffing levels at their factories. There are some raw material delays from China, but nothing material. Overall, what we're doing is we're working very closely with our suppliers in Asia. We're designing and pre-buying electronic components. We're evaluating part substitutions and productivity with automation.
We're doing inventory pre-builds strategically to reduce the impact of any COVID lockdowns. I would say to you, overall, we're managing very well. Our commercial and supply chain teams have done a great job. While we can't say for sure there won't be any impact, I would say the way we're managing it so far has been very proactive and very good. Max, is there anything you wanna add to that?
No, I just wanna complement besides what you've said, you know. We've done three more things that I think are worth mentioning. One is we're planning lead times, taking into account the new weeks that it takes us to get from point A to point B. That is affecting how we plan our business going forward. That's one. Two, we're using multiple ocean carriers beyond what we would have been a year ago. Then we basically have, in certain places, you know, items that are now dual-sourced so that we can actually weigh in where we have some, you know, backlogs and use a second mold in a different place and continue to bring that demand.
You can expect that we're doing that for some of the very hot items that we have launched, and we'll continue into H2 . This is a key priority for us.
Okay, that's helpful. Can you remind us, what's the proportion of your total products that you source in China?
It's about 60%, Martin, comes out of China. About 25% comes out of Vietnam, and the balance comes out of Mexico and India.
Okay, that's helpful. Just lastly, wondering if you can talk about your inventory level at retail. How does that look currently versus historically for this time of the year?
I'm gonna kick it off and then maybe Mark gets into more details if you'd like. I think we're basically in a good position vis-à-vis our consumption and our order books, as we look at end of Q2 and into Q3. We're watching that very closely, as we progress through the year. Operationally, we are where we need to be with inventory and managing it accordingly.
I think Max has covered the retail side of it. I think we're in good shape, Martin, in terms of our owned inventory in our warehouse. As you saw, it's up about $40 million, $44 million to be precise, quarter-over-quarter. Most of that is in anticipation of the growth in Q2. We do have a little bit of cost inflation flowing through to inventory, not a huge amount, but some. But overall, I think our inventory is in good shape. You saw that our net working capital overall was around 10.8% of LTM sales. I think we're still far ahead of the industry in terms of our working capital management.
That's something that we in the toy business are laser-focused on as a management team because if we manage our working capital right in the toy business, we can generate significant free cash flow, and that helps us with the rest of our enterprise portfolio. That's something that we're really focused on.
Okay. Thank you very much. Congrats.
Thank you.
Thank you.
John Zamparo, CIBC, please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, Max and Mark. I wanted to start on the inflation side. Can you quantify the cost inflation you've seen on your primary cost inputs in Q1, and how does that compare to Q4 last year?
Yeah, we're not gonna specify a particular number, but what I can tell you is that we are seeing some modest inflation in a few areas. You know, resin in particular, a little bit of ocean freight flowing through, but at significantly lower levels than what we saw in late Q3 and Q4 last year, John. You know, it's something to watch and to keep a close eye on, but nothing like it was in H2 of last year. By the way, welcome to covering Spin Master. Good to have you.
Thanks very much. My follow-up is on consumer behavior. I'm just wondering if you're seeing any impact or any change in behavior from them as they face higher costs. It seems like the growth or much of the growth in toys over the past couple of years has been from medium to higher priced items, maybe suggesting those consumers aren't as impacted by inflation. I'm curious if you're seeing any trade downs among customers.
Yeah. I'll address that. The answer is yes. Okay. That's the bottom line, and we see it more in pricing, and we see it more in promotion. You know, at the outset, let me tell you that price points that are below $10 have contracted, and there are specific price points where our toy line has fared better, as I mentioned to Stephanie earlier. You basically see where you may have bought an item that was between $15 and $19.99, you know, now you see between $10 and $14.99 as a price point increasing its consumption as a whole, you know, close to 10%, which is really positive. If you're in that space, you will be succeeding.
Similarly, where we had, remember last year, quite a few items that were priced over $70, and that was really growing pretty materially. You've seen now basically items in that category of price contract a bit, and instead items that are priced, and I'm gonna give you a broad, you know, a pretty broad range from $30- $70 increase quite materially. That is something that we're seeing and basically understanding. But outside of that, in terms of channel shifting or channeling where you're basically at from a consumer behavior, no changes there. E-commerce continues to be very strong, obviously. Specialty has reopened. That has been good for some categories, but it's really come down to price.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you very much.
Luke Hannan, Canaccord Genuity, please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. I want to circle back to the digital game segment. There was commentary in the MD&A stating that for M&A here, you guys are, you know, probably more focused on the smaller types of acquisitions because they're a little bit easier to integrate, but also open to transformational opportunities should they present themselves. I'm curious to know if the criteria for acquisitions in the digital game segment is any different than sort of what the criteria is for toys, where it has to be creative, be relevant on a global basis, that sort of thing? Or is there any other different criteria we should be thinking about there?
I'll take that and then Max will add to that. Look, the reality in digital games is that, you know, that is an area of strong focus for us from an M&A perspective, and we're gonna talk about it more this afternoon at the Investor Day as well. I think the reality also is that, you know, multiples in that space are definitely higher than they are in the toy industry. I mean, we've typically paid. If you look at the Originator deal, was around 12-13x trailing EBITDA. In toys, we've historically been at 4-8x.
You would say, Well, are you concerned about that? I mean, the answer actually is no, because I think the reality is that margins are much higher in that space, and so the opportunity to generate the appropriate returns is there. We're gonna focus on smaller transactions where we can acquire IP or talent, and we would also consider a transformational deal in digital games or in toys for that matter, if it made sense. But that's how we're typically looking at it. Max is
No, I think well said. I think our founders are incredibly involved in, you know, in our acquisition strategy and in sourcing acquisition, and so you can expect that a fit with what we're looking for is incredibly important. So that's really paramount to us. As you think about the current properties within our digital games portfolio and the age groups that it basically caters to, you can expect that, you know, we're gonna hear this afternoon, you know, as we're now basically trying to go after kids of all ages, that we will get into segments and we're open to that. Definitely looking at the right fit. We're open to a transformational target, and we're working really hard to find that right fit.
Excellent. That's very helpful. Thank you. Just as a follow-up on the digital game segment as well, right now you guys have very strong presence in mobile apps. That's the main platform for you guys right now. Do you see yourself maybe 3-5 years down the road as something, you know, that you could have using either PCs or consoles as other platforms to reach out to these kids of different ages as well? Like, should we think of you guys expanding into different platforms down the road?
Go ahead.
Yeah. We, as you can imagine, we're watching consumer behavior very closely and managing and at the same time trends. You know, basically mobile penetration, mobile phone penetration continues to shoot through the roof, and utilization of that medium to consume not just games, but just about anything is truly what's growing. You can expect that we will be more focused in basically playing in that space.
Okay. That's all for me. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
David McFadgen of Cormark, please go ahead.
Oh, hi. Yeah, a couple of questions. I'll just start on the digital games. When you look at the business, I thought that, the growth might slow post-COVID as we get into a more normalized environment. I thought that you thought that as well, but obviously, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm just wondering if you can give us an update on your thoughts on the growth of that, and will there be an impact sooner or later as the world goes back totally to normal? Secondly, when I look at your balance sheet, you know, you have about $500 million in cash, no debt. You know, commented a little bit about acquisitions on this call.
Do you think that you could deploy a fair amount of those proceeds within the next 12 months on acquisitions? What are your thoughts about an M&A deal?
I'll go and then I'll pass it to Max. On the growth rates, as you said, David, our year-over-year growth rates are extremely high in the digital games revenue side, nearly 50%. Sequentially, obviously not as high, but our engagement levels are still extremely strong. I think Max described the, you know, number of monthly active users we have in Toca, which is in the 60 million range for Toca Life World and over 70 million for the whole Toca ecosystem. So you can see there are a tremendous number of people involved in digital games in our world. You would expect, over time, growth rates to moderate, because the prior years have obviously come off a much lower base.
We are actually working on a lot of new products, and so, you know, digital games is an increasing area of focus for the company, and we are targeting to get revenue for digital games as a percentage of our total over 20% in the next few years. That's number one. On number two, in terms of the cash available on our balance sheet, you know, we still believe we're a growth company. We believe we can deploy that cash creatively. We talk about it all the time at the board level. We have no current plans for a share buyback or a dividend at this point, but it is something that we evaluate constantly. At this point, though, we still believe we were able to deploy that cash. Max, please comment.
Basically, we watch very closely and track aggressively metrics within this space, whether it's basically the average retail price we get per player or the churn rate. Obviously converting the engagement of those 60 million active users in Toca Life World, for example, is something we work really hard to do. Similarly, on subscription rate, same thing with Sago and Originator. There's no denying that obviously fatigue may have set in for some people, but we're working on mitigation plans as we see those things and basically pivot quite quickly. That's basically our game every day.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Gerrick Johnson, BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you. You know, in discussion with perhaps some of your private competitors, I think the main concern out there in the industry is with all the pre-build that's going on, early shipping combined with inflation compressing budgets and lapsing stimulus, that we could see a glut of toys and some significant markdowns. Is that off base or is that an appropriate fear?
Hi, Gerrick. It's not an inappropriate fear, because I think consumer behavior might actually suggest that you would look for the deal, correct? If you have a glut, as you described, and you have to get rid of it, you may resort to actually markdown. It is absolutely logical that that may be something that happens more and more. We're basically ready for it. The one thing that I wouldn't tell you that insulates us because that would be arrogant, but rather protects us a bit and helps us is the amount of new items we have that have no comparison and that are basically very incremental from a play pattern to what we have on the shelf. We are excited about that. That's what we can control and that's what we focus on.
Okay, great. Mark, related to what Max just said, you do have a lot of new items in Batman and DC. Well, Batman in particular being incremental, I mean, the movie portion of it being incremental. What would your POS have been if you exclude that Batman program?
Well, look, our POS on our total license portfolio in Q1 was around 40%. It was a meaningful part of our business, Garrick. As you know, we don't disclose individual product line sales or POS. What I will tell you is that we had pretty broad-based growth in Q1. It wasn't just Batman. Certainly Batman was a meaningful component, but Gabby's Dollhouse, PAW Patrol, Purse Pets, there were a large number of other lines that performed extremely well. While it is significant, it wasn't overly you know concentrated on Batman.
Okay, great. You know, really appreciate the new segment reporting, particularly seeing what's underneath digital gaming. Can you perhaps just for edification for the people on the call go over the digital gaming accounting real quick? Particularly, where does the platform fee hit? Is it a reduction of gross to net or is it a cost of goods sold? Thank you.
Yeah. When you look at revenue, that's gross revenue. We then have part of what we call COGS would be the hosting fees like the Apple and Google fees would be essentially part of COGS. The way accounting works in the digital games world, Garrick, is that when we develop a new game, we go through typically a three-stage process. In the first stage, most of the costs are OpEx. Those are the development costs, the conceptualization costs. That hits our P&L as product development. Once a game hits a certain level of stability and we've proved its commercial viability, we then start capitalizing those costs until the game is actually launched, at which point those costs are then amortized.
That's why I've been saying to you and others, over time, as we grow our digital games business, it's important to focus to get a true picture of performance on EBIT and not EBITDA. At this point in time, it doesn't really matter that much, but going forward it will. Does that make sense? Did I explain that okay? Anything you wanna follow up on that?
Oh, perfect. Very clear. Thank you, Mark. Thanks.
George Doumet of Deutsche Bank, please go ahead.
Good morning. This is George calling on George's behalf. It's Scotiabank, by the way. Congrats on the results. Can you talk a little bit about the free cash flow profile on the operating segments? Of course, some could be more lumpy than others. How should we think of maintenance and growth, CapEx, cash flow margins conversion and things like that?
Okay. Sorry, George, I didn't hear you very clearly. I think what you were asking was about the free cash flow profile for each creative center. Let me just walk you through that. I think in terms of CapEx, toys has got pretty low CapEx. All that CapEx comprises in the toy area is tooling, which is relatively low. And as I said to you, the prime area of focus on free cash flow management there is on our working capital. Entertainment has got very high CapEx. It's actually quite capital intensive. However, on a net basis, once you take into account entertainment tax credit from the government as well as advances from our distribution partners, the net capital outlays is actually much less.
You have to look at entertainment, though, over a multi-year cycle because most of our productions take a couple of years to actually develop, and then they get sold. Then once they actually generate some traction in the market, you can get some toy revenue, you get licensing and merchandising revenue, and you get second window distribution revenue, and that can make an entertainment franchise very profitable. On the digital game side, as I just described to Gerrick, most of the development of a digital game is around 18 months, maybe 24 months at most. Some are even less. What we do is once it's been proven as a commercially viable game, all the CapEx gets capitalized. Overall, our CapEx from a Spin Master consolidated perspective is in the 5%-6% of revenue range.
If you're thinking about a blended average for the whole of Spin Master, it would be around 5%-6%.
Very helpful. Can you speak a little bit about the pricing in digital games as well? How sensitive is pricing there? Has there been any action as well?
Yeah, absolutely we can. Remember, in-app purchases for us on the Toca Life World, which is the majority of our revenue and an important part of the question, basically range anywhere from $0.99 for a creator tool. It went on to $2.99 for a creator tool, so you can imagine three times the cost. What I would tell you is that the engagement that creator tool and the attachment it generates for the player is what is being driven most aggressively the consumption. We have creator tools that we have dropped at $2.99 that are far, far better than $0.99 creator tools. That goes to show you that it's truly that connection and the excitement and quality of that creator tool that is most important.
Obviously, you know, something that costs three times as much is something we pay close attention to, but there isn't something that would suggest to you that there's a linear relationship between the price and the actual creator tool and one that is half, you know, or a third of the cost will have one-third the units. No such thing. Not that we've seen so far. We did take pricing. We won on some of our digital game creator app tools. That has contributed to our growth as well and it's not slowed the engagement nor the acquisition of our MAUs.
Just to add to that.
Yeah. Go ahead.
Just one thing to add to that. On the subscription side, remember the revenue on the subscription side is based on a monthly or annual subscription. That actually varies you know, between $5.99-$6.99 a month, depending on the product, up to $49 for a year. The digital games business model is actually driven off of two separate structures. One is an in-app purchase model, which you know, which Max just described and which is most of our revenue, as well as the subscription business as well.
Thank you, guys.
We will now take our last question today from Sabahat Khan from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, great. Thanks. Just some of the comments earlier around the amount of pricing you're taking and some of the price sensitivity that might be out there. Is that affecting in any way your product rollout for the back end of the year? You know, have you rethought the mix or even just rethought pricing on some of the stuff? I'm just thinking about how does that market dynamic reflect into your, the guidance that you've updated this morning.
Hi, Saba. When you think about our average selling price, right, our ASP, which has increased in Q1, as you well state, will be influenced by the definite price increase, but also trading up, fewer promotions or more promotions, you know, shift to online stores or physical, they actually behave differently, and then the product mix itself. When you add it all together and you think about our own portfolio, we have fared pretty well in Q1 and into Q2 with the available public data that you can actually read. We continue to actually show strength. As we go into the second half, we are equally positioned to do well in that space. For us, you know, we watch it very closely.
We go down to the price point level, and we are watching the dynamics and, we're acting accordingly. To an earlier comment and question raised by Gerrick with regards to glut and, you know, obviously promotion and consumer sensitivity, we're watching that as well to be able to activate against that. But yeah, this is a very dynamic and fluid environment and basically we have a really well-positioned team with a lot of great information at their fingertips to act on behalf of our brands with retailers.
Okay, thanks. This is more of a broader question, but as you look back over the last couple of years, you know, in the industry, where the exit of Toys 'R' Us and then you had COVID, you know, a lot of transition in your customer base. Does it feel like now the dust has settled a bit outside of maybe just e-commerce penetration changing in terms of your customer mix, or are you still seeing a bit of an evolution around your top three or four customers?
You know, I'm gonna comment from my last year and a half with the company, which has been terrific, and I've studied the past, I'm gonna ask Mark to comment as well, given the fact that he has the tenure to answer with more history. The answer to your question is that our top three customers are shifting quarter in quarter in quarter. The prevalence of e-commerce is here to stay. For us, 32% of our POS in Q1 was through e-commerce. It's not just pure play, it's ultimately, you know, folks like, you know, if I may say, Amazon or Walmart, who do have a dot com as well.
When you turn to Europe, it's basically customers in Europe that are similarly positioned to, you know, what Walmart and Target will be doing here. But at the same time, you have to think that Amazon has also expanded into Europe. I was just recently in Mexico with the team, and I was with three retailers, top retailers in Mexico, and no difference in what's happening in Mexico. This is a global phenomenon, and we're actually positioned to go capture, you know, growth where consumers are shopping. That is basically what we'll see going forward.
Just to add to that, Saba, with a little bit of history, I think, you know, the two things that have happened in the industry that I think are important contextually. One is if you go back to when we went public, we, you know, 27% of our business came from outside of North America. Right now, that number is over 40%. Our customer base has broadened dramatically as a result of geographic diversification. In the case of Toys Us, when Toys Us went down, obviously it sent shock waves through the industry. I think that's history. I think the industry has pivoted, has absorbed that volume and has moved, you know, long past that now.
Target, Walmart, Amazon and all the other customers have really absorbed and changed in the way that Max has described. I think the industry is stronger than it ever has been from that perspective.
Great. Thanks so much for the color.
Okay. I think that actually was our last question. I wanna thank you all for your participation and your interest, and we look forward to talking to you at 1:30. We're gonna have a presentation by Max and our creative center presidents. I think you will find it very, very interesting and informative. For those of you that will be joining, we look forward to talking to you at 1:30. Thanks again.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.