Hello, and welcome to Hasbro's 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Richard Stoddart, Chair of the Board of Directors of Hasbro. Mr. Stoddart, the floor is yours.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Rich Stoddart, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Hasbro. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Hasbro's 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We are holding today's meeting as a live virtual webcast. I will act as the Chair of this meeting. The time is now 11:01 A.M. Eastern Time on May 21st, 2025, and I hereby call this meeting to order. Tarrant Sibley, our Chief Legal Officer, will act as Secretary of this meeting, and with me will conduct the formal meeting today. We also have members of our Board of Directors and Executive Team attending our meeting today, as well as Jeff Seiders of Computershare Trust Company, our Independent Inspector of Election, and representatives from KPMG LLP, our Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.
Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to recognize and thank Blake Jorgensen for his invaluable contributions to the board and the company throughout his tenure. Blake will be retiring from the board at the meeting. Blake has been a valued advisor as we have transformed and strengthened the company for the future over the last three years. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors. Thank you, Blake. In order to ensure that the business of the meeting proceeds in an orderly fashion, we ask that you please observe the rules of conduct for the meeting, which may be accessed on the virtual meeting website. We do not expect any technical difficulties today. However, in the event we lose our webcast connection or otherwise experience technical difficulties, please allow for some time for these difficulties to be resolved.
Our operator may also provide updates through the phone bridge. This annual meeting is being held in accordance with Rhode Island law and the company's organizational documents. During the meeting, we will address the matters described in the company's proxy statement dated April 4th, 2025. Notice of the annual meeting was distributed to all shareholders as of the record date for this meeting. We will give a short business presentation and hold a question-and-answer session after we have concluded the formal part of our meeting. Questions or comments must comply with the rules of conduct for the meeting. Shareholders can submit questions at any time by entering their question in the Q&A icon at the top of your screen.
The Inspector of Election has in his possession a list of the company's shareholders of record as of the record date.
A list of the company's shareholders as of the record date is also available at the meeting website for examination by any shareholder present and by any proxy holder who is representing a shareholder. We have been advised by the Inspector of Election that a quorum is present at this time. Thank you.
We will now take up the formal business of this meeting. I now declare the polls open for each matter to be voted upon today. You may vote until I announce that the polls are closed. Terrence will now briefly describe the voting procedures and the items of business to be acted upon at today's meeting.
Shareholders of record, legal proxy holders who have pre-registered for the meeting, and beneficial holders who have a control number may vote during the meeting by clicking on the voting link located on the top right of the virtual meeting website.
If you have already submitted a proxy to vote your shares, you do not need to vote by ballot unless you want to change or revoke your vote. Voting by ballot at this meeting revokes any prior proxy you may have submitted. Remember, you must submit your completed ballot before the polls close in order for it to be counted. There are three items of business that may be properly acted upon at the meeting. The first item of business is the election of directors. As indicated in the company's proxy statement, at today's meeting, 10 directors will be elected to serve on the board until the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and until their successors are duly elected and qualified or until their earlier death, resignation, or removal.
Our Nominating Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility Committee has recommended and our board has approved and hereby nominates Hope Cochran, Chris Cocks, Lisa Gersh, Frank Gibeau, Elizabeth Hamren, Darin Harris, Owen Mahoney, Laurel Richie, Richard Stoddart, and Mary Beth West as nominees for election as directors at this meeting. All of the company's nominees have been duly nominated. The company has not received valid notice of any other nominees. I hereby declare the nominations closed.
The second item of business is an advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The third item of business is to ratify the selection of KPMG LLP as the company's Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm for fiscal year 2025.
Our Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that you vote for all of the board's director nominees and for all of the other proposals.
Our proxy statement for this meeting contains information about each proposal. If you have already voted, there is no need to vote again today unless you wish to change your vote. If you are voting today, you must submit your votes at this time in order for them to be counted by the Inspector of Election. The Inspector of Election will not accept ballots, proxies, or votes for any changes or revocations thereof submitted after the closing of the polls. We will pause for a moment to give anyone a final chance to vote. The polls for each matter to be voted on at this meeting will close shortly. It is now 11:07 A.M. Eastern Time, and the polls for each matter to be voted on at this meeting are now closed.
Based on the preliminary tabulation by the Inspector of Election, each of the company's director nominees has been elected to serve on the board until the company's 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved, and the proposal to ratify the selection of KPMG LLP as the company's Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm for fiscal year 2025 has been approved. The final results will be reported in a current report on Form 8-K that the company will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This concludes the formal business of today's meeting. Now we would like to proceed with a business presentation by our CEO, Chris Cocks, and we will then answer questions. Let me first remind you of our safe harbor and the fact that we will make some forward-looking statements.
Our actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements. For a discussion of these factors, I encourage you to look at the risk factors discussed in our SEC filings. As a reminder, if you have any questions, you may submit them by clicking on the Q&A tab on your screen.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us. We closed out 2024 with momentum, and we're building on it in 2025. Last year, we reported strong results across the board. Wizards of the Coast and digital games hit all-time highs. Consumer products returned to profitability. As a company, we delivered the highest operating profit margin in Hasbro's history, over 20%. Over the past two years, we've reshaped Hasbro into a faster, leaner, more focused business. We exited non-core operations, sharpened our priorities, and leaned into high-margin growth areas. Now we're building on that progress with Playing to Win, our new strategy centered on five building blocks: profitable franchises that lean into brands built for both play and profitability; aging up with a focus on products and experiences for fans aged 13 and older.
Everyone plays, where we're expanding Hasbro's reach across new demographics and markets, digital and direct, which includes investments in games, services, and e-commerce, partner scaled with top-tier retail and licensing partners. This isn't just a framework. It's how we make decisions. It's how we prioritize investment. It's how we operate. The Playing to Win strategy is already showing up in our early 2025 performance, with strong demand across key brands, growing licensing momentum, and deeper fan engagement across channels. Wizards has outperformed expectations. Final Fantasy is shaping up to be our biggest Magic release yet, with Spider-Man and Avatar on the way. These aren't just expansions; they're major fan moments. We're seeing signs of recovery in consumer products, even as the tariff environment remains volatile.
As a global business, we're not immune to macro pressures, but we're focused on what we can control: strengthening retail partnerships, advancing supply chain overhauls, and protecting margin through disciplined execution. While some are pulling back from the toy business, we see opportunity to lean in, to be aggressive where others are cautious, to grow share, and to strengthen our position in key categories. We've also extended our long-term partnership with Disney, deepening our relationship around Marvel and Star Wars, two of the most powerful IPs in entertainment. Despite the temporary relief for China-sourced products, tariffs remain a headwind. We're built for resilience. Nearly 70% of our revenue comes from categories like games, digital, and licensing, businesses with higher margins and less exposure to global supply risk. We're acting, diversifying sourcing, accelerating cost savings, and maintaining pricing discipline to deliver value without compromise. Hasbro isn't playing defense.
We are on offense. We're playing to win. With that, we'll take your questions.
We'll now open up the meeting for questions from shareholders. Again, we will continue to observe the rules of conduct for the meeting as posted on the virtual meeting website. Shareholders may submit questions during the meeting by clicking the Q&A tab at the top of your screen and typing in your question. Let me take a moment to check with Fred Wightman, our Vice President of Investor Relations, to see if there are any questions. Fred, do we have any questions?
Rich, there are no questions.
Having concluded our Q&A session, I'd like to thank you for attending Hasbro's meeting and for your ongoing support of Hasbro. I declare that the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is hereby adjourned.
The meeting has now concluded. You may now disconnect.