Playmobil Iberica has announced a new wave of job reductions at its Onil facilities. The multinational has let go 13 employees, joining the 26 already dismissed last year when the production department was shut down. The cuts were implemented through a formal layoff procedure and early retirements, with the aim of adjusting the workforce to lower business activity. Current operations focus on distribution, marketing, and sales rather than manufacturing.
Last September, Playmobil Iberica, the Spanish subsidiary of the German toy maker famous for its click-tits, stopped production in Onil. The decision followed a sustained drop in sales in recent times and was accompanied by a layoff procedure affecting 26 workers.
The sequence did not stop there. The company has now decided to reduce the staff by another 13 employees. Union sources indicate this was carried out through another layoff process together with early retirement options.
With this latest reduction, the Onil plant workforce is down to just over twenty employees. Those remaining are primarily handling logistics, marketing, and sales departments, which continue to operate after the production shutdown.
These changes form part of a broader strategic plan the company has been pursuing. In October of the previous year, Playmobil Iberica announced a worldwide reduction of almost 700 jobs, representing about 17 percent of its staff of around 4,100 employees. The drop in revenue from 653 million euros to 614 million euros in the 2022-2023 financial year has been cited as a driver, along with factors such as a declining birth rate, strong competition from video games and screens, and rising raw material costs.
Forty eight years into its local history, the Onil operation has not been immune to this setback. In the same financial cycle, the subsidiary saw its revenues fall by 25 percent, from 54.5 million euros to 40.7 million euros, a downturn that helped seal the closure of the production department and the execution of an employment regulation file for 26 workers, now followed by the addition of 13 more.
These developments come as the company marks nearly half a century in the municipality of Onil. The business began in 1975 under the ownership of Famosa, which held the license to manufacture the then known Famobil click toy line in Spain. By 1983 ownership shifted to German hands, giving rise to the modern Playmobil Iberica. At the peak, the firm employed around 150 people, a number that has dwindled to roughly 20 in recent years.