Hasbro arm cuts marketing outfit

Hasbro, the UK’s biggest toy and games manufacturer, is closing the sales and marketing department of its subsidiary Waddington’s Games in Leeds, with the loss of 36 jobs.

General manager Graeme Derby and marketing director Richard Cornish are being relocated to Hasbro’s headquarters in Stockley Park, Uxbridge, which covers all global operations outside of the US.

A Waddington’s Games spokes-woman says about eight or nine other staff will also be offered jobs in the South-east offices, and that the Waddington’s brand will continue to be used.

Games have been made in Castle Gate, Leeds for the past 60 years, but in June it was announced that production was uneconomic and would switch to purpose-built plants in Ireland and Spain.

Waddington’s is best known for board games Monopoly and Cluedo, and the football table game Subbuteo. The company was granted a licence to make and market Monopoly in the UK from US games giant Parker Brothers (now part of the Hasbro organisation) in the Thirties.

A Hasbro spokeswoman says: “After the factory closure, and a review of Hasbro’s global marketing structure, it was decided to integrate Waddington’s into the Uxbridge headquarters in order to maintain our position as UK number one.”