Funtastic off the skids and into the black
Stewart Downs.
Funtastic posted net earnings of $5.1m on 25 November after reporting a $38m loss in the year to July 2011 in September.
These figures suggest the company’s consistent losses over the past four years for Funtastic will be less so thanks to the austerity measures and restructuring implemented by CEO Stewart Downs.
Under Downs’ direction the company has switched its focus to from distributing brands to acquiring them, reduced ongoing costs by slashing the workforce by 50 per cent, consolidating the range of brands it carries from 66 to 23 and cutting suppliers from 28 to 11.
The company’s financial woes have been attributed largely to its ill-fated venture supplying assorted paraphernalia to ABC Learning childcare centres and Kmart’s 2010 decision to shed external suppliers in favour of building and expanding its house-brand toys.
