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Date: 7/23/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – No regular employees will lose their jobs due to a potential sale of Hasbro’s 1.15 million-square-foot factory at 443 Shaker Road.
Hasbro recently signed a letter of intent to sell the plant to the Cartamundi Group, a Belgium based producer of playing cards.
Julie Duffy, Hasbro’s vice president of Corporate Communications, told Reminder Publications under the terms of the agreement, Cartamundi would continue to employ all regular manufacturing and distribution employees in East Longmeadow and Waterford, Ireland.
“This includes more than 350 employees in [East Longmeadow] and 160 employees in Waterford,” she added. “The organizational structure will remain relatively unchanged.”
The transaction is expected to close within approximately 60 days, she noted.
Duffy said the capacity of both facilities is substantial. However, due to manufacturing reductions in the last decade, the East Longmeadow plant currently operates at 50 percent capacity.
“One of the reasons why Cartamundi is interested in these facilities is because of the potential to grow the business as they become the preeminent manufacturer of playing cards, game cards and board games globally,” she added.
Chris Van Doorslaer, chief executive officer of Cartamundi, told Reminder Publications it is not as cost effective to hire workers in the United States over those in Asian countries, however “automation made the East Longmeadow factory competitive.”
He added, “Also, delivery time and reaction time are very important for games.”
Van Doorslaer noted that Cartamundi aims to bring in other board game customers and would not exclusively create Hasbro products at the factory.
“Under a neutral owner, like Cartamundi, that should be easier than under Hasbro since it will be competitors of Hasbro,” he added.
The trading card industry has seen growth within the last two to three years and Van Doorslaer said he expects that trend to continue.
“We expect, especially, the trading cards going up,” he added.
He noted that the Hasbro trading cards are made out of a Cartamundi card factory in Dallas, TX, and not East Longmeadow.
Duffy said despite the sale of the East Longmeadow facility, games remain critically important to Hasbro.
“We are pleased to expand our existing partnership with Cartamundi as they assume operations and manufacturing for the majority of our traditional games,” she added.
The sale of both facilities is in line with Hasbro’s strategy of building larger and more global brands, Duffy noted.
“We believe this is in the best interest for the future growth of the factories, by ultimately bringing in more business from existing and new global Cartamundi customers,” she added.
Cartamundi was established in 1970 and has a workforce of 1,450 people with factories in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, India, Japan, and the United States, according to the company’s website.
A list of Cartamundi’s retail collection of licensed trading cards include Disney, James Bond, Hasbro, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and cards for games such as Uno and Monopoly, as well as Wizards of the Coast cards, which are part of Hasbro.
Van Doorslaer said Hasbro and Cartamundi have been business partners for more than 20 years.