Funko, the toy and collectible manufacturer best known for its Funko Pop Vinyls line, is sending at least $30 million worth of its products to a landfill.
As reported by Kotaku, Funko revealed during an earnings call that it has so much idle stock sitting in warehouses that, financially, its best option is to throw $30 to $36 million worth in the garbage.
"Inventory at year-end totalled $246.4 million, an increase of 48% compared to a year ago," Funko said "This includes inventory that the Company intends to eliminate in the first half of 2023 to reduce fulfilment costs by managing inventory levels to align with the operating capacity of our distribution centre. This is expected to result in a write down in the first half of 2023 of approximately $30 to $36 million."
CEO Brian Mariotti said during an investors call that one distribution centre was so full that Funko was renting shipping containers to hold the excess stock.
Funko certainly has had its foot on the gas when it comes to producing new lines of its Pop Vinyls. Alongside having a ton of iconic ranges with characters from Marvel, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC, there are also plenty of more obscure series including Pets, Conan O'Brien, NBA, Ad Icons, and more.
A dozen or so figures are launching just this month too, including a glow in the dark Shazam, the 1989 Batman, Walt Disney on a train, and more.
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Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
tamagosan on March 3rd, 2023 at 20:24 UTC »
I think it's important to figure out how much of the world's economic activity is essentially just worthless plastic garbage.
TheyCallMeYukon on March 3rd, 2023 at 18:52 UTC »
At $30-$36MM in inventory cost, I’m curious how many actual units this is.
ToxicAdamm on March 3rd, 2023 at 18:41 UTC »
Right next to the Atari cartridges in the desert?