Toys "R" Us

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Toys "R" Us

logo
legal form LLC
founding 1948
resolution June 29, 2018
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Wayne , New Jersey , United States
United StatesUnited States 
Number of employees 64,000 (before dissolution)
Branch retail trade
Website www.toysrus.com

Former Toys “R” -Us store in Germany
Shopping carts filled with toys in a former Toys "R" -Us store in Alaska

Toys "R" Us was a US company based in Wayne , New Jersey . It operated a retail chain of toy stores and online shops that extended well beyond the United States . The reopening of two branches is planned.

history

Toys “R” Us was founded in 1948 by Charles Lazarus (* October 4, 1923, † March 22, 2018). The group was last equally owned by Bain Capital , Vornado Realty Trust and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Toys “R” Us had over 1500 branches worldwide in October 2007, including 66 in Germany , 15 in Austria and 9 in the Switzerland .

In 1986 Toys “R” Us came to Germany, but the first store didn't open until 1987 in Koblenz . The headquarters of Toys “R” Us GmbH Central Europe is in Cologne .

In 2005, the group was bought by investors around Bain and KKR for $ 7.5 billion. The debts from the purchase were transferred to the group. The pressure from growing online trading also put him in financial trouble. A profit has not been made in any year since 2013. In the second quarter of 2017, the company posted a loss of $ 164 million on sales of $ 2.2 billion. He has five billion dollars in long-term debt. In 2018, $ 400 million in debt would have fallen due.

In June 2015, manager David A. Brandon hired Toys “R” Us as CEO . His contract allows him to earn $ 18 million a year, despite being responsible for one of the largest US retail bankruptcies in 2017. The reason is the measurement of his performance against the controversial EBITDA .

The group filed for bankruptcy on September 18, 2017 . A consortium led by the US bank JP Morgan granted loans of over 3 billion US dollars. The corporate management hoped to achieve a fresh start through restructuring. With no buyer found for the entire company by March 15, 2018, all 800 stores in the US, as well as all 100 stores in the UK, were closed. All 44 branches in Australia were also closed by August 2018. The Asian business including the rights to the Toys “R” Us brand was sold to Fung Retailing in Hong Kong.

In addition, all 1758 Toys “R” US stores were sold worldwide. Since the shopping markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were profitable, the competitor Smyths Toys from Ireland took over 67 of these branches and the online presence and changed the flag to its own name. The remaining branches were closed.

Toys “R” Us is a colloquial short form for the English expression “Toys are us”, which freely translates as “We are toys”, or furthermore “Toys are our thing”.

From 1958 onwards, a reversed "R" was a noticeable feature in the company logo. This is supposed to represent a childish misspelling and has nothing to do with the Cyrillic letter " Я ".

criticism

Lack of social responsibility in production in Asia

Toys “R” Us was forced to recalls several times worldwide in the second half of 2007 because high concentrations of pollutants in baby bibs, paint boxes and other toys made in China became public.

These recalls are an indication of a presumably inadequate control of the supplier companies in China. In a test by Stiftung Warentest in 2005 on corporate responsibility in toy production, Toys “R” Us (in contrast to competitors such as Karstadt, Neckermann and Quelle, who were already extensively involved at the time) showed little cooperation and gave no information. In October 2007, too, consumers found no information about social responsibility on the Toys “R” Us website. The verdict of the Swiss toy coalition on social responsibility in 2006 was: “So far, the only hopeless cases are Sombo and Toys R Us: So far, they have ignored the problems and do not respond to inquiries. They give the impression that they have already surrendered to the abuses in the factories. "

Wage dumping and union busting in Germany

The majority of employees in Germany worked part-time and received a wage below the tariff, which for many was not enough to survive. Numerous employees were therefore dependent on supplementary unemployment benefit II and were acutely threatened by old-age poverty . The ver.di union has been fighting since June 2015 with strikes for a collective agreement at Toys “R” Us. By the end of 2017, management refused to even begin negotiations.

The action against labor injustice protested nationwide against Union Busting at Toys “R” Us on the day of action Black Friday, May 13th 2017 . On December 16, 2017, the initiative mobilized in front of a branch in Würselen to support the local works council against bullying . The Toys “R” Us general works council launched an online petition on the matter.

Tax evasion

Toys “R” Us is incorporated in Delaware , although the group is operationally managed from its headquarters in Wayne, New Jersey. Delaware has been criticized for being one of the largest tax havens in the world.

In March 2018, it was announced that the UK subsidiary had transferred over GBP 580 million to a subsidiary in the British Virgin Islands, known as the tax haven, as an intra-group loan in January 2017 and written it off a few months before bankruptcy.

particularities

Brand Logo Babies “R” Us

The largest Toys "R" US store was in Times Square in Manhattan , New York , which it claims was the largest toy store in the world. It had an area of ​​approximately 10,200 square meters on four floors. In the entrance area there was an 18 meter high Ferris wheel. The branch was closed at the end of 2015, but temporarily reopened on August 26, 2017 for the 2017 Christmas season.

A few days before the final closure of US markets on June 29, 2018 was by an unknown person all the toys the store in Raleigh ( North Carolina bought) for the sum of one million dollars. According to media reports, the latter intends to give away the purchased toys to children.

The largest branch outside of the USA was in Birmingham, England . Another special branch was the one on the ground floor of Eindhoven's Philips Stadium , home of the Dutch first division football club PSV Eindhoven . The Toys “R” Us chain also included Kids “R” Us (“we are children”) and Babies “R” Us (“we are infants”), who specialized in goods for children and babies , respectively. In Germany, the Babies "R" -Us stores were mostly to be found in the Toys "R" -Us stores. However, they were to be understood as a completely independent market with their own entrance and checkout area as well as staff.

In the 1990s, shopping vouchers resembling American banknotes were issued. They were $ 1, $ 5, $ 10, and $ 20.

Web links

Commons : Toys "R" Us  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Hals, Tracy Rucinski: Toys 'R' Us seeks bankruptcy to survive retail upheaval . Reuters. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  2. ↑ https://www.stern.de/wirtschaft/news/-toys-r-us--ist-zurueck---und-die-geschaefte-haben-zu-riesigen-spielplaetzen-9023520.html
  3. ↑ Toys 'R' Us Founder Charles Lazarus Dies at 94 , accessed on March 24, 2018 (English)
  4. ↑ manager magazin, Toys 'R' Us collapses under debt , September 19, 2017
  5. ↑ a b Spiegel Online, Toys R Us files for bankruptcy , September 19, 2017
  6. ↑ Toys R Us: EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT David A. Brandon. US Securities and Exchange Commission, May 1, 2015, accessed December 19, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Laura Marcinek / Alicia Ritcey: Bain-Backed Toys 'R' Us New CEO Eligible for $ 50 Million in Cash . In: Bloomberg.com . June 4, 2015 ( bloomberg.com [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  8. ↑ Elmar Wigand: Toys R Us: CEO rewarded with 18 million despite bankruptcy! In: Injustice at work in Germany . November 13, 2017 ( Arbeitsunrecht.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  9. ↑ David Shook, Businessweek-Online: Guest comment: The Ebitda obscures the view of the company result . In: FAZ.NET . January 15, 2003, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  10. ↑ Ted Gavin: Top Five Reasons Why EBITDA Is A Great Big Lie . In: Forbes . ( forbes.com [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  11. ↑ Toys'R'Us closes all US stores. Retrieved March 15, 2018 .
  12. ↑ All Toys R Us stores to close their doors. Accessed March 15, 2018 .
  13. ^ Jethro Mullen: Toys 'R' Us is shutting down in Australia, too. June 21, 2018, accessed September 18, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Toys 'R' Us sells Asia operations and keeps Japan business alive. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Irish toy retailer takes over Toys “R” Us. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 22, 2018 ; accessed on April 22, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spiegel.de
  16. ↑ Company history on the company website at toysrusinc.com
  17. ↑ Lead in baby bibs . Report in the star
  18. ↑ Test overview on corporate responsibility from Stiftung Warentest
  19. ↑ Report of the Swiss Toy Coalition on the 2006 survey (PDF; 93 kB) ( Memento from October 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ ver.di: Employees at the toy retailer Toys "R" Us are on strike for a collective bargaining agreement . June 8, 2015 ( verdi.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  21. ↑ Toys R Us - a soulless profit machine. ver.di TV, December 18, 2017, accessed on December 19, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Toys 'R' Us: Friday the 13th causes a stir . In: Injustice at work in Germany . May 16, 2016 ( Arbeitsunrecht.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  23. ↑ action ./. Arbeitsunrecht eV: Toys “R” Us - Why was the company nominated for Black Friday on May 13th, 2016? Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
  24. ↑ nt: Solidarity campaign for employees of Toys "R" Us Würselen . In: Aachener Nachrichten . ( aachener-nachrichten.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  25. ↑ Verena Müller: Verdi complains about bullying at Toys'R'Us . In: Aachener Nachrichten . ( aachener-nachrichten.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  26. ↑ Toys R Us: Solidarity with the works council in Würselen . In: Injustice at work in Germany . December 15, 2017 ( Arbeitsunrecht.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  27. ↑ Jessica Reisner: And yet he came! Successful Advent campaign at Toys R Us . In: Injustice at work in Germany . December 17, 2017 ( Arbeitsunrecht.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  28. ↑ Satire on the protest in front of Toys'R'Us branch with Martin Schulz double . In: Aachener Nachrichten . ( aachener-nachrichten.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  29. ↑ General Works Toys`R`Us: solidarity with the workers and the works of Toys `R`Us Aachen - online petition. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Heike Buchter: Tax havens: Better than Panama . In: The time . April 15, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  31. ^ Winand von Petersdorff: Delaware: America's own tax haven . In: FAZ.NET . April 11, 2016, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  32. ↑ The hunt for Toys R Us' missing millions: Investigators probe a £ 580m loan moved to a tax haven just months before the store went bust. Retrieved March 25, 2018 .
  33. ↑ RetailWire: The Real Reasons Toys 'R' Us Quit Times Square. Retrieved July 3, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Elizabeth A. Harris: Several Days After Christmas, Toys 'R' Us Closes in Times Square. In: The New York Times. December 30, 2015, accessed July 3, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Toys 'R' Us Returns To Times Square With Temporary Store. Retrieved August 30, 2017 .
  36. ↑ Beairshelle Edmé: Anonymous person buys $ 1M worth of remaining toys at Raleigh Toys 'R' Us. Retrieved July 2, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Anonymous person buys entire "Toys-R-Us" branch - and gives the toys away to children. Retrieved July 2, 2018 .
  38. ↑ Toys R Us - Shopping Vouchers. Retrieved April 21, 2018 .