Mattel 1998 Annual Report Download - page 8

And Barbie made her way successfully to the Internet in
1998. Barbie.com was named by Media Metrix to be one
of the fastest-growing new shopping sites on the world-
wide web, thanks to “My Design,” our design-your-own
Barbie, which drew an average of 16.4 million daily hits
in the month of December alone.
American Girl, the second largest girls brand in the world,
produced $300 million in full-year sales for 1998. We
opened our first flagship store — called “American Girl
Place” — in Chicago in November and achieved results
that exceeded every benchmark we set for ourselves.
More importantly, Pleasant Company will be selling
all of its products online beginning in
September of this year.
And since all of Pleasant Company’s
business has been in the U.S., we plan
to use Mattel’s international expertise
to take the American Girl concept
global, beginning in the year 2000.
At $1.7 billion in sales, our Infant and
Preschool business is now equal to
Barbie in volume. Our profitability
for this category is growing at exciting
levels, which will add to our brightened
future. And, all of our Infant and Preschool
brands and characters will now be marketed
under the Fisher-Price umbrella all around the
world, allowing us to gain full leverage for this most
important market share leader.
Winnie the Pooh was our fastest-growing brand last year,
with sales up well over 50 percent and more than doubling
outside of the U.S. This year, we will launch new segments
for Pooh, including a girls and activity toy line. And our
Sesame Street business, after tripling in 1997, saw a decline
6American Girl Place, our first flagship store,
opened in November in Chicago.