Playmobil brings back Lars Wagner. He takes marketing, sales and development in October

Lars Wagner, 54, joins the Playmobil board in October 2026. He ran the brand’s marketing between 2018 and 2021, then left.

Wagner takes marketing, sales and development from Bahri Kurter

Playmobil belongs to the Horst Brandstätter Group. Bahri Kurter held the chief executive seat for about three and a half years and is leaving. Wagner picks up his brief: marketing, sales and product development. René Feser and Matthias Fauser stay on the board. The German trade title Horizont framed the hire as the man who should pull the toymaker out of a crisis.

Ten years at Disney and a Spanish kids TV job sit on his CV

Wagner worked at Universal and Discovery in the early 2000s. He then spent ten years at Disney. Until March 2026 he ran the kids and family unit at DeAPlaneta in Spain. He also co-owns an animation and children’s film company in Munich. On the return he said he was glad to work with “a physical product” again (aktien.news, German).

Playmobil cut 700 jobs and closed its Dietenhofen plant in June

The group cut about 700 posts in Germany and abroad. It shut the Dietenhofen factory at the end of June 2026. Moulding now happens in Malta and the Czech Republic. That is the company Wagner walks back into, in a German market where ad spending grew only 0.9% in August.

Toy brands lean on licensing, film tie-ups and retail listings. A marketing lead with a film and kids TV background is a signal about where the next Playmobil push goes. Other consumer brands have made similar bets this year, such as Boston Beer hiring from Samsung.

The cuts are already booked: about 700 jobs gone and one plant closed since June. Wagner has to deliver the other side of that sum. His first marketing budget has to work with two factories, in Malta and the Czech Republic, and a brand that has been quiet.