An article in Monday’s The Globe and Mail provides some very interesting and surprising insight in to growing powerhouse in the toy and game business, Spin Master. The company is already number three among North American-based toy makers and clearly knows how to develop properties in to hot trends—Bakugan being our favorite example here at PP. And while we expect a company like Spin Master to be focused on producing the next explosive hit (I’m betting on Zoobles for this holiday season), in actuality co-CEO Anton Rabie is more attracted to the staying power of board games.

We noted back in May that the company had grabbed away the Stratego license from Hasbro and in August had acquired several products from Imagination Games. According to the article, though, Spin Master began targeting board games at least 3 years ago and is far from finished. The Globe and Mail also suggests—again counter to our expectations for a game company in the modern day—that Spin Master likes board games’ “healthy gross profit margins because of low-tech production” and views “the silver lining in board games is that hobby and other specialty stores… have a big appetite for games.”