Will People Still Want to Do Puzzles After the Pandemic?
Jigsaw-puzzle sales exploded during the coronavirus pandemic, as restrictions forced millions of Americans to stay home and find ways to entertain themselves. Puzzle sales at Ravensburger North America, a unit of privately held German puzzle giant Ravensburger AG, jumped 70% in 2020 compared with the previous year. Sales during the first weeks of the lockdownsthe last two weeks of March 2020surged 370% year-over-year. Although growth in the overall puzzle market has moderated, sales are still growing, rising 9% in the first quarter, according to advertising-technology firm Criteo . Filip Francke, the chief executive officer of Ravensburger North America, discussed that and other puzzling issues in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow:  Rising anxiety  WSJ: Consumer demand for puzzles exploded during the pandemic. MR. FRANCKE: The underlying drivers of growth were already there. The pandemic just accelerated them. People do puzzles primarily for relaxation and mindfulness. That has always been one of the driving factors. And in an environment with a lot of commotion, a lot of anxiety, puzzles seem to be something that soothes people. They get control, they get to accomplish something, and what used to be just an individual activity has now turned into much more of an intimate group activity. Its cross-generational. It allows you to not be super competitive, but actually to do something else. You can talk and drink lots of wine. We saw a lot of book clubs turn into puzzle clubs even before the pandemic. All of that has been accelerated.