Lego will grow in North America due to increased sales
17 June 2022
BUILDING BRICKS at a news conference at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, people try to guess the landmarks on a map of Virginia made of Lego bricks (June 16 in Manila).
Lego, the Danish toy company, announced on Wednesday that it would invest more than $1 billion over ten years to create a new factory in Virginia and expand an existing one in Mexico.
The anticipated expansion comes after Lego announced a similar investment in Vietnam last year to serve the Asian market
“We will be able to best support long-term expansion in the Americas with our new facility in the US and enhanced capacity at our existing location in Mexico,” Lego Chief Operations Officer Carsten Rasmussen told The Associated Press (AP).
According to the corporation, the 1.7 million-square-foot (158,000-square-meter) facility in suburban Richmond, Virginia will employ more than 1,760 employees. Construction on the carbon-neutral project will begin in the fall of 2025, with production beginning in the second half of that year.
The Lego factory in Virginia will be the world’s sixth.
Its production facility in Monterrey, Mexico, which largely serves the American market, will be enlarged and updated to accommodate rising product demand. The expansion, according to Rasmussen, is “substantial.”
In recent years, Lego’s profit, income, and sales have all increased.
The family-owned toymaker announced in March that its net profit climbed by more than a third last year, consumer sales increased by 22%, and revenue increased by 27%. Similar to the previous year, the rising trend continued.
Some of the rise was most likely due to the coronavirus epidemic. Parents bought Lego’s multicolored plastic bricks to keep their children engaged during lockdowns as more children stayed at home.
“We’ve had some terrific years recently,” Rasmussen told the Associated Press.
Lego’s plants on three continents helped the firm adapt to changing demand patterns. Mexico produces it for the American market, while China produces it for the Asian market. The factories in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Denmark produce for Europe.
Lego stated last December that it would invest more than $1 billion in Vietnam to establish its first carbon-neutral factory, creating up to 4,000 jobs over the next 15 years.
Construction is expected to commence in the second half of 2022, with production beginning in 2024.
