© Archyde.com/DANIEL BECERRIL
Stock image. The Mattel company logo at the entrance to the Montoi plant in the municipality of Escobedo, Mexico.
Leek Kylie Madry
MEXICO CITY, April 1 (Archyde.com) – Mattel, Inc.’s Mega Bloks toys will now be made in Mexico, as the U.S. toymaker last month became the latest company to move its supply chain closer to Mexico. from home following the slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic in Asia.
Mattel, the second largest toymaker in the world, announced in mid-March that it had invested some 50 million dollars in the expansion of a plant in the state of Nuevo León, in northern Mexico, prioritizing production in the second largest economy. Latin America’s largest operating centers in China, Vietnam and Malaysia.
The plant in Monterrey, capital of Nuevo León and located regarding two hours by car from the border with the United States, is now Mattel’s largest with 200,000 square meters, and employs regarding 3,500 people.
“Being able to have a large product close to your consumer and not having to have direct transportation from Asia is going to be much more profitable and more competitive when you take costs into account,” Gabriel Galván, director general of Mattel Latin America, told Archyde.com. .
The expansion was first envisioned in 2020, Galván recalled. Mattel closed two factories in Asia in 2019 and more recently closed a plant in Canada and another in Mexico before expanding the megafactory.
Galván explained that the move by the toymaker was the latest example of how concerns regarding global supply chains are generating new interest in the “close location” of industries such as textiles and even the automotive industry, which is already a pillar of Mexican manufacturing.
Mexico’s finance minister also recently told local media that demand for industrial parks in northern Mexico was booming.
Mattel plans to double its investment in the Monterrey plant over the next five years, the state of Nuevo León said in a press release.
“It’s a great moment, it’s a great opportunity,” said Galván, due to the plant’s proximity to its Dallas-Fort Worth distribution center, the company’s second largest in the United States. “We can be there in 24 hours … it’s very convenient,” he added.
(Edited by Christian Plumb and Kenneth Maxwell; Translated by Diego Oré)