NUEVO LEÓN- Mattel, the company behind Barbie dolls and Fisher Price toys, announced the expansion of its plant in Monterrey, Nuevo León, with a view to consolidating its operations in the region after the closure of the Tijuana plant in 2019, and that of Montreal, Canada, in 2020.
In the Nuevo León factory, where the Barbie house, the mountable Power Wheels and the Mega Blocks are produced, the company has invested more than 1,000 million pesos between 2020 and 2022, to turn it into its largest complex to date. world level.
Mattel announced in 2019 that it would seek to build three smaller plants within the Monterrey complex and increase production capacity by 50% by 2020 and 150% by 2021. This with the goal of exporting from Mexico to 100 countries, including the United States. and Latin America.
“The Montoi plant plays this key role at Mattel and in building our manufacturing base in North America,” said Ynon Kreiz, president and CEO of Mattel.
The company had considered closing this and the plant in Tijuana, Baja California, in 2018, which would mean laying off 2,200 employees. But the company finally decided to consolidate the operation of the Tijuana plant and another in Montreal, Canada, in Nuevo León.
Kreiz told a news conference that one of the competitive advantages the company saw in the Mexican plant is a robust supplier base for batteries, packaging and resins. The goal is that by the end of this year the toys produced at the Mattel Montoi plant have a national content of 48%. From here, the company supplies the demand of 30 countries.
The investment made in the plant, which has an area of 200,000 square meters, will boost the generation of new jobs: this year the company expects to close with a workforce of 3,500 people, from the 1,600 employees it had in 2019.
Mattel is the leading toy company in sales in Mexico, according to Statista. The consultant estimates that in 2021, the toy market in Mexico reached a value of 8,320 million dollars, and will reach 10,712 million in 2026.
Globally, revenues from this market amount to more than 450,000 million US dollars, with a large part generated by China, India and the United States.
