Lego To Restart Building Bricks In The U.S. By 2025

Lego intends to invest more than $1 billion in the construction of a factory in the United States. The company unveiled plans for a 1.7-million-square-foot plant in Virginia on Wednesday, which will employ 1,800 people when it opens in 2025, Jordan Valinsky reported for CNN Business.

Photo Insert: Lego, like other toy manufacturers, is experiencing a pandemic-induced boom as families seek entertainment at home.

It will be the company's sixth global factory and its second in North America, with the other being in Monterrey, Mexico. Lego had a factory in Connecticut before closing it in 2006, citing the fact that children prefer to play with electronic gadgets.

Lego, like other toy manufacturers, is experiencing a pandemic-induced boom as families seek entertainment at home.

Its sales increased by 27 percent last year, thanks to new store openings in China and customers returning to its reopened locations. During the year, the family-owned company said it outpaced the toy industry in all major markets, with sales of its plastic bricks totaling more than $8 billion.

"More and more families are falling in love with Lego building and we are looking forward to making Lego bricks in the US, one of our largest markets," said CEO Niels B. Christiansen in a statement quoted by Reuters.

"Building a factory in the United States also helps the company meet demand here, especially when supply chains are congested and shipping costs are rising due to record fuel prices."

"Our factories are located close to our biggest markets which shortens the distance our products have to travel," said Lego COO Carsten Rasmussen, in the statement. "Our new factory in the US and expanded capacity at our existing site in Mexico means we will be able to best support long-term growth in the Americas."

Christiansen also noted that Virginia was chosen as the location for the carbon-neutral factory because it allows them to "build a solar park which supports our sustainability ambitions and provides easy links to country-wide transportation networks."

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