Lego to build $1 billion toy molding factory in Virginia

Denmark-based toymaker Lego Group has announced plans to invest more than US$1 billion to build a new factory in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

Once completed, the 1.7 million-square-foot injection molding plant will employ more than 1,760 people.

In a news release, Lego officials said the factory will be designed to operate as a carbon-neutral facility, with 100 per cent of its day-to-day energy needs will be matched by renewable energy generated by an onsite solar park. The site will also be designed to minimize energy consumption and use of non-renewable resources, the release said.

Construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2022, with production projected to start in the second half of 2025. A temporary packaging site will open in an existing building nearby in early 2024 and create up to 500 jobs.

The Virginia factory will be the Lego Group’s seventh factory globally and the second in the Americas. The company’s manufacturing site in Monterrey, Mexico primarily supplies the U.S. market and will be expanded and upgraded to meet growing demand for Lego products.

Lego officials said the new factory in Virginia will use “state-of-the-art technology” to mold, process, and pack the Lego products.

Additionally, Lego factories in Europe and China are also being expanded, and in December 2021, the Lego Group announced plans to build a factory in Vietnam to support further growth in Asia.

The Lego Group currently employs approximately 2,600 people in the U.S., where it has been operating since the 1960s. Its U.S. head office is in Enfield, Conn.