What Barbie tells you about near-shoring

Mattel consolidates its North American manufacturing operations into a single Mexican factory, its biggest in the world, but maintains global manufacturing operations in Asia to provide flexibility.

March 25, 2023 . 2:58 AM

1 min read

Mattel has consolidated its North American manufacturing operations into a single Mexican factory, its biggest in the world.
They need to be global and local at the same time, even if this adds to the complexity of their supply chains.
Near-shoring is not to decouple supply chains from China, but to provide flexibility.
Mexico has become more competitive with South-East Asia in terms of labour costs.
For Mattel, near-shoring is still a work in progress.