The US Toy Association’s president and CEO, Greg Ahearn, appeared on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” last week and delivered a stern and gloomy series of informed observations.
Greg Ahearn said “No toys are currently being produced in China. And there are reports that major retailers here in the U.S. are starting to actually cancel orders. So, Jake, Christmas is at risk.”
Continuing on the theme, Ahearn said that American companies cannot generate the same production scale as factories in China with 96 percent of US manufacturers classified as small or medium-sized businesses.
Ahearn continued: “There are some toys that are made here in the US, but they’re mostly paper goods or highly automated goods. And they represent a small portion of the toys that are manufactured.”
He added that it would take a significant amount of time for American manufacturers to catch up to the pace of their Chinese counterparts: “It would take three to five years to be able to build out the capacity, the specialisation. Again, a lot of the toys that are made in China, as you said, 80 percent are hand-labour-made toys.
“It’s the face painting on a doll. It’s the hair decorating. It’s placing them the correct way and packaging. A lot of this is hand labour that can’t be automated here in the US.”
