Danish toy manufacturer Lego (Billund; www.lego.com) has announced plans to invest over USD 1 bn (EUR 950 mn) to build a new US factory in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Construction is set to commence in autumn 2022, with production projected to start in H2 2025.

“A temporary packaging site will open in an existing building nearby in early 2024 and create up to 500 jobs,” Lego said. The factory, the group’s seventh factory globally and the second in the Americas, will mould, process, and pack Lego products.

Touted as a carbon-neutral facility, the factory is to have its day-to-day energy needs matched by renewable energy generated by an onsite solar park. The facility is also being designed to minimise energy consumption and use of non-renewable resources, according to the toy maker. Lego said it aims to secure the Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification for the building once it’s complete. More than 1,760 people are to work at the new site.

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Along with the build in Virginia, the company’s manufacturing site in Monterrey, Mexico, which primarily supplies the US market, is to be expanded and upgraded “to meet growing demand for Lego products”. The group currently employs 2,600 in the US, where it has been operating since the 1960s.

Lego factories in Europe and China are also being expanded: in December 2021, the group announced plans to build a factory in Vietnam to support further growth in Asia (see Plasteurope.com of 11.01.2022).