Toyland

[tikistitch]

Mattel Apologizes to China Over Recall

BEIJING – Toymaker Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, saying most of the items were defective because of Mattel's design flaws rather than faulty manufacturing. The company added that it had recalled more lead-tainted Chinese toys than was justified.

The gesture by Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president for world-wide operations, came in a meeting with Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang, who upbraided the company for maintaining weak safety controls.

"Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls," Mr. Debrowski told Mr. Li. "And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys."

The carefully worded apology, delivered with company lawyers present, underscores China's central role in Mattel's business. The world's largest toy maker has been in China for 25 years and about 65% of its products are made in China.

Mattel ordered three high-profile recalls this summer of millions of Chinese-made toys, including Barbie doll accessories and toy cars, because of concerns about lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed. The "vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers," Mr. Debrowski said. Lead-tainted toys accounted for only a small percentage of all toys recalled, he said. "We understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers," he said.

EEEEEenteresting. We were just chatting about this (love making those "lead paint" jokes). Our ex-officemate (who hails from China) mentioned that Mattel was blaming China for what were actually mostly their own design flaws.

Comments

[setsuna.livejournal.com]

"If we piss off our manufacturers, they may not want to do business with us anymore"?

I don't think I knew that Mattel was the world's largest toy company. Holy cow.

[jabberwockypie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're ginormous. I think Hasbro is #2, though I can't be sure. Or maybe just #2 in the US