New LEGO factory coming to Virginia, USA

Not that there'll be any way of knowing, but I wonder how long it'll be before I own bricks made there.

@guachi: I Googled Chesterfield County before I even read the article, just to see how close it would be to my home in western North Carolina.

I would actually consider moving cross country for a job like this. I wonder if Lego hires anyone in employee health or safety inspection?

@MeisterDad said:
"If they are breaking ground in Virginia, what will it be called afterward?"

'New Jersey,' of course.

JK for all you Joisey folk. I know you think it's the 'Garden State.'

Or. Gary, Indiana. That place also looks like the offspring if Mordor had sex with the city from Blade Runner.

Hope this means prices won't continue to outpace inflation, but that hope is undoubtedly misplaced.

If quality continues to decline from 2025 onward, we'll have yet ANOTHER thing to blame on the South. Ye haw!

@zerog270 said:
" @Montyh7 said:
"Interesting that Lego either doesn't know who supplies the continent of Australia, or doesn't know that Australia is a separate continent to Asia. I suggest the Lego marketing team who designed that map perhaps studies geography. "

I thought LEGO made a globe?"

I suspect the marketing team may not have been included in designing the globe or world map !

As a resident of north central Connecticut, I am a bit disappointed that it is not being built in closer proximity to the U.S. headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut.
Still, I’m glad that the elements will be manufactured in the U.S.A.

Great news for those in the area! I'll definitely be buying more LEGO since it's built in my own state. Maybe Food Lion will start selling LEGO again now that part of the sets are "locally made" (of course, I"m on the southwestern end, but the entire shelf of "local products" mostly consists of companies located in the eastern part).

Given how my town lost one of its biggest employers two years ago (Joy Global/Komatsu Mining), and how the coal industry has wound down over the years, we could have used the jobs here, but we don't really have enough people with the training. I actually took some of the training (mechatronics), and found that any job that would use it was at least an hour's drive for me. Pretty much, the ten classmates I had in Siemens Level 1, and the three I had in the Level 2 pilot program (so far, the only one ever done in my county--and aside from a Level 1 student from night class who joined me, the other two guys were instructors who taught Level 1, and also were instructors for Level 2 , but decided to take the test with us--and both guys had north of 25 years of experience each--with one having nearly 40).

We have a pretty large "technology" park here in Tazewell County that has attracted a lot of controversy. It cost 250 million in taxpayer funds, and sat empty for years. First of all, it was built on what was believed to have been a Native American burial ground (I'm not joking!!!). Then, some big names were refused by the county (among them Google and Amazon). And then the regional Caterpillar dealer wanted to build a service center, and that was refused under "No Tin Shed" businesses rule they'd made up. Then, there was the rumor that it had actually been an "under the table" deal to build a residential development using taxpayer funds for a local develope. Finally, they got one thing in there, and it's a fishing bait business that was basically a hobby of a local retired veterinarian. Pretty much nothing compared to the jobs it would've brought. And I'm sure the Board of Supervisors would've turned even LEGO down. We finally got rid of one of them last election--after that guy had been in there 25 years before that.

Not to mention, my local community college wanted a former bottling plant in town to make an industrial training center, but the county snatched it up intentionally before they could and eventually sold it to a small cleaning products manufacturer (who only hires like 5 people, compared to the about 100 or so it hired when they were making Rocky Top soda there up until about a decade ago).

@Librarian1976 said:
"As a resident of north central Connecticut, I am a bit disappointed that it is not being built in closer proximity to the U.S. headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut.
Still, I’m glad that the elements will be manufactured in the U.S.A."

Do they still have operations in Enfield? The googles indicate they closed the place several years ago. Information on what LEGO operations remain there seems difficult to come by.

@Nytmare said:
" @Librarian1976 said:
"As a resident of north central Connecticut, I am a bit disappointed that it is not being built in closer proximity to the U.S. headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut.
Still, I’m glad that the elements will be manufactured in the U.S.A."

Do they still have operations in Enfield? The googles indicate they closed the place several years ago. Information on what LEGO operations remain there seems difficult to come by."

Yep it’s still open

@StyleCounselor said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"If they are breaking ground in Virginia, what will it be called afterward?"

'New Jersey,' of course.

JK for all you Joisey folk. I know you think it's the 'Garden State.'

Or. Gary, Indiana. That place also looks like the offspring if Mordor had sex with the city from Blade Runner.

Hope this means prices won't continue to outpace inflation, but that hope is undoubtedly misplaced.

If quality continues to decline from 2025 onward, we'll have yet ANOTHER thing to blame on the South. Ye haw! "

NJ gets a bad rep for no reason. I’ve lived in 6 states, and NJ was the best of them (and this is coming from someone who was once in Virginia and currently in Colorado!)

@Nytmare said:
" @Librarian1976 said:
"As a resident of north central Connecticut, I am a bit disappointed that it is not being built in closer proximity to the U.S. headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut.
Still, I’m glad that the elements will be manufactured in the U.S.A."

Do they still have operations in Enfield? The googles indicate they closed the place several years ago. Information on what LEGO operations remain there seems difficult to come by."

The main office park was up for sale about two years ago (https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/former-lego-hq-in-enfield-listed-for-sale). Their US customer service mailing address is still a PO box in Enfield, so presumably some business operations are still based in CT.

As a few others have said, I also live in Chesterfield County. I am excited by the news but also want to point out the irony that Richmond is not considered a large enough market to sustain a Lego Store. Lego considers the 90 minute drive (or 3 hour depending on traffic) to the two stores in DC to be good enough. Hope this warrants finally getting one.

Hmm...maybe I should start polishing up my resume.

Virginia is for LOVERS and LEGO!
That should be their new slogan.

“Our bricks are made to last for generations"
Bro I have bad news then xD

@Sandinista said:
" @Nytmare said:
" @Librarian1976 said:
"As a resident of north central Connecticut, I am a bit disappointed that it is not being built in closer proximity to the U.S. headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut.
Still, I’m glad that the elements will be manufactured in the U.S.A."

Do they still have operations in Enfield? The googles indicate they closed the place several years ago. Information on what LEGO operations remain there seems difficult to come by."

Yep it’s still open "

...but what do they do in Enfield? Are they just managing all the North American Lego brand stores? I've always been curious, but there's little to no information on that office.

I'm also a little surprised they're not opening the manufacturing facility closer to Enfield. ...unless maybe they plan to eventually move the Enfield office (after over 4 decades) to Virginia?

@BrickC137 said:
"Looks like I'm moving to Virginia!"

Same, I would love to work for LEGO here in the States

Hopefully this will have a positive impact on prices. And maybe on color consistency.

Excellent news for those AFOLs that get a job there since they can save a lot on the Lego budget in the employee store ;)
Pretty sure it is better to work in a Lego factory than a similar job at e.g. Amazon as well..

@Sandinista said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"If they are breaking ground in Virginia, what will it be called afterward?"

'New Jersey,' of course.

JK for all you Joisey folk. I know you think it's the 'Garden State.'

Or. Gary, Indiana. That place also looks like the offspring if Mordor had sex with the city from Blade Runner.

Hope this means prices won't continue to outpace inflation, but that hope is undoubtedly misplaced.

If quality continues to decline from 2025 onward, we'll have yet ANOTHER thing to blame on the South. Ye haw! "

NJ gets a bad rep for no reason. I’ve lived in 6 states, and NJ was the best of them (and this is coming from someone who was once in Virginia and currently in Colorado!) "

You're absolutely correct. Nevertheless, it is fun to pick on them. It was tongue in cheek.

The outskirts of northen NJ are beautiful with cool little towns that have fairly sophisticated culture. One-of the best Italian meals I've ever had was in a quaint little restaurant where you have to bring your own wine.

I also don't truly dispise the South either. They have welcoming, warm people (to hetero white males, anyway), and have produced some our best literature and cuisine. That said, they also continue to produce a great deal of racism, bigotry, and institutional inequality.

On a better note, welcome to colorful Colorado. One of the besr places.

@CCC said:
" @jkb said:
"Hopefully this will have a positive impact on prices. And maybe on color consistency."

No doubt the impact on prices will be positive, in the sense they will become even more positive.

"

Ha! No doubt. I want to pay LESS for American-made Lego.

Hopefully this new factory means less of the disgusting bootlegging we have seen comming out of the factory in Mexico.

I assume the location was chosen as this is one of the furthest points from Monterrey, rather than the usual New Mexico or Arizona which would make more sense for a solar farm?

Just wish that they had chosen Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh etc., where investment is needed to provide jobs etc.

@Robot99 said:
""and ensure they meet the company’s rigorous safety and quality requirements"

I would hope so. One small thing that's been turning me off from buying Lego lately is that the pieces don't seem to be quite as sturdy as they used to be, it's been quite frustrating watching all sorts of pieces in my collection break and deteriorate. Clips in particular are pretty bad offenders."
As are 84% of my cheese slopes purchased in the last five years.

I wonder if this could be the first step to LEGO pulling back from manufacturing in locations whose legal provisions for copyright and IP theft are not always beneficial to the company?

@Rare_White_Ape said:
"Tell that to all my childhood Lego sets with broken Minifig hands, split Minifig torsos and helmets, clips, finger-hinges, Technic pins and bushes, train tracks, and split 1x2 or 1x4 bricks.

Lego is much better than it used to be. Trust me."
Hmm. Then maybe I'm just getting older now and discovering it, lol.

@slvrlksrfr said:
"As are 84% of my cheese slopes purchased in the last five years."
While I haven't had that many become unusable, nearly every cheese slope I have from sets in recent years has a hairline crack at the front base. It seems weirdly specific.

@David_Brickley said:
"I live in Chesterfield and work in Richmond..."

Have you head of RVA-LUG ( https://rva-lug.com/ )? We have several members that also reside in Chesterfield.

We meet on the third Saturday of the month at a community center in Willow Lawn. We also meet for dinner on the first Tuesday of each month. Find our Calendar here - https://rva-lug.com/calendar/ .

This Saturday we are going to watch the LEGO Con during our meeting on the big screen at our meeting facility, we'd love to see you there or at a future event.

Our next display events are BrickFair VA, Richmond Train Day, and RVA Brick Day( https://rvabrickday.com/ ).

cc'ing @amosnp @jmlego @nth_lego since your comments also hint at a proximity to the Central VA region.

Great news to have a LEGO factory in North America.
I wonder if Canada can get one of these one day.

Virginia seems like an interesting choice, especially if they’re building a solar park to power it. Seems like it would have been far more efficient building in a southwest state. Too close to the Mexico plant maybe?

@Sandinista said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"If they are breaking ground in Virginia, what will it be called afterward?"

'New Jersey,' of course.

JK for all you Joisey folk. I know you think it's the 'Garden State.'

Or. Gary, Indiana. That place also looks like the offspring if Mordor had sex with the city from Blade Runner.

Hope this means prices won't continue to outpace inflation, but that hope is undoubtedly misplaced.

If quality continues to decline from 2025 onward, we'll have yet ANOTHER thing to blame on the South. Ye haw! "

NJ gets a bad rep for no reason. I’ve lived in 6 states, and NJ was the best of them (and this is coming from someone who was once in Virginia and currently in Colorado!) "
Does NJ still make you use an attendant to pump gas?

@monkyby87 said:
" @Sandinista said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"If they are breaking ground in Virginia, what will it be called afterward?"

'New Jersey,' of course.

JK for all you Joisey folk. I know you think it's the 'Garden State.'

Or. Gary, Indiana. That place also looks like the offspring if Mordor had sex with the city from Blade Runner.

Hope this means prices won't continue to outpace inflation, but that hope is undoubtedly misplaced.

If quality continues to decline from 2025 onward, we'll have yet ANOTHER thing to blame on the South. Ye haw! "

NJ gets a bad rep for no reason. I’ve lived in 6 states, and NJ was the best of them (and this is coming from someone who was once in Virginia and currently in Colorado!) "
Does NJ still make you use an attendant to pump gas?
"

They do that in Oregon too.

@zerog270 said:
"I would actually consider moving cross country for a job like this. I wonder if Lego hires anyone in employee health or safety inspection?"

In case it hasn't been posted here yet (haven't made my way through all the comments), here's a LEGO site specifically for hiring at the new Virginia site: https://www.legocareersvirginia.com/

@zerog270 said:
" @Montyh7 said:
"Interesting that Lego either doesn't know who supplies the continent of Australia, or doesn't know that Australia is a separate continent to Asia. I suggest the Lego marketing team who designed that map perhaps studies geography. "

I thought LEGO made a globe?"

They did, and a world map too. Messed at least a little up on both though, so their geography skills are in question.

@AllenSmith said:
"I'm very happy to see Lego investing in manufacturing in the US. The locations of the last two factories tinged a product I care about with a lot of human-rights questions."

And the US human rights record is golden? No....it is not.

Diverseifying plants around the globe does make good sense from a business standpoint.

I am very curious as to how Lego's solar farm will work out. It will be a significant cost, for sure, and I hope they're ready to weather the storm when their sets prices go up and customer demand goes down (by how much? We'll see, I guess). Hopefully Virginia has enough year-round sunlight to keep energy production up, and hopefully the panels are efficient/resilient enough to keep the facility running without requiring constant maintenance or replacement. It'll be a gamble, given the current state of widescale solar technology, but if they can make it work, that'd be super cool.

Very excited for this as a Virginia resident! I was actually born at a hospital in Chesterfield so Lego having that big a presence there is super cool!

I might need to figure out what roles at the new factory location I might be suited for, and see if I can get some relevant job experience on my resume in the next couple of years. After graduating directly into a pandemic I've kind of been spinning my wheels instead of nailing down a steady job, but this seems like as good an opportunity to work for Lego as I'm ever going to get.

@GBP_Chris said:
"I am very curious as to how Lego's solar farm will work out. It will be a significant cost, for sure, and I hope they're ready to weather the storm when their sets prices go up and customer demand goes down (by how much? We'll see, I guess). Hopefully Virginia has enough year-round sunlight to keep energy production up, and hopefully the panels are efficient/resilient enough to keep the facility running without requiring constant maintenance or replacement. It'll be a gamble, given the current state of widescale solar technology, but if they can make it work, that'd be super cool."

I wonder if Lego will even pay for the solar farm or if someone else will build it and Lego will just lease it. I don't expect that they will actually run operations directly off what the solar farm generates. It's more likely that whatever is generated feeds the grid which they in turn draw from. If the generation is greater than need, the surplus is like a credit to offset what they would need to draw down from the grid When the generation is less than what they need. I think their ultimate goal is to balance the numbers over a period of time, carbon neutral. Solar sites do need periodic maintenance, but it's minimal compared to fossil fuel station.

On the plus side, the efficiency of solar panels is always getting better, so they can always upgrade the panels when the technology makes it worth the cost.

No shortage of pig farms in VA, wonder why they're not going with renewable natural gas...

@MingusDew said:
" @zerog270 said:
"I would actually consider moving cross country for a job like this. I wonder if Lego hires anyone in employee health or safety inspection?"

In case it hasn't been posted here yet (haven't made my way through all the comments), here's a LEGO site specifically for hiring at the new Virginia site: https://www.legocareersvirginia.com/ "

Thanks for the link; I’ve thrown my hat in the ring. By the time they’re looking to hire IT people, my wife will have retired from teaching and my awesome boss will also likely have retired, so maybe moving from NJ to VA to work for LEGO as my very last ‘thinking’ job might be a good idea. Hope they need data quality analysts.

@zerog270 said:
"I would actually consider moving cross country for a job like this. I wonder if Lego hires anyone in employee health or safety inspection?"

Safety Inspection for sure. Assuming this is a fully integrated factory (ABS pellets to boxed sets), there are many kinds of machinery that people work with. I want a job too :) Maybe quality control.

@btmarshall : I know all that. It works the same way here in Germany, and it's a good thing too.

My comment was meant to be sarcastic, because I often read, especially from Americans, how using "taxpayers' money" apparently is a bad thing, as if these commenters didn't know their economy 101 at all. To them this must seem like communism, the mere mention of which seems to freak many Americans out ;-)

Caveat: in no way am I trying to imply that communism is a good thing. But many Americans seem to mistake sound business practices of social economy (or "soziale Marktwirtschaft" as it is called over here) for socialism or even communism, even though it is the exact opposite of those.

@Rare_White_Ape said:
" @Robot99 said:
""and ensure they meet the company’s rigorous safety and quality requirements"

I would hope so. One small thing that's been turning me off from buying Lego lately is that the pieces don't seem to be quite as sturdy as they used to be, it's been quite frustrating watching all sorts of pieces in my collection break and deteriorate. Clips in particular are pretty bad offenders."

Tell that to all my childhood Lego sets with broken Minifig hands, split Minifig torsos and helmets, clips, finger-hinges, Technic pins and bushes, train tracks, and split 1x2 or 1x4 bricks.

Lego is much better than it used to be. Trust me."

During my childhood, 35-45 years ago, I played with LEGO all the time, and it's still in great condition. Maybe there has been a period after that where quality was less. But not that I know of.

@AustinPowers : Ah, I understand now. Yes, there are certainly divides in a lot of ways here too.

(I typed out a more detailed response but it was swallowed up. Perhaps certain keywords triggered a bot?)

LEGO is a luxury product and it can trigger some critiques of elitism, that big companies are trampling the little guy. Maybe those critiques are fair in some ways. As far as investment climate goes, though, this sort of approach really does seem to lead to more good jobs and growing the tax base. When you give tax breaks to the right firms in the right situations, it often leads to increases in the overall tax base. A rising tide raises all boats.

What we find in the US is that, sadly, it usually doesn't work when you go to a place that isn't already doing well. Tech jobs tend to attract more tech jobs in industrial park clusters, as there is a built-in pool of skilled workers in the area always looking for work. It's much harder to be the one company going into a depressed area, as part of an effort to build it up. Skilled workers don't want to go there, and that's a big problem. Those company investments, and state tax breaks, often end badly. Those involved sour on the whole experience.

It leads to the richer areas getting richer while the dying towns continue to die. It's a real urban/rural problem in the US, without an easy solution. Northern, Tidewater and coastal Virginia is doing well and it's continuing to do well as more and more companies flock to join others that are moving in. All of that is on top of a solid foundation of a pre-existing base of companies that do business with the Federal Government in the DC suburbs. This area doesn't need more good luck the way that others do, yet more and more good luck falls into their laps (albeit with sound state government policies). Yet the places that really need it can't attract good companies. It's a vicious cycle.

It should be a good deal for Lego, though. This region is thriving.

A local CT news station had a story this morning on the new Lego factory in VA. They ended with saying Lego spokespeople said they are committed to keeping the headquarters in CT and staying a part of that community. Hope it does, there are some good perks to having them based nearby.

Virginia is well represented on Brickset (including myself). :o)

I think this is pretty great news as it gives LEGO greater production flexibility, especially with the current volatile state of the world.

P.S. We pump our own gas in Virginia, lol.

I want that green 1X3 arch that's in Australia.

I used to live in the county they're making it in, now I dont have to drive 2 hours for a LEGO store!

I am kind of puzzled with the greenwashing. If LEGO wants to be green, then
A) Reduce the part and colour variantion
B) Reduce the piece count of sets
C) Invest in B,C,D and E-models (bring back the 5 in 1 set
D) Stop focussing on on-the-shelf models. They don't seem to remember the LEGO movie, yet they behave like Lord Business themselves. They only forgot the glue.
E) Invest in scaling up and making it cheaper per piece to do custom brick orders.

Lego should focus on the build-demolish-build cycle. Not on scalpers and display-AFOLS. Creativity seems gone from the business goals.

@martiniman said:
"I am kind of puzzled with the greenwashing. If LEGO wants to be green, then
A) Reduce the part and colour variantion
B) Reduce the piece count of sets
C) Invest in B,C,D and E-models (bring back the 5 in 1 set
D) Stop focussing on on-the-shelf models. They don't seem to remember the LEGO movie, yet they behave like Lord Business themselves. They only forgot the glue.
E) Invest in scaling up and making it cheaper per piece to do custom brick orders.

Lego should focus on the build-demolish-build cycle. Not on scalpers and display-AFOLS. Creativity seems gone from the business goals."

F) Reduce the amount of building steps, so as to at least halve the size of the instructions.

@Wrecknbuild said:
" @martiniman said:
"I am kind of puzzled with the greenwashing. If LEGO wants to be green, then
A) Reduce the part and colour variantion
B) Reduce the piece count of sets
C) Invest in B,C,D and E-models (bring back the 5 in 1 set
D) Stop focussing on on-the-shelf models. They don't seem to remember the LEGO movie, yet they behave like Lord Business themselves. They only forgot the glue.
E) Invest in scaling up and making it cheaper per piece to do custom brick orders.

Lego should focus on the build-demolish-build cycle. Not on scalpers and display-AFOLS. Creativity seems gone from the business goals."

F) Reduce the amount of building steps, so as to at least halve the size of the instructions."

Build step 20-45 again but mirrored. If you want to put 18+ on the box, at least do that.

This is nice as it’s an hour and a half drive from my home town.