The LEGO Group will invest more than $1 billion to build a 1.7 million-square-foot factory — its first in the U.S. — in Chesterfield County, Va. Construction will start in fall 2022, with a production start planned for the second half of 2025. When completed, the factory will employ more than 1,760 people over a 10-year period.
The new factory is being designed to operate as a carbon-neutral facility, with 100% of its energy needs supplied by renewable energy generated by an onsite solar park. Additionally, the site will minimize its energy consumption and use of non-renewable materials.
“More and more families are falling in love with LEGO building, and we are looking forward to making LEGO bricks in the U.S., one of our largest markets,” said Niels Christiansen, CEO of the LEGO Group in a statement. “The location in Virginia allows us to build a solar park which supports our sustainability ambitions and provides easy links to country-wide transportation networks.”
The Virginia site will be LEGO’s seventh factory worldwide and its second in the Americas; the Monterrey, Mexico factory, which primarily supplies the U.S. market, will be expanded and upgraded to meet growing demand for LEGO products. The company also is expanding its factories in Europe and China, and announced plans in December 2021 to build a factory in Vietnam to support further growth in Asia.
LEGO currently employs approximately 2,600 people in the U.S. and operates 100 LEGO-branded stores across the country. The company also is expanding support for its digital ambitions; in April 2022 LEGO announced the opening of a new office in Copenhagen, joining three other offices devoted to digital. LEGO plans to nearly triple its digital team to more than 1,800 people over a three-year period.
