US toymaker doubles down in China despite rising costs, political tensions

Employees work on the production line of American infant product and toy manufacturer Kids2 Inc. at a factory in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China June 22, 2021. - Reuters

JIUJIANG, NEW YORK (Reuters): Hammered by tariffs, pandemic-fueled disruptions and rising costs, some global manufacturers are reducing their reliance on Chinese factories and moving assembly lines to Vietnam, Malaysia and other lower-cost countries, or even Japan.

But Ryan Gunnigle, the chief executive of Kids2, is swimming against that tide. The Atlanta-based maker of toys and infant products recently opened the first phase of a factory on the banks of the Yangtze river in central China at a cost of $20 million.