During the 2012 holiday season, one of the hottest toys on store shelves turned out to be the K’NEX building sets featuring characters from the “Angry Birds” video game.
The licensing contract between the Hatfield Township toymaker and game developer Rovio had been signed earlier in the year, leaving K’NEX with precious little time to design, manufacture and ship the toys to retailers in time for Christmas.
Three years ago, it wouldn’t have been possible because K’NEX made its products in China, and even if the parts could be made quickly, shipping them to U.S. store shelves could take months.
But in 2009, as the company struggled through the recession, it decided to bring the work back home.
“We looked at ourselves and said, ‘We’re a family business,’” said CEO Michael Araten, son-in-law of K’NEX founder Joel Glickman. “We don’t want to lay people off. What can we do to strengthen our company, and hopefully our local community? How can we be an example to others?”
The answer, Araten said, was to move manufacturing back to the United States from China.
“We knew what we were good at,” said Araten, who also is CEO of K’NEX’s sister company, injection molding manufacturer Rodon Group. “We felt we could make all the parts here, or almost all the parts here. We believed we’d be able to find vendors who could do what we needed done.”
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