A pretty surprising move, today, as Mattel apologized for its massive recall actions involving 21 million toys and the blame that has his China.
Here's Reuters:"Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls," Thomas Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president of worldwide operations, told China's quality watchdog chief, Li Changjiang, in the Chinese capital.
"Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys."
He admitted most recalls were done because Mattel's own design were wrong and had nothing to do with the Chinese companies who manufactured them. Debrowski did not answer questions from reporters, but issued a statement.
"Mattel is committed to applying the highest standards of safety for its products. Consistent with this, Mattel's lead-related recalls were overly inclusive, including toys that may not have had lead in paint in excess of U.S. standards," it said.
The statement did not address the issue of labor standards in the factories that produce Mattel's products.
2 comments:
How much of this apology can be attributed to Mattel not wanting to burn its opportunity in China's domestic toy market or ruin its guanxi with China?
I just can't ignore the fact that China's domestic toy market remains largely untapped by foreign companies and have read articles in recent years highlighting the desire for companies such as Mattel to tap into the market of 300 million+ children under 14 years of age in China.
Maybe the conspiracy theorist in me who also didn't buy the official word the Chinese government put out on that cardboard baozi story couldn't help but wonder why Mattel would shoulder all of the blame on this incident for themselves. Design flaw? Did they request that lead paint be used on the products that are being recalled? Someone explain on my show if they can, because I don't get it.
Mattel's loyalty is to neither China or the US. Its corporate loyalty is to the bottom line. It will do almost anything to protect its profits.
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