Mattel Apologizes To China?

It is hard to imagine that Mattel (MAT), under pressure for recalls of toys from Chinese factories, would apologize to the Chinese government, but it has. According to Reuters, a senior company official said "Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys."

To get its problems behind it, Mattel, with its CEO suffering withering criticism in Congress and damage in the toy retail marketplace, seems ready to say it is sorry to anyone. The company is even taking public responsibility for the flaws in its products: "But it’s important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products that we recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers."

Perhaps Mattel is now worried that, because it has damaged China’s reputation for quality control, it may be banned from building toys in the country, where labor is cheap.

And, quality control is low. No matter what Mattel says.

Douglas A. McIntyre