Indonesia has a variety of potential manufacturing industries with promising exports, one of which is the toy industry. For this reason, the Ministry of Industry is trying to maintain a conducive business climate in the development of the toy industry ecosystem so that more medium and large scale companies are globally competitive so that the trend of increasing exports continues. The Ministry of Industry noted that the export value of the national toy industry reached USD 383 million during January-September 2022, up 29.83% compared to the same period the previous year of USD 295 million. "Until now, the main export destinations for Indonesian toys include the United States, Singapore, Britain, China and Germany," said the Director General of Small, Medium and Multifarious Industries (IKMA) Reni Yanita in her remarks representing the Minister of Industry at the Production Line Expansion event. and PT Mattel Indonesia's 30th Anniversary Celebration in Cikarang, West Java, last Thursday (8/12/2022). The Director General of IKMA said that the most exported types of toy products were dolls, stuffed toys and scaled-down model toys. Until now, the number of large and medium-scale toy industries in Indonesia has reached 131 companies, with a total workforce of 36 thousand people. Most of these industries are located in West Java, DKI Jakarta and East Java. "One of the big well-known toy manufacturers that has invested in Indonesia and contributed to absorbing a workforce of up to 9,000 people during the peak season is PT Mattel Indonesia," said Reni.
This company from the United States has two factories in Indonesia, namely the east plant which produces Barbie dolls, and the west plant which produces toy cars (die cast cars) with the Hot Wheels brand. They also involve small and medium industries (IKM) in the production process. The company, which has been operating in Indonesia since 1992, has a production capacity of 85 million fashion dolls and 120 million toy cars per year. Mattel has successfully exported children's toys made in Indonesia to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France and Italy. "The Ministry of Industry appreciates PT Mattel Indonesia for contributing more than 35 percent of the total value of toys exports from Indonesia to the world. This is in line with the Ministry of Industry's strategic steps which are currently spurring the development of a labor-intensive and export-oriented domestic industry," said Reni. Furthermore, PT Mattel plans to increase its investment by expanding the fashion dolls factory.
"With this expansion, PT Mattel Indonesia is projected to create around 2,500 new jobs for Indonesian workers," he added. On the same occasion, Roy Tandean, Vice President and General Manager of Mattel in Indonesia said that the expansion of manufacturing operations would strengthen Mattel's long-term presence in Indonesia. “Indonesia plays an important role in our global operations, as well as supporting our strategic transformation efforts to grow as an intellectual property-oriented toy company with strong performance. This expansion also strengthens Indonesia's role as a leading producer in the global toy industry," he explained. Previously, PT Mattel Indonesia had also received the INDI 4.0 Award in 2022 and was designated as the best performance of industry 4.0 transformation and in the smart factory category. The awarding of the INDI 4.0 Award is expected to be a stimulus for companies to increase productivity, efficiency and capacity through the transformation of industry 4.0 by utilizing key principles and technologies in industry 4.0. Not only that, the Ministry of Industry has also designated PT Mattel Indonesia as the National Lighthouse Industry 4.0 for pilots and references in the implementation of industry 4.0 in Indonesia. The Director General of IKMA hopes that PT Mattel Indonesia can become one of the companies that becomes a reference for innovation and creativity in producing toys. "PT Mattel Indonesia can be a reference for other industries, including small and medium industries, in modernizing and transforming towards industry 4.0," said Reni.
