Dollars and Jens
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Radio Flyer moves wagon manufacturing to China
Radio Flyer Inc. will stop making its famous red metal wagons in Chicago by the fall, halting its final manufacturing operation and releasing nearly half of its 90 employees.That's the report from the Tribune, which requires registration; I first heard the story on WBBM 780, and the Washington Times clarifies that
Although Radio Flyer has resisted this move since it exited the steel-wheelbarrow business 15 years ago, the 87-year-old company finally succumbed to low-cost production overseas after determining its Chicago plant was too expensive to maintain.
Radio Flyer moved production of steel wheelbarrows offshore in 1989 because of the high cost of making the wheelbarrows in the United States, but kept production of the icon red wagon, beloved by generations of American children, at home.I should clarify that this is only the metal wagons that are going to China; the plastic ones are still made in Wisconsin. That's in the WBBM story.
