Plenty of blame to go around
Published September 27th, 2007
Mattel tries to rescue its relationship with its Chinese suppliers
THE apology was late, reluctant and was no sooner made than it was partly retracted. "Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologises personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys," said Thomas Debrowski, a senior executive at the world's biggest toymaker, which has had to recall 21m toys this year. His words came in a meeting in Beijing on September 21st with Li Changjiang, the chief of China's quality watchdog. But a few hours later Mattel said that the nature of the meeting had been "mischaracterised". The apology in Beijing was not a kowtow to the Chinese, it said, but merely an elaboration of the apology it had already made to consumers all over the world.
Mr Debrowski had not intended to talk to Mr Changjiang in the presence of journalists, but Chinese officials made it a condition for the meeting. After months of what they consider to be unfair accusations of shoddy production, the Chinese felt a public apology was long overdue. On September 5th Mattel had told an American Congressional committee that its recall of 17.4m toys containing a small magnet that could be swallowed by children was due to a flaw in the toys' design, rather than production flaws in China. As for some other toys recalled because of allegedly hazardous levels of lead in their paint, Mattel admitted that it had been overzealous and is likely to have recalled toys that did not contravene American regulations on lead content. …
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