The Maine company that makes Lincoln Logs is closing. The wood products company Pride Manufacturing is shutting down later this year. According to a WARN notice filed on January 13, 115 employees will lose their jobs in April of this year.
Originally made of redwood, the logs are now made of several species. Pride engineered equipment to produce the logs, and at one point had an annual output of about 30 million logs. Toy giant Hasbro owns the rights to the toy brand, licensing them for various products, though the manufacturing has shifted over time. Global toy company Basic Fun currently holds the licensing agreement for production despite facing its own bankruptcy issues, while Pride Manufacturing actually made the wood logs.
The building toy created nearly a century ago by a son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright has stirred controversy over the years. First, when Hasbro shifted material from wood to plastic in the 1970s, which was roundly rejected by parents, then by moving production to China when a U.S. producer for the small wood parts could not be located. In 2014, K’Nex contracted with wooden golf-tee manufacturer Pride Manufacturing Company, which made the 2015 Lincoln Logs product line.
K’NEX, part of Basic Fun’s porfolio since 2018, began moving manufacturing back to the United States around 2009, when it shifted production of its own plastic toy pieces to its sister company, The Rodon Group, Pennsylvania.
Read the article.