Chinese trend-toy maker Pop Mart is hiking prices on its popular Labubu character in the US and shifting more production to Vietnam, as the tariff war between the world’s two largest economies weighs on its profit margins.
The Beijing-based company will introduce Labubu 3.0, a colourful set of seven figurines from the Norse mythology-inspired “The Monsters” series, globally on Thursday.
Items in the new collection will be priced at 99 yuan (US$13.50) in mainland China, on par with the current resale price of previous iterations. Meanwhile, US consumers will see a notable price bump to US$28, up from US$22 for the previous series, as the company seeks to protect its margins, according to a Wednesday report by Jefferies.
“Pop Mart is already positioned as a high-end toy brand overseas and primarily targets adult buyers,” said Richard Lin, chief consumer analyst at SPDB International, a Hong Kong-based investment bank. “So given this context, it has a lot of say when it comes to determining its prices.”
Lin added that Pop Mart could also raise the prices of existing collections later if the tariffs have a significant impact. “Otherwise, the company won’t be able to cover the additional costs,” he said.
