EAST LONGMEADOW -- Lucky kids get a Play-Doh Fun Factory to make the classic modeling compound into tubes and twists, strips and shapes.
And Belgium-based Cartamundi's East Longmeadow plant is getting a real-life Play-Doh factory.
Rhode Island-based toy giant Hasbro is shifting Play-Doh production back to East Longmeadow after having moved it to Turkey and China in 2004. The company first announced the plan last year.
The overseas factories had been unable to keep up with strong demand for Play-Doh, according to copmany officials.
Cartamundi now expects to begin Play-Doh production in East Longmeadow Sept. 4, Jeff Lombard, CEO of Cartamundi East Longmeadow, said in a series of emails Tuesday. Cartamundi is hiring for the job, advertising for workers with the job title "Play-Doh Technician".
On Monday, Hasbro told investors its revenue was falling because of the demise of the Toys 'R' Us chain.
The company's revenue dropped to $716.3 million in the first quarter, from $849.7 million, according to the Associated Press. Revenues were well below the $824.7 million forecast by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
But Lombard said that the disruption has not filtered down to the plant.
"We have not been made aware of any production plan adjustments by Hasbro," Lombard wrote in an email.
For Play-Doh, equipment is arriving now at the sprawling plant where Cartamundi also makes board games like Life, Risk and Sorry! for Hasbro. Flour silos are on site as well as a dough mixer. The majority of the equipment should be in place by the end of June, Lombard said.
The old Play-Doh manufacturing equipment Hasbro used to use was removed.
Play-Doh production means about 20 new jobs for Cartamundi in East Longmeadow. The plant has a staff of about 480.
It's a union workplace, so workers will have a chance to bid on the Play-Doh jobs.
In an earlier news release, Cartamundi said its grown the staff by 13.5 percent growth since Cartamundi acquired the factory in 2015.
Cartamundi -- the name is Latin for "cards for the world" -- bought the factory from Hasbro in 2015 for $19.4 million. Cartamundi also bought a sister facility in Ireland.
Hasbro no longer has any of its own manufacturing facilities.
Instead, Cartamundi makes products for Hasbro at the 1.2 million square-foot facility under contract.
Cartamundi makes 30 million Hasbro games a year.
The East Longmeadow plant was built between 1963 and 1965 by the former Milton Bradley Co. and sold to Hasbro in 1984.