By Isabelle Yr Carlsson

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Toymaker Lego has opened a new factory in southern Vietnam, it said on Wednesday, as the company aims for long-term growth in the Asia Pacific region and to move production closer to its consumers.

Lego has invested $1 billion in the project, part of its decade-old strategy of placing production facilities close to key markets which has previously helped rein in costs and shield it from external factors and supply chain disruptions.

The Danish family-owned company said it would also open a regional distribution centre in Vietnam later this year, its second in Asia, to increase flexibility and agility in its supply chain network.

The distribution centre will be operated by Kuehne und Nagel.

Lego, which sells billions of plastic bricks annually, now has six factories worldwide, located in Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, China and Vietnam.

The group is building a new factory in the U.S. state of Virginia, which is expected to start production in 2027.

CEO Niels Christiansen in March shrugged off the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Mexico when the group reported sales for 2024.

"Tariffs is not what's keeping me awake at night," Christiansen said at the time.

(Reporting by Isabelle Yr Carlsson, editing by Stine Jacobsen and Rachna Uppal)