Blog Posts

BALLYHOO BURNY PLUSH TOY PRODUCTION (Part 2)

1 May 2019

As I finished off in Part 1 of this Blog, after feeling really positive about finding a Florida company to produce my Ballyhoo Burny plush toy, it had been a real blow to learn that they too had the plush toys manufactured in China and so were charging the extra so I didn't have to go through the hassle of finding and then dealing with a Chinese company.

So the next day I was back on Alibaba, searching for plush toy manufacturers in China again. I approached 4 companies asking for quotes for just 100 plush toys. They all replied saying that 100 pieces was to few and I need to make a minimum order of at least 500.

There was another company, 'Yiwu Phenix Stationery & Sports' who I'd been communicating with a few weeks previously and they had been back in touch. I had been dubious of doing business with them because the name of their company suggested that manufacturing plush toys wasn't their main line of business, but they were prepared to work with a first order of 100 plush.

I asked them if they did custom saftey labels, as is legally required on soft toys, and they said yes, though it would be an extra charge, as would the embroidery for the eyes and mouth. This proved my suspicions had been correct, because plush toy manufacturing companies have all this equipment inhouse. So this was yet another company crossed of my list.

I needed to think outside of the box. For the past 6 months I'd been dealing with Chinese companies through Alibaba for legal safety reasons on my part. I wondered if there were other online platforms or Apps that provided the same safety net? So I did a search and found a similar online platform. On there I found a company who looked very professional and also produced plush toys for Disney and had legit certificates to prove it.

They were very quick in replying to my request and yes they were prepared to start with 100 pieces but explained it would cost a little bit more per piece for a small order, which I knew it would. So I sent them a my Confidentiality Agreement to sign & stamp, which they also did very quickly, as was the quote they provided after I'd sent them my designs. And the quote was very fair as I knew what I should be paying for Burny to be turned into a plush toy and at nearly two and a half times less per piece than the Florida company's quote (& theirs was for a 150 x 8" plush, this quote was for 100 x 12"/30cm plush), I was happy.

I had to pay US$172 (incl. shipping) for them to start work on a sample, but the bulk manufacturing wouldn't start until I was 100% happy with how my Burny looks as a plush toy and I had provided them with 9 jpegs of visual breakdowns and thorough instructions to how I wanted it to look, so we shall see.

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