Spanish toy manufacturer Felipe Almirall says being in Hong Kong makes it easy to keep up with industry trends

Our office in Hong Kong, coupled with production in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), gives us the best of both worlds, says Felipe Almirall, the regional manager for one of Spain's leading toy manufacturers, IMCADISA.

"Our Hong Kong office allows us to manage and strengthen our relationship with our manufacturing partners in the Chinese mainland," says Mr Almirall.

IMCADISA HK, opened its office in Hong Kong three years ago, and now employs a ten-strong team, responsible for supervising the companies manufacturing operations in the PRD in southern China, as well as managing all international sales.

The Hong Kong team works closely with a team of six engineers and quality controllers based in Southern China who monitor the production lines and carry out quality inspections.

IMCADISA was established near Barcelona in 1981 and manufactures a wide range of toys under its own brand name, as well as products under licence such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Barbie, Toy Story, Batman, Superman, Bob the Builder and Power Rangers. Its main markets are Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

Around 60 per cent of IMCADISA's toys have telecom components such as walkie-talkies and radios; the rest are musical products including keyboards, guitars, sing-along cassette players and a range of Walkman items.  The company also owns the licence to manufacture James Bond 007 items for the US market.

Wired to the world

"Setting up the office was very quick and uncomplicated. Almost immediately we were able to move smoothly into Hong Kong's straightforward and efficient environment for conducting business," Mr Almirall said. Hong Kong's highly developed communication system allows the office to liaise closely with customers in more than 30 countries and group headquarters in Spain.

IMCADISA's design and development is carried out in Spain while the Hong Kong office is strategically placed to keep up-to-date with developments within the toy manufacturing industry.

"The industry is generally getting more competitive, especially with the move towards more electronic toys," Mr Almirall said. "In addition, children are maturing and moving to computers and other electronic toys at a younger age."

To maximize the use of the most advanced technology, IMCADISA uses the production facilities of seven factories on an Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) basis, located close to the Hong Kong border in Dongguan,  Southern China.

Mr Almirall said Hong Kong is the world's largest toy exporter, so IMCADISA HK is in the ideal location to keep an eye on developing trends and also to meet face-to-face with its customers. "We meet buyers from the US, Australia, South America and from other parts of the world who happily travel to Hong Kong to source products and to do business," he said.

Mr Almirall added that buyers prefer to place their orders in Hong Kong rather than visit the production facilities in the mainland. "This preference clearly underlines Hong Kong's importance as the region's sourcing hub and toy fair capital of the region."

Related link:
IMCADISA www.imc.es