PH plush toys maker Hansa to open 26 stores in China

A FILIPINO company touted to be the No. 1 maker of realistic life-like plush animals in the world plans to open 26 stores in China this year.

“We will open 26 stores in China this year. We also export to 30 different countries,” Vince Gottman, operation manager of Hansa Creation Inc., said on the sidelines of the Spielwarenmesse Dialogue Networking Event recently.

The company can make 7,000 unique items of creations.

“That’s our line of order,” he said. “Of that 7,000, we have a top selling line of around 1,000 to 2,000 top sellers, and then what we give our distributors is the top three to 500 sellers when they’re started. Each distributor might carry 500 different pieces.”

The company’s top export countries are the US, South Korea and China.

“Our biggest challenge is because every product is handmade, handcrafted--of course, to increase production we have to hire more and more people, so we work for the local government of Tarlac, Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) and local organizations to get specialized training to teach Filipinos how to handcraft designed items,” Gottman said.

He said the company is bringing back handcrafted toys to the market, thereby creating jobs. “We’ll have 1,000 people by the end of the year. For now we have around 400,” he added.

Hansa’s biggest group of customers are zoos, museums, and also retailers like Toys R Us, malls and restaurants.

The company uses 85 percent recycled materials like plastic bottles and water.

Hansa has earned a worldwide reputation for creating quality products for children.

Believing that today’s children will play a vital role in the fate of wildlife in the future, and that toys can be an important tool in forming children’s values, the company created the “Endangered Animals Collection.”

Hansa holds major exhibitions at the New York Toy Fair, Paris Toy Fair, UK Toy Fair as well as the Nuremberg, Brazil Toy Fair and Germany Toy Fair.