This summer I read an article in Financial Times about Steiff, the German company that claims it made the first teddy bear with moveable arms and legs in 1902. A hundred years after the foundation, the teddy bear company followed the outsourcing wave and moved parts of the production from Germany to China. Now, five years later, they are bringing the production back in-house. They have learnt that cost is not everything. Martin Frechen, co-chief executive, says “The things we wanted to be done were not the things the Chinese were used to doing” and “We have learnt our products are better if we make them ourselves”.
What I like in Steiff’s product strategy is the striving for quality. They tried to enter a lower price range and therefore sourced from China. They then identified a lower quality in the production and brought it back in-house. I think this high quality thinking is a good counterweight to the many discounters that are dominating the toys market.
September 5, 2008 at 10:46 am
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