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The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to Nick Mowbray, the co-founder and co-chief executive of toymaker Zuru. <\/b><\/p>\n
A few years into trying to build a toy business in China, budding entrepreneur Nick Mowbray got a lucky break – a whiff of interest from Walmart. <\/p>\n
The US retail giant wanted to visit Zuru’s showroom in Hong Kong. Nick quickly agreed, and promised to send the address. Now all he had to do was set-up a showroom. <\/p>\n
“The next day I’m on a train to Hong, knocking on doors,” the 34-year-old says. <\/p>\n
It’s a story that captures the early days of Zuru – a company the New Zealander founded with his brother Mat in 2003 – hustling and figuring it out as they went along. <\/p>\n
Today the pair, along with their sister Anna, preside over a global firm that employs 5,000 people, and expects annual sales of $460m (\u00a3356m) this year. The success has made the family one of the wealthiest in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
It all began back in the brothers’ school days. Mat created a hot air balloon kit – made from a coke can and a plastic bag – which they sold door-to-door. The teenagers became more serious about the venture and got a tiny factory going on their parents’ dairy farm in rural north island New Zealand.<\/p>\n
“As payment we had to milk the cows and spray some weeds,” Nick says. <\/p>\n
At the time, Nick was studying law at university and helping out on the side. Mat had pulled out of college to focus on toys full-time. Things rumbled along until one day the brothers made a snap decision. Why not try their luck in China? <\/p>\n
So at 18, Nick also dropped out of university and shortly after boarded a plane to Hong Kong with then 22-year-old Mat. They had “made some contacts on the internet” but were otherwise vastly ill-equipped – unable to speak the language and short on business savvy.<\/p>\n
“We were so na\u00efve, we had no idea what we were doing,” says Nick. <\/p>\n
With a $20,000 loan from their parents, they bought an injection moulding machine, and set up a small factory in Guangzhou, China. Zuru was up and running. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n