Global Toy Giant Zuru Plans to Build Super Factory

Zuru CEO Nick Mowbray stated at the "China Business Summit" that the company plans to completely revolutionize construction costs.

Global toy giant Zuru is building a super factory that, once operational, will produce 10,000 square meters of building modules daily. The company plans to construct the facility on land purchased in Malibu following the Los Angeles wildfires, where it will also test its innovative products. Nick Mowbray, co-founder and CEO of the rapidly growing consumer technology company, stated that this is a crucial part of their mission to "completely revolutionize building costs."

At the China Business Summit held in Auckland, Mowbray unexpectedly revealed that the company is expanding into a new business in IoT home appliances based on this mission. "Whether it's home security systems, robotic vacuum cleaners, or automated lawn mowers, we will have a comprehensive layout," he disclosed. "We have just acquired a leading Chinese robotic lawn mower company in the field of neural network events and visual technology, and we are extending downstream. This is a grand project, but we are moving forward quickly."

Mowbray's speech focuses on the ambition to disrupt the traditional global construction model. He highlighted that Zuru Tech's automated super factory will achieve three major breakthroughs: the first fully customized design input and fully automated output production mode in the building materials industry; the supporting self-developed building information modeling software Dreamcatcher; and real-time compliance review and engineering simulation through an AI assistant. Currently, a 10.1-hectare base in China is under construction.

"Its complexity is difficult to estimate." Mobray admitted that integrating hardware and software systems is extremely challenging. The team has successively built a quarter-scale prototype plant and a 3.5-hectare testing base, the latter producing a full-scale building every two weeks. The super factory currently being commissioned will become the world's second (or third) largest facility of its kind, reducing construction costs from several thousand dollars per square meter to several hundred dollars, while maintaining world-class quality.

Before commercialization, the company will conduct internal tests on 12 waterfront plots acquired in Marlborough. Mowbray expects that external cooperation may be opened in the next two to three years, with the new system targeting the mass market and reshaping the pricing system: "The pricing mechanism may be based on intelligent algorithms of supply and demand relationships." Compared to traditional construction methods, this automated system can also reduce waste and enhance sustainability.

At the beginning of 2025, Zuru will open a large factory in Dongguan, China, increasing the production of candy toys and challenging the market share of Kinder Surprise, a global brand under Ferrero.

Approximately 30 million rainbow-colored egg-shaped GumiYums toys, made from 3D injection-molded gummies, are produced annually. Henry Gordon, General Manager of Zuru Candy, stated that the company's new factory in Dongguan, covering over 100,000 square meters, is about to commence operation. The new facility will phase out the original two production lines and adopt ten fully automated new lines, reducing production costs by more than half. The annual output of GumiYums toys will exceed 300 million units.

About Zuru (Zhuyu)

Zuru is one of the world's top ten toy companies, ranked in the top five by NPD in the United States, with a daily toy production of over 650,000. It is pioneering innovative smart construction business and developing new fast-moving consumer goods business. The company employs over 5,000 staff and has more than 1,000 domestic manufacturing suppliers, with an annual revenue of nearly 2 billion USD.

ZURU toy products are sold in over 130 countries worldwide, with sales achieving rapid growth for three consecutive years, making it one of the world’s well-known toy companies. ZURU has achieved great success in the international market. In 2018, ZURU entered the Chinese market and achieved a greater brand leap due to the vast potential of the Chinese market.

Zuru, although a young company established in 2003, has sold products to over 120 countries thanks to Bunch O Balloons (an outdoor toy that can fill 100 water balloons in 60 seconds) and Mini Brands (a capsule toy similar to blind boxes, marketed through TikTok).