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A
toy factory in Sri Lanka that relies on quality Here is a complex that is spic and span with a well kept garden and three huge, immaculately clean buildings in about an acre of land. The appearance of the garden and the building showed the success and prosperity of this venture. Paradise
Toys (Pvt) Ltd is a BOI Company fully financed by Fehn Gmbh &
Co KG of Germany and set up in 1995. It recently celebrated its
10th anniversary. Today the company has many reasons to celebrate expanding to a unit with 1,100 workers producing 10,000 pieces of toys per day in a comfortable environment. The Fehn family has been involved in the toy industry with three generations now in Germany and Sri Lanka. However when Fehn started his factory in Sri Lanka he made this his base shifting the German operation also to the island. All the manufacturing for overseas markets is now done at the Sri Lanka factory and distributed to the world, especially to the European market. These soft toys are a special kind. The entire product range is focused at little ones from birth to three years, a very sophisticated and intricate market. Staying in the trade successfully and progressing is an extraordinarily difficult task and the task is compounded when it is the European market which in addition to tough competition requires good quality products. As these toys are meant to emulate and foster the infants’ growing intelligence the sounds, touch, colour combination and the softness are meticulously studied in the production process. With these carefully sorted out special features, the infants could form a basic idea of colours, sounds and feelings. The factory turns out various forms of toys of animals like lions, tigers, crocodiles and elephants, but the shapes are altered to give the toys a friendly and pleasant look. With Paradise Toys becoming a success, Arnold Hilmer Fehn gradually moved out of the responsibility of being the owner giving way to his son Arnold Fehn, to move in as the Chairman. The father is now just a director of the company but operates from Sri Lanka. Neil Fernando, General Manager in charge of the Sri Lanka operation, said that their operation is a highly sophisticated and intricate manufacturing process with the use of highly skilled personnel. The manufacturing facility is housed in a spacious 5-storied building. The base raw material is a kind of fabric called Velour and the fabric is stored under strict surveillance under air-conditioned atmosphere as they have to be protected against contamination. This imported fabric is also expensive. The fabric rolls are first measured and subject to a computerized process to check the quality of the cloth and if any holes or discolouring or fading is found, it is separated from the good ones. Even the packaging materials are stored under controlled temperature conditions. The entire complex is fixed with emergency doors that could be opened with different keys. However in an emergency, all the doors in the entire complex of five floors could be opened with one key. The building has been built in such a way where separate sections could be sealed to prevent any fire from spreading. In the cutting section different sizes and shapes of fabric are machine cut before they are sent to the stitching section. Cutting is also sophisticated. There are four giant multi-head fully automated computerized embroidery machines where the “eyes” and “mouths” are embroidered. Once they are embroidered the particular pieces are cut and stitched. There are also single head embroidery machines to attend to individual work. These embroidery machines are run 24 hours a day. There are 400 sewing machines. These toys are filled with ultra safe foam and there is a separate section for filling the toys. Extra care is taken in the filling as the precise softness should be maintained for the babies. The material goes through strict checks for metal and other foreign particles and at various points there are metal detectors where the material and finished toys are passed through. All the stitched parts of the toys are tested for their strength and breakability to ensure they are safe for babies and cannot be broken or swallowed. At the finishing section, the workers expertly stitch the hole left for filling which is stitched by hand. Some of these toys are inserted with various accessories such as bells, music etc. They too are carefully inserted so that they would not harm babies. Fernando said, “We are on a very special venture catering to a very particular segment of clientele and we need highly specialized skillful workforce. They have to be fully trained before they are put on the various jobs. Our biggest task is to ensure the trained skilled staff will not leave us. He said the company has a well-equipped canteen used by girls during their 20 minute break. The canteen offers 12 varieties of different food based on highest nutritional value at a subsidized cost of around Rs 12 to 15 and it is a complete meal. There is bread, string hoppers, hoppers or Kiribath. Tea and lunch are given free of charge.” Working hours are from 7 am to 3.15 pm with overtime available till 8 pm. Many of the female workers are boarded in and around the area while others who come from Bopitiya and Ragama are offered free transport. The company has opened a shop which sells almost everything that these workers need with the products sold at cost. Fernando said that in Germany there is a highly skilled and efficient sales and promotion team to sell the Paradise product range. The toys are exported under the Fehn brand name. More than 50 percent of the production is sent to their mother company in Germany and the toys are mainly sold in all the European countries. The total investment in the company has been Rs 500 million. |
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