Is India's time now?
The COVID-19 outbreak in China and the immediate reprecussions for toy and consumer goods manufacturing certainly spooked a lot of the industry, and phone calls were quickly made and meetings booked to explore other sources for manufacturing in case this was going to be a longer term problem for China.
It didn't take long for us all to find out that it wasn't just a problem for China, and many CEO's focus went from looking at alternatives, to simply surviving in the Global pandemic.
But the truth is, everyone still does need to look again at a broader, less "eggs in one basket" approach to manufacturing toys and other consumer goods.
There was already an emerging buzz for years before about India being the next big thing in manufacturing. It has many parralels with China, in terms of population, being an emerging power, and of course its low cost of labour. But on many fronts India has lagged behind, without the push of an authoritarian government to simply implement its plans with little interferance. That being said, anyone who visits India will quickly find that things are much more advanced on many fronts than what is presented in the media, who tend to show the generic cliched view that is easy to digest.
The truth is more complicated, and India is a country of extremes in so many ways, and that includes the manufacturing sector. So many goods for theinfrastructure of the country have been made for decades, and made very well. It is after all home to the larest manufacturing estate in Asia. Then there are also the manufacturers India is known for - micro industries in back streets and even in the slums, succesfully churning out goods of varying qualities to cater to its people of greatly varying wealth and income. And then there are large scale manufacturers that most people do not realise are even there. Huge factories making parts for top brand cars, air conditioners, refrigerators and other white goods, parts for Airbus airliners, and even luxury car manufacturers themselves - Mercedes and BMW themselves make entire vehicles for the local market.
So it is well proven as a capable base to manufacture in many sectors, despite the fact few people realise it.
The toy industry has existed in the past decade as two distinct parts. The local market, served by both small local factories as well as cheap Chinese imports, with little regulation and dubious safety standards, and the modern retail sector, driven by International brands, again mostly relying on Chinese imports, although with a better safety compliance framework.
Recently the Indian government has tried to heavily discourage the import of toys from China, in a bid to drive Indian manufacturing. While this is controversial because the number of factories required to serve the market simply is not there yet and has left a massive gap for distributors and retailers, India actually has the proven capability in other sectors already, and factories are starting up or moving into the sector rapidly.
But can India step up to the plate and make toys and other consumer goods that are up to the standards of the International market? The simple answer that if Apple can make iPhones, Mercedes make their flagship S-Class, and Airbus, critical parts for their aircraft, then yes, the skills and capabilities are there!
India's BIS standard has always been a mirror of European standards, and the major testing labs are all there in place to look after standards and inspections.
There are so many advantages to making products in India. We'll go in depth in further articles, but some include
We hope you'll see some great reasons to investigate making your toy or other consumer product in India, right now!
