NZ brothers turn $15,000 loan into toy empire, becoming billionaires

At 18, Mr Nick Mowbray dropped out of college in his native New Zealand and moved to China with his older brother, Mat.

The pair spoke no Mandarin, had few contacts and little business experience.

But they had an idea: open a factory near Guangzhou, a fast-growing port city in the country's south, where they would make toys. With a NZ$20,000 (S$15,000) loan from their parents, they bought an injection moulding machine and got to work.

"We lived on like a dollar a day," the younger Mr Mowbray, co-founder of what is now the Zuru Group, said in an interview. "We ate just rice and vegetables."

More than two decades and several factories later, Zuru has grown into an off-price toy heavyweight. Its plastic dart "blasters" compete with Hasbro's Nerf on the shelves of Walmart and Target. A range of blind box collectibles - small-dollar toys with unknown prizes inside - generate repeat customers. Water balloon kits promise easy, affordable fun for hot summer days.

The success has turned the Mowbray brothers into billionaires, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And their fortune may soon swell.

Zuru's revenue is projected to hit NZ$3 billion in 2024, and the company expects annual growth of as much as 30 per cent. Toys account for two-thirds of sales, with the rest coming from emerging bets on other consumer goods.

Zuru's strategy rests on finding stale consumer goods categories, especially ones dominated by a small number of players, and elbowing its way in. In toys, that has meant taking on incumbents like Mattel and Hasbro. Zuru then uses a low-cost supply chain - it makes everything in China and owns all of its factories - to undercut competitors on price.

The tactic has, so far, been a winner.