Dream International Ltd - Creating the World's Largest Manufacturer of Plush Toys

The plush toy dream began in 1984 when Kyoo Yoon Choi, now Chairman of Dream International Ltd, setup his own toy manufacturing business, C&H in Korea, after working in the plush toys division of Daewoo of eight years (Tam, 2003). Choi made many strategic moves in his career with Dream International, including moving C&H to Hong Kong in 1992 to take advantage of low taxation system and flexible business regulations plus the proximity to manufacturing plants. However, Choi is still looking to acquire a higher global market share percentage by entering the OBM market.

According to Dream, they plan to penetrate the OBM market once Dream reaches an overall market share of five to six percent. Dream will begin to focus on the OBM markets through the introduction of new branded products. Looking back at Dream’s vertical integration achievements, 2001 marked a successful breakthrough in ODM business for Dream, with five percent of total turnover that year thanks to ODM sales. Dream invested a lot of money in developing its ODM portion since it had the higher returns. As a result, in 2002, business jumped from five percent to 12.5 percent total turnover (Tam, 2003). Dream planned to achieve even more growth in ODM by focusing its efforts on design and product development as well as sales and marketing capacities, through the acquisition of marketing companies in key markets.

Entering the OBM market will be a natural and smooth transition for Dream. Dream would diversify into business complementary to brand building, for instance creating characters through multimedia products such as video/PC games, cartoons and animation movies. Vertical Integration will give Dream competitive advantage by providing quality products that are delivered on time and the right price. These are the things Dream has excelled in, otherwise it would not have survived and succeeded for so many years in the highly fragmented and competitive OEM market.

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