Cliff Annicelli

Finding a Chinese Factory

A small toymaker posed a simple enough question to me today: "I'm looking for a safe factory in China. Can you help me?" 

I'll always be the first to admit that the sourcing end of the business is not one we here at Playthings spend time looking at. The rationale for that being our primary audience is retailers and that the overseas factories American "manufacturers" use to make the toys that our retail readers eventually buy from aren't much — or any — of a concern to the average merchant. Were I a retailer, I'd generally envision myself being trusting enough in my vendors not to be concerned about where or with whom they were sourcing their products from. 

I'll admit that that may be no longer the case in the era of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, but historically, I'd think that would have been my attitude.

Anyway, my first thought was, of course, to recommend that the manufacturer seek out ICTI CARE certified factories. For those not familiar with it, ICTI CARE is a program of the International Council of Toy Industries, an umbrella group of global toy trade associations, that was created to promote worker safety and the ethical treatment of such workers at factories around the world. Its certification means a factory's working conditions are up to whatever base standard ICTI has judged suitably appropriate. ICTI CARE's mandate is not specifically about "toy safety," per se. But the way I figure it, happy workers probably don't intentionally dump lead-laced paint into the machines that are the livelihood of their employers, and if they were do so, happy quality control staff will be more likely to catch such a mistake (or in this case non-mistake) than unhappy ones. So, off to the ICTI website I went.

At the ICTI website you'll find all sorts of information about what the organization does and tries to do, plus find some interesting data about the global toy industry, and, most importantly, can locate a list of factories that have been give the ICTI CARE process seal of approval. There are several hundred factories already ICTI CARE certified. (Warning: Some of the certifications have either expired or been put 'on probation,' but you'll see that if you go to the site...) And there looks to be more than 1,000 others that have applied for certification but have yet to be approved. It's a pleasantly hefty list. 

My one complaint is that while search-able, whoever created the list didn't include the product categories that the factories on the list specialize in, so good luck trying to find only the factories that produce dolls or just the ones that focus on plush, for example. It's better than nothing, though. And it's free.

So, if you're a new toy manufacturer looking for a place to start when it comes to overseas sourcing of product, take a look. The list may not guarantee you'll market "safe" toys, but it should help sort out who's at least making an effort at some degree of respectability when it comes to their production.

Posted by Cliff Annicelli on March 9, 2009 | Comments (4)