Special Feature
HTi
doing a bubble take HTI Toys recently completed the relocation of its bubble production facility from China to the UK, marking a major step in the company’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint whilst dramatically increasing speed to market and maintaining a value proposition to their customers. Rachael Simpson-Jones spoke to Colin Houlihan, executive director of the HTI Group, to find out more.
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hen Toy World last paid a visit to HTI’s Fleetwood site, the company was in the early stages of setting up its UK bubble making facility. Two years, 12 days and six hours later - a level of detail indicative of Colin’s immense pride and involvement in the move - everything was complete. For HTI, the decision to bring its bubble manufacturing back to the UK began with answering the big question, ‘Why?’ Firstly, across all sectors and as we all now
know, the impact of manufacturing on the environment is of ever-increasing concern among consumers. With a significant chunk of a product’s carbon footprint coming in the form of transport, be that air miles or sea miles, HTI felt that onshoring a bubble factory was a hugely positive move in terms of sustainability. Secondly, HTI had the space to not only build a production facility, but to operate it with minimal labour thanks to automation. Full automation was paramount as it gives the company the opportunity to be competitive compared to product manufactured in the Far East. Additionally, the move ensures that the quality of finished product, from bubble solution to the bottles, is a step up from traditional Far East sources. “As much as the provenance of a product and the security of having a UK manufacturing facility is important, if you’re not competitive in the marketplace then you’re setting yourself up to fail,” Colin explains. “Our decision to bring bubbles back to our shores had to be commercially viable, and despite the various challenges along the way – such as trying to get a 180-tonne blowing machine into position, with only 3mm clearance from millions of pounds worth of product on racking we couldn’t move – we think we’ve done just that, in time for summer too. The whole operation was a huge team effort, and although we missed the intended completion date, albeit only by a month, that moment when we turned the machines on for the first time, and everything worked, was a really special one for all of us.” An evergreen line, HTI’s bubbles are in demand
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all year-round, so when deciding on the perfect product with which to kick off its onshoring journey it was the obvious choice. Speaking with Colin, it is clear that this is only the beginning of a long-term commitment to become a greener toy company; the creation of the UK bubble factory has proved that such projects are not only possible but are also financially viable, and that knowledge will pave the way for future moves of a similar eco-friendly nature. A massive part of the transport footprint has been cut out; for HTI, the positives for consumers and retailers, and the chance to make a difference, no matter how small at first, had to be jumped at. Colin continues: “Interestingly, we feel that it’s kids driving a lot of these conversations rather than parents. We think this generation of youngsters genuinely understand the issues of sustainability and environmental degradation, and they are therefore the ones placing pressure upwards, rather than those messages trickling downwards. This will help to stimulate the discussion around toys, and, ultimately, change the way we all behave. HTI isn’t going to back off making strides in sustainability simply because it’s more challenging, or more expensive. We’re making these changes because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s a core value of ours moving forwards that we continue to reduce our impact on the environment.” From the beginning, HTI’s bubbles bottles have all been 100% recyclable. They are currently made from a minimum of 30% recycled material, and one of the company’s customers is actually now stocking a line made from 100% recycled material. Continued sustainability
