Inside look: Zuru's new Dongguan factory is set to produce more than 300 million units per year of its Kinder Surprise competitor GumiYum. Video / Zuru
Global toy giant Zuru is set to open a massive factory in China as it ramps up production of a confectionary product aimed at competing with Kinder Surprise.
Zuru, owned by the Kiwi Mowbray brothers, currently makes about 30 million of its rainbow-coloured egg-shaped GumiYums a year but will churnout more than 300m in its new Dongguan-based factory, covering more than 100,000 square metres.
GumiYums sell for between $2.79 and $2.99 in New Zealand and feature a gummy lolly outside with eight real fruit flavours (albeit one is blue raspberry) wrapped around a plastic egg with a toy inside.
“What we’ve done is we’ve effectively proved that this product is an absolute game changer for the category,” says Henry Gordon, Zuru’s general manager - confectionery.
“We signed off a capex to build our biggest and best factory, which effectively comes into mass production this week.”
Zuru's new expanded factory in Dongguan is expecting to increase its production tenfold, equating to 300 million GumiYums produced every year.
GumiYums are currently sold in New Zealand, Australia and limited stores in the United States, including Target.
Gordon said the process of creating a GumiYum was based on fully automated technology designed by Zuru.
The machinery, built and tested in a site in Shenzhen’s Bantain district, has been worked on for the past four years.
The automated equipment forms production lines roughly 100 metres in length. According to Gordon, GumiYum’s current global output is manufactured by just two production lines.
With this expansion, those two production lines will be retired for 10 state-of-the-art lines using the latest technology.
“Effectively, it’s going to more than halve the cost of what we’re making them [for] right now, once these lines come into force.”
Inside the Dongguan factory, each automated production line is 100 metres in length, utilising in-house machinery built by Zuru's engineers. The current output uses two lines, but this is set to increase to 10. Photo / LinkedIn, Nick Mowbray
Competitive confectionery
Gordon is confident that GumiYum can challenge the market share owned by Kinder Suprise, part of global giant Ferrero.
“We’re going to have 30% more in terms of edible products. Our toy is going to be effectively two-and-a-half times the size of a Kinder toy.”
The toys contained within the egg are sourced from multiple factories across China.
“If you look at like for like, at total distribution points, we index from about 100-120%. So we sell between 1:1 and 1:1.2 for every Kinder surprise that’s sold. So we’re actually seeing that we’re more productive than them.”
Zuru co-founder and director Nick Mowbray with some of his company's wares.
However, the biggest difference between GumiYums and Kinder Surprises may be their entrance into the US.
Kinder Surprises are famously banned in the US because of a Food and Drug Administration rule that deems them to be a choking hazard because of the toy inside.
Gordon said one small detail enabled GumiYums to avoid the same fate.
“We’ve got gaps between, like a slight gap between our strips of gummy, which means you can visibly see the egg inside. That means the FDA has approved us to be able to sell.”
He also shared why Zuru decided on gummy candy rather than chocolate, pointing to the climate constraints on chocolate because heat causes it to melt.
GumiYum could be sold year-round in every climate, already lending to its initial success here and across the Tasman, he said.
“In New Zealand, it’s the No. 3 brand in sugar single novelty since launch. It’s the No. 1 brand in that same category in Australia, it’s gone straight to the top 2% of all confectionary items in Target US.”
Zuru plans to launch fully across the US next year.
Over the next three years, it plans to enter markets including Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
Of course, Zuru also has plans to enter the Chinese market.
Part of the plan is social media, where Gordon highlighted how quickly the brand’s presence had grown.
“If you look at our TikTok channel, we’re now the No. 2 most followed and liked confectionery brand, just behind Sour Patch. But we’ve got four times the amount of engagement as Reese’s Pieces, which has been around for decades.”
He said GumiYum followed Zuru’s business strategy for every launch: create a product, price it competitively and market it to its strengths.
Gordon was asked about the new factory’s workforce and GumiYum’s climate impact, but chose not to comment.
