Zuru Toy's Nick Mowbray has been crowned the EY Entreprenuer of the Year. Photo / Supplied
Toy mogul Nick Mowbray has been crowned EY Entrepreneur of The Year for 2018.
But the achievement didn't fall into his lap.
Speaking to the audience last night upon receiving his award, Mowbray told the tale of his first big deal - an experience that didn't exactly go according to plan.
Mowbray told of how at 19 he came up with an idea to licence David Beckham for a Tamagotchi-style football video game player, featuring the likeness of the famous star.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan when agents in the UK agreed to hand over the licence, Walmart ordered 2.2 million units and a business partner in China agreed to develop the product.
This is when things started to go south.
As they started making the toys, Walmart decided to cancel all but 300,000 of the original order - which meant no one was going to make a profit from the deal.
Eventually, he managed to convince Walmart to up the order to around 800,000 units, which they did.
The only problem was that the product was a complete dud. It sat on shelves and no one would buy it.
"It was a disaster," said Mowbray.
"I don't know if it was our first hit, but it was our first big deal."
Fortunately, things have been on the up ever since.
Zuru, the business Mowbray founded with siblings Anna and Matt, has quickly become one of the most recognised names on toy shelves around the world.
Now, after establishing he brand in the toy market, he has eyes on lumbering fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) giants such as Proctor and Gamble and Nestlé.
"(Mowbray and his siblings) are probably going to change the world," says judge Bill Day, founder and chairman of Seaworks and former EY Entrepreneur Of The Year New Zealand.
Whilst Mowbray is known to millions of children and parents worldwide for Robo Fish, X-Shot and Bunch O Balloons, his future ambitions for Zuru Edge lie in other FMCG categories ripe for disrupting.
The first launch was with partner brand Rascals + Friends, which sells premium nappies.
Zuru Edge has pets, femcare and vitamins in its sights with one launch imminent. Data and automation will be key to these launches.
Day was accompanied by fellow judges Linda Jenkinson, the first Kiwi woman to list a company on NASDAQ, retail legend Anne Norman, healthcare entrepreneur Ranjna Patel, and tech founder Vaughan Rowsell.
Jenkinson added: "He is motivated by being truly disruptive on the global stage. Not just with one product or category. It is only just starting."
Patel says one of the factors that impressed was how Mowbray cut out the middleman, going straight to the retailers.
Mowbray will represent New Zealand at EY's World Entrepreneur of the Year
event in Monaco next year, competing with other title winners from more than 50 countries.
Air NZ expects lower first-half earnings due in part to a lack of aircraft availability.