香港玩具制造商探索轉型之路

Nearly 70 years after he produced Hong Kong’s first plastic duck, toy industry veteran LT Lam’s factories in China now churn out everything from Transformers to Play-Doh.

近70年前，林亮(LT Lam)制造了香港第一只塑料小黃鴨，如今他在中國內地的工廠大量生產各種玩具產品，從變形金剛(Transformer)到培樂多(Play-Doh)。

But with costs rising in China and the industry fragmenting because of technological advances and changing consumer tastes, the 93-year-old worries that Hong Kong could lose its decades-long role at the heart of the global toy industry.

但伴隨中國制造業(yè)成本上升，伴隨技術進步和消費者偏好轉變帶來的產業(yè)碎片化，這位93歲的玩具界泰斗擔心，香港可能失去其幾十年居于全球玩具行業(yè)中心的地位。

“We started with nothing but our 10 fingers and our fighting spirit,” he says. “I think we still have some good opportunities for the next five to 10 years, but the contract manufacturing business is declining.”

“我們創(chuàng)業(yè)時一無所有，只有雙手和斗志，”他說，“我認為，未來5至10年，我們仍有一些好機會，但代工制造業(yè)務正在下滑。”

Generations of children grew up in the 1970s and 1980s with “made in Hong Kong” toys, from Star Wars and GI Joe action figures to Rubiks Cubes and water pistols.

上世紀70和80年代，“香港制造”的玩具——從《星球大戰(zhàn)》(Star Wars)和《特種部隊》(GI Joe)中的戰(zhàn)士玩偶到魔方和玩具噴水槍——陪伴了一代又一代兒童的成長。

The manufacturing shifted to neighbouring Guangdong province in mainland China, where wages were substantially lower, from the early 1980s onwards.

從上世紀80年代初開始，玩具制造逐步轉移至毗鄰香港、但工資低得多的廣東省。

But Hong Kongers such as Mr Lam and Francis Choi, known as the “king of toys”, still control the Chinese factories that produce much of the output for global industry leaders such as Hasbro and Mattel.

但林亮、“玩具大王”蔡志明(Francis Choi)等香港人仍然控制著這些內地工廠，為孩之寶(Hasbro)、美泰(Mattel)等全球玩具行業(yè)領先企業(yè)加工大部分產品。

Dominic Tam, president of the Toy Manufacturers Association of Hong Kong, estimates that about two-thirds of the world’s toys are made by Hong Kong companies operating in mainland China and employing hundreds of thousands of people.

香港玩具廠商會(Toy Manufacturers Association of Hong Kong)會長譚祖德(Dominic Tam)估計，全球約三分之二的玩具由在內地運營的香港公司制造，這些工廠總共雇用了數十萬工人。

The global toy industry is worth roughly $90bn, with sales in the biggest market, the US, of $20bn last year, according to NPD, a data analysis company.

根據數據分析公司NPD的數據，全球玩具行業(yè)價值約900億美元，去年在全球最大市場美國的銷售額達到200億美元。

Although sales have been growing at a rate of about 3 per cent a year since 2011, traditional Hong Kong toymakers such as Mr Lam’s Forward Winsome and Mr Choi’s Early Light Industrial remain under constant pressure.

雖然自2011年以來玩具銷售一直以每年約3%的速度增長，但林亮的永和實業(yè)(Forward Winsome)、蔡志明的旭日實業(yè)(Early Light Industrial)等香港傳統(tǒng)玩具制造商仍面臨持續(xù)的壓力。

While low-cost Chinese rivals are snapping at their heels, their customers are squeezing profit margins and demanding more stringent safety and labour standards after a series of product recalls and worker maltreatment scandals in the past decade.

一邊是內地低成本競爭對手迎頭趕上，一邊是客戶擠壓利潤率，并在過去10年發(fā)生一系列產品召回及工人受虐待丑聞后，要求香港玩具制造商執(zhí)行更嚴格的安全性和勞工標準。

“Hong Kong companies have a reputation for strong business ethics and our international partners trust us to respect their intellectual property rights,” says John Tong, a factory owner and chairman of the Hong Kong Toys Council, another industry lobby group. “But there’s tremendous price pressure and the Chinese will catch up eventually.”

“香港公司在商業(yè)倫理方面有很好的聲譽，我們的國際伙伴信任我們尊重他們的知識產權，”另一家行業(yè)游說組織香港玩具協(xié)會(Hong Kong Toys Council)主席、玩具企業(yè)家湯誠正(John Tong)說，“但價格壓力巨大，內地企業(yè)最終將趕上。”

Hong Kong toymakers are also suffering because of the increasingly short life cycle of products, mirroring the rise of the fast fashion sold by Zara and H&M. About a third of US toys are licensed products linked to hit Hollywood films, television shows or computer games.

香港玩具制造商也受到了產品生命周期越來越短(與Zara和H&M銷售的快時尚服飾相仿)的影響。美國約三分之一的玩具都是與好萊塢大片、電視節(jié)目或電腦游戲相關的授權產品。

But while older brands such as Star Wars and Transformers have maintained their buzz for decades, newer ones such as Frozen, Angry Birds and Finding Dory have a much shorter shelf life.

但是，雖然《星球大戰(zhàn)》、《變形金剛》等老品牌幾十年熱度不減，但《冰雪奇緣》(Frozen)、《憤怒的小鳥》(Angry Birds)、尋找多莉(Finding Dory)等新品牌的生命周期卻要短得多。

“The popular licences rarely last longer than a few years because there’s too much choice,” says Mr Tong. “Frozen had a good two-year run but Pokémon only lived for three to six months and didn’t drive that many product sales.”

“流行的授權產品很少能持續(xù)幾年，因為現在的選擇太多了，”湯誠正說，“《冰雪奇緣》火爆了兩年，而《口袋妖怪》(Pokémon)的熱度只維持了3至6個月，而且并未帶動多少產品銷售。”

A case in point is Playmates, a Hong Kong-listed company that makes the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. It sales have soared and plummeted over recent years, depending on the movie release schedule.

一個恰當的例子是彩星集團有限公司(Playmates)，這家香港上市的公司生產《忍者神龜》(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)動作玩偶。取決于電影上映的時間安排，該公司的銷售額近年大起大落。

The increasing use of smartphones and tablets represents another big challenge to the industry, especially for companies targeting those over six years of age, who are spending more time with electronic products.

智能手機和平板電腦越來越長時間被使用，是玩具行業(yè)面臨的另一個重大挑戰(zhàn)，尤其是對于面向6歲以上兒童的公司，如今這些兒童在電子產品上花的時間更多。

Some Hong Kong companies such as VTech are responding by producing smart toys, for example simple laptops and smartwatches designed to promote early learning.

偉易達(VTech)等香港玩具制造商的應對之策是生產智能玩具，例如，旨在促進早教的簡易筆記本電腦和智能手表。

More traditional manufacturers such as Mr Lam, who still carries the mould of his first plastic duck with him, are sticking to what they know.

更為傳統(tǒng)的制造商——例如仍隨身攜帶第一只塑料小黃鴨模子的林亮——仍然堅持做自己拿手的產品。

“There are several hundred million children in China and they can’t all play computer games,” says Mr Lam, who is launching a new version of his yellow plastic duck aimed at the Chinese market.

“中國有幾億兒童，他們不能都去玩電腦游戲，”林亮說，他正在針對內地市場推出一款新的塑料小黃鴨。

But Mr Tong says the only sustainable future for Hong Kong toymakers is for them to move into branding and marketing rather than just contract manufacturing, following in the footsteps of the Japanese companies that dominated global toy exports before the 1970s.

但湯誠正表示，對香港玩具制造商而言，唯一可持續(xù)的未來是進行品牌運作和營銷，而不能只做代工，要向上世紀70年代之前主導全球玩具出口的日本企業(yè)學習。

“These Japanese companies now have great influence on culture worldwide,” he says. “In future, we can’t just produce for Lego, Mattel and Hasbro, we have to evolve.”

“如今，這些日本企業(yè)對全球文化有很大影響，”他說，“未來，我們不能只為樂高(Lego)、美泰和孩之寶代工，我們必須與時俱進。”