36氪 was informed that the start-up project “Metal Blind Box” in the field of blind boxes recently announced the completion of 30 million yuan in Series A financing. The investor is China Micro Group. This round of funds will be mainly used for product research and development, equipment automation upgrades and market promotion.
Behind the birth of “metal blind box” is actually the turn of traditional manufacturing enterprises to new consumption. This project is an independent new business launched by Dongguan Fugarde Can Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in early 2022, and is still in the early stage of research and development. Among them, Fugard was founded in 2018. Before that, its main business was the production of various iron cans and international trade. It has accumulated strong competitiveness in the vertical field of packaging, such as wine cans, tea cans, gift boxes, special-shaped cans, etc. Various products are sold to more than 60 countries and regions, and cooperative customers include dozens of internationally renowned brands such as Starbucks, Nivea, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble.
Regarding the reasons for expanding the blind box business, Zhu Debing, general manager of Fugard, talked about two points: First, the company needs to develop. Due to the problems of simplification and lack of brand value in the existing business, it is necessary to transfer the advantages of packaging to the downstream with higher added value. link extension. Second, the materials of blind boxes currently on the market are mainly ceramics, resins, plastics, etc. In the future, with the continuous strengthening of the concept of environmental protection and recyclability, the natural metal packaging advantages of metal blind boxes will be more in line with the values of the times.
From an objective point of view, more and more players have entered the blind box market in recent years, and the popularity of “everything can be a blind box” seems to be fading, but the metal team is still optimistic about the market. In Zhu Debing’s view, Young people’s pursuit of fashion play blind boxes has declined. An important factor is the contraction of consumption caused by the external environment in the past two years. “But people’s curiosity about new things will not disappear, and Metal’s products are written in the text. Creation is the foundation, the proportion of trendy games is very low, and the market space for it is also wider.” Specifically, the advantages of metal entering the blind box track are mainly reflected in two aspects:
One is the ability to control cost, that is, the advantage of the integrated production, supply and marketing model extended from the production advantage. Since the beginning of this year, the process, material and labor costs of blind box companies have increased significantly. The 2022 interim performance report released by Bubble Mart at the end of August showed that due to the increase in supply chain costs, the company’s net profit margin fell by 5%. For the metal blind box started as a factory, the advantages in mold development and automated production will be directly manifested on the cost side.
The second is product differentiation, which is embodied in three aspects, namely the sustainable concept of packaging, the addition of cultural connotations and the diversification of categories. Different from the “non-personalized” products of brands such as Bubble Mart, the content of metal’s blind box will be presented in addition to the main product, and the corresponding prototype image and background story will be additionally presented to strengthen the intrinsic value. In addition, Metal’s user portraits are more diverse than most blind box brands, covering children, young students, office workers and other groups. Therefore, its product categories are not limited to trendy games, but also include snacks, games and film and television peripheral products, Wen play ornaments and so on.
For the crucial IP design and operation, Zhu Debing said that metal will focus on the inheritance of Chinese history and culture and well-known cartoon images. . At present, there are about 24 SKUs under development for the metal blind box, and the research and development of the new can type of the outer packaging has been completed, and it is expected to be launched on the market by the end of 2022.
In terms of channels, Metal will focus on e-commerce and vending machines in China in the initial stage, and at the same time, it will also make use of its foreign trade advantages accumulated before, and use overseas as another key sales channel.
In terms of team, Zhu Debing, the person in charge, has rich entrepreneurial experience. He has founded Dongguan Chuangxing Electronics, Dongguan Huangjiang Fubon Performance Equipment, American PRODUCTION RENTAL SYSTEMS LLC booth rental, American ZHUS CAPITAL LLC real estate and other companies, and is proficient in foreign trade sales and enterprise management. . The rest of the core members have more than ten years of experience in IP development, toy marketing, production management, etc., and have strong resource allocation capabilities.
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