Character World spies Eastern Promise

LICENSED furnishings business Character World is set to open its fifth international office at Shanghai in China.

The Shanghai office will be responsible for sourcing products, tracking orders and for monitoring quality control of some of the products bought.

Cheadle-based Character World produces a range of products for brands such as Disney, Peppa Pig, Thomas The Tank Engine and Arsenal Football club that are sold to retailers like Littlewoods and Argos. It already has two offices in China at Guangzhou and Hangzhou, as well as an office in Pakistan.

Mark Schweiger, joint managing director at Character World said: “We’ve opened the office to meet increasing demand from licensors and retailers. We pride ourselves on the quality of our products and this will be the main focus for the Shanghai office.

“We’ve done business with China for a number of years and have recently appointed a Chinese speaker to the UK buying team, to assist with our business in China. This demonstrates our commitment to continue growth.”

Last year, Character World launched a consumer website selling directly to customers for the first time and it is currently in the process of building a Character World China site.

Character World is majority owned by brothers Mark and Danny Schweiger, although private equity firm RJD also has a stake. Its last filed accounts for 2009 show the firm has a turnover of £19.5m.