Cuddling up in the far north

In the last CG Live Talk, we were guests of mbw in the far north, close to the border with Denmark. Since their launch in 1980 in Wanderup, near Flensburg, there’s been a whole lot more to mbw than cuddly toys alone; they also offer mega-cute squeaky ducks in all versions and representing all occupations, alongside the anti-stress and hand training figure known as Herr Bert, which is likewise available for all professional groups, and various accessories and little attention-grabbers. All these are produced by the mbw team with incredible attention to detail and lots of love, which is why everything is developed in-house and with trademark protection. Quality is the be-all and end-all, and there are no compromises. Items are subjected to a complete battery of tests and can only be sold once they have passed all of them 100%.

During the tour of mbw’s new premises — which, by the way, is always a major challenge for Melina and Michael behind the camera — Jan Breuer tells us all about the enormously high quality demands on his products and shows just how much manual work is still involved in making the products.

But let’s start with Herr Bert. This smiley figure is now available clad in the garb of over 50 different occupations. As well as the classic firefighter and policeman, you now also have Bert as a clown, Busy Bert, Wellness Bert and Santa Bert. The latter being Bert after he has swallowed a ball, as Jan Breuer puts it. The reason behind the form of the “friendly fat man” is that you want to have something in your hand that you can actually squeeze, and no “tent peg” is going to give you that. A relatively new addition to the family is Berta, who comes in forms as diverse as Nurse Berta, Berta the farmer’s wife, Berta the cook, Berta in a dirndl, and many more besides.

Our arrival in the packing area coincided with the boxing up of squeaky disco ducks dusted with lots of glitter. All products are individually packaged for their protection, and mbw has broken new ground here too, since the classic plastic polythene bags have been replaced by bags made of paper and corn starch.

At mbw, every single product is individually finished and customised. Be it using pad printing on Herr Bert, lasering on the ducks or screen printing on the accessories that come with the cuddly toys. With the ducks, self-adhesive individual stickers can also be attached. Also possible is the use of doming on the cuddly toys and label printing for the MiniFeet range.

At the next workstation, cuddly toys were being put together. Many of the cuddly toys also come with the highest possible level of certification, the OEKO-TEX® standard seal, which also testifies to the absence of harmful substances in clothing, textiles, yarns, fabrics and accessories. Accessories, mini T-shirts and scarves must also meet the OEKO-TEX® requirements 100%. This is very important for mbw, because if children or babies are going to put the textiles in their mouths, they must be 100% free of any pollutants. This also applies to textile printing, the ink used in which must also meet this standard.

In the next step, the cuddly toys were dressed by hand in their selected and customised accessories. As accessories, mbw offers a lot of cute clothes such as dungarees, dirndls, surgical clothing, football strips and much more besides. As the cuddly toys are being dressed, the product undergoes a final check to establish whether, among other things, it has been correctly printed and the seams on the cuddly toy are sound. At mbw, everyone is sure to find their favourite cuddly toy, given that there is a huge range of more than 300 different models.

We then arrived in the print shop in time to witness the printing of T-shirts and Schmoozies labels. Here, as long as the print dimensions allow, customers can give free rein to their creativity. The soft little Schmoozies aren’t just super-cute — they can do loads more besides: With their microfibre undersides, they are perfect for cleaning smooth surfaces, such as mobile displays or screens.

Like us, mbw has fairly recently started using the AutoStore warehousing system. Thanks to AutoStore, stock items can be stored efficiently to take up the absolute minimum of space and can be picked for orders in just a few seconds. To get down to specifics: at mbw, eight robots move around 13,000 standard-sized crates, which in turn store a total of around 700 – 800 pallets of goods.

One floor further up, we had a great view of the entire hall and AutoStore. It is here that a banner proclaiming the well-known #westaystrong project is also hanging. Under the slogan “#westaystrong – 100 Days for Heroes”, mbw has initiated a campaign to say “thank you” for the superhuman achievements of all those people who have devoted themselves to the needs of others in these difficult times. You can visit the website to nominate your personal hero and tell their heroic story — and, as a token of mbw’s appreciation, this hero or heroine will receive a cute little cuddly toy.