Kader
Kader Industrial Company Limited was founded in Hong Kong in 1948 by Ting Hsiung Chao.
The company today is the world's largest manufacturer of toy and hobby railways, and also has wider manufacturing interests as well as investments in property. The vision of Mr. Ting Hsiung Chao is shared by the Ting family, which continues to lead the Kader Group.
Kader's initial focus product was to manufacture plastic flashlights, which at the time were a novelty.
Present day
Today the companies main facilities are located in Dongguan, PRC. Manufacturing operations are divided into two categories, ODM manufacturing and manufacturing of precision model railroads. ODM customers have included toys for Disney, Hasbro and Mattel; and electrical goods housings for National Panasonic.
Precision model railways
In light of falling profits and financial difficulties at its customer Bachmann Bros., in 1984 Kader acquired Bachmann. It changed the name to Bachmann Industries and used the brand to expand the offering to North American customers.
As well as introducing its own brands to North America, Kader under the Bachmann brand built itself up as the largest volume seller of model railways by purchasing other failing companies, using the Bachmann name to front a series of purchases in the rest of the world to combat the then poor perceptions of Hong Kong based production quality. In 1989 a European division was set up initially reusing the moulds previously used for the Palitoy 'mainline' model railway products to create the Bachmann Branchline models. 1992 it bought Liliput of Austria and in 2000 it bought Graham Farish.
Kader's business model for each take over, from its original purchase of Bachmann to the present day, is to buy a perceived quality brand in the target market or country. The company then closes local in-country production facilities, and then improves quality by re-engineering the models in Hong Kong, and reduces cost by producing the models in mainland China.
Presently Bachmann offers trains in HO scale, N scale, On30, and G scale around the world, in addition to buildings and accessories:
- North America - Bachmann Industries
- United Kingdom - Bachmann Branchline offer OO gauge models, while Graham Farish produce British scale (1:148) N gauge models under the Graham Farish name
- Europe - Liliput and Palitoy
- China - from 2000, Bachmann also started producing Chinese outline models under the Bachmann China name, opening the world's first Bachmann speciality retail shop in Shanghai in 2005
Thailand Fire
On May 10, 1993, there was a major fire at the Kader Toy Factory in Thailand. 188 people were killed, and over 500 were seriously injured. Most of the victims were young female workers from rural families. More people were killed in this industrial accident than in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire; despite this, the incident received little media attention outside Thailand.
