"As payment we had to milk the cows and spray some weeds," Nick says.
At the time, Nick
¸íǰÆÐµù·¹Çø®Ä«=¸íǰÆÐµù·¹Çø®Ä«
was studying law at university and helping out on the side. Mat had pulled out of college to focus on toys full-time. Things
¼Ûõµ¿¿ë´ÞÀÌ»ç rumbled along until one day the brothers made a snap decision. Why not try their luck in China?
So at 18, Nick also dropped out of university and shortly after boarded a plane to Hong Kong with then 22-year-old Mat. They had "made some
À̹ÌÅ×À̼DZ¸¸Å´ëÇà À̹ÌÅ×À̼ǼîÇÎ À̹ÌÅ×À̼ÇÄ¿½ºÅÒ±Þ=À̹ÌÅ×À̼DZ¸¸Å´ëÇà À̹ÌÅ×À̼ǼîÇÎ À̹ÌÅ×À̼ÇÄ¿½ºÅÒ±Þ
contacts on the internet" but were otherwise vastly ill-equipped - unable to speak the language and short on business savvy.
"We were so naive, we had no idea what we
È«Äása±Þ È«Äá¼îÇÎ À̹ÌÅ×À̼ǼîÇθô=È«Äása±Þ È«Äá¼îÇÎ À̹ÌÅ×À̼ǼîÇθô
were doing," says Nick.
With a $20,000 loan from their parents, they bought an injection moulding machine, and set up a small factory in Guangzhou, China. Zuru was up and running.