Billionaires
Billionaire Brothers Turn $12,000 Loan Into Empire of Cheap Toys
Zuru’s water balloons and blasters made billionaires of Nick and Mat Mowbray
Zuru’s plastic dart “blasters.” Zuru has grown into an off-price toy heavyweight.
Source: Zuru
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At 18, Nick Mowbray dropped out of college in his native New Zealand and moved to China with his older brother, Mat. The pair spoke no Chinese, had few contacts and little business experience.
But they had an idea: open a factory near Guangzhou, a fast-growing port city in the country’s south, where they would make toys. With a NZ$20,000 ($11,553) loan from their parents, they bought an injection molding machine and got to work.