Skip to content
MeridianProduct Partners

Manufacturing

Made in Qingdao, by factories that specialise

We work with three partner factories in Pingdu, Qingdao, the heart of China’s plush industry. Each is built for a different kind of product, so your program goes to the one that suits it best.

Partner factories are named and introduced under NDA once a program is live.

Rows of sewing stations on a partner factory’s production floor
Partner factory 1

Volume & Infant

Retail-scale character plush, plus a dedicated infant line.

Best for: Large retail programs, mass-market character plush, and baby products such as rattles, teethers, loveys and cloth books.

Highlights

  • Full in-house flow: cutting, embroidery, sewing, stuffing, finishing, inspection, needle detection and packing
  • Founded in 1999 as a Japanese-owned operation, with production staff trained by Korean technicians to Japanese quality requirements
  • Separate infant product line
building area
20,000 m²
staff
120+
units a year
7M+
sets of production equipment
130

Typical products

  • Character & licensed-program plush
  • Infant: rattles, teethers, loveys, cloth books
  • Keychains & mini plush
  • Plush headbands, bags & accessories
  • Pet toys
  • Two rows of multi-head computerised embroidery machines in a bright workshop
    Embroidery workshop
  • Sewing machinists working along long production tables
    Sewing lines
  • Fibre-filling machines with bins of unstuffed plush shells
    Stuffing
  • Inspectors checking finished plush at long tables, with approved reference sheets pinned to the wall
    Final inspection against reference sheets
  • Worker passing finished plush through a conveyor needle detector
    Needle detection
Partner factory 2

Character Fidelity

Collector-grade detail, matched to a character bible.

Best for: Character and licensed-program plush where the face, hair, costume and proportions have to match an approved reference exactly.

Highlights

  • Design, production and inspection handled in one facility, so the people who build the sample also run the order
  • Dedicated embroidery department for faces and fine detail
  • Separate needle-inspection and final-inspection areas
  • New plush designs developed every season
pattern-making & sampling
In-house
embroidery department
In-house
needle & final inspection
In-house
new design development
Seasonal

Typical products

  • Character & collectible plush
  • Plush dolls with costumes and accessories
  • Plush bags and bag charms
  • Hairbands & accessories
  • Plush pillows
  • Embroidery department with rows of multi-head computerised embroidery machines
    Embroidery department
  • Stitching department with machinists at long rows of sewing stations
    Stitching department
  • Final finishing tables with baskets of plush being trimmed and shaped
    Final finishing
  • Conveyor needle detector at the end of a finishing line
    Needle inspection
  • Inspection area where finished plush is checked before packing
    Final inspection
Partner factory 3

Large Format

Cushions, pillows, home textiles and pet beds at scale.

Best for: Oversized plush, cushions and pillows, home textiles and pet beds, and high-volume plush runs.

Highlights

  • Designated supplier to a major Japanese home-furnishings retailer, run to its factory audit requirements
  • Laser and computerised cutting; imported Japanese needle-detection equipment
  • Two-stage in-line inspection, plus an affiliated inspection company for needle checks, finishing and storage
  • Insect-control lamps at every workshop entrance, with needle-control and detector-sensitivity logs kept daily
  • Experienced workforce: average tenure of more than eight years
  • About an hour from Qingdao’s main fabric and trims market, which keeps sampling fast
factory area
12,000 m²
staff
300
plush units a day
11,000
90 cm cushions a day
4,600

Typical products

  • Cushions & throw pillows
  • Large and jumbo plush
  • Home textiles
  • Pet beds
  • Retail plush programs
  • Two conveyor-belt needle detectors used to check finished pieces for broken needles or metal
    Conveyor needle detectors
  • Computerised cutting machine in the cutting room
    Computerised cutting
  • Workers hand-finishing plush at production tables
    Hand finishing
  • Large open production hall with work tables
    Production hall
  • Long fabric cutting tables in a large, bright cutting room
    Cutting room

Standards

What all three have in common

Our partner factories were set up to supply Japanese and Korean retailers, and their floors run to those standards: tighter than most US programs ask for.

  • Built to Japanese & Korean retail standards

    All three partners were set up to supply Japanese and Korean retailers, whose factory requirements are stricter than most US programs ask for.

  • Needle control

    Every needle issued and returned is logged, broken needles are accounted for, and every finished piece passes through a needle detector.

  • Foreign-object & insect protocols

    Strict rules on what can be brought onto the floor, insect control at entrances, and checks for stray material in fill and seams.

  • Independent third-party audits

    Our partner factories hold current social-compliance and quality-management audits, and reports are shared with customers who need them for retailer or licensor approval.

On the floor

How a plush moves through the factory

First samples take 5–10 days. Bulk production is typically about 50 days after sample approval.

  1. 1Fabric inspection
  2. 2Cutting
  3. 3Embroidery
  4. 4Sewing
  5. 5Stuffing
  6. 6Finishing
  7. 7In-line QC
  8. 8Needle detection
  9. 9Final inspection
  10. 10Packing

Read more about each stage in our guide

Which factory is right for your product?

Send us a sketch or a description and we’ll tell you which partner factory we’d use, and why.

Tell us about your project info@meridianppartners.com