Visiting Playmobil – Malta study tour, day two
20/04/2017
Hey, I am back again!
Here’s my experience of DAY 2 of our study tour in Malta!
We had a nice breakfast at the hotel before getting a brief introduction to Playmobil from Andrew, a lecturer at the University of Malta who worked for Playmobil for more than 10 years after graduating from Cranfield University 12 years ago.
Andrew gave us some interesting information about Malta. He said that Malta is getting popular among Europeans, many of whom come to Malta to run businesses and live. The value of property in Malta has doubled in the last 5 years, although this is still a good time to invest in property in Malta. How I wish I can afford to buy a flat in Malta ?.
After Andrew’s presentation, we went to Playmobil’s manufacturing centre! I was really excited about visiting the centre because I used to play Playmobil when I was young. Plus my cousin still collects Playmobil toys, so I wanted to buy some for her at the centre.
Playmobil is a German company. I wondered why they have a centre in Malta. If it were an Italian company, it would make more sense to me because Italian is widely spoken in Malta. But Germany?
Our lovely Dutch fellow asked Andrew why they have a centre in Malta! (That’s exactly what I wanted to know! Well done John!)
He explained that; firstly, the CEO married a Maltese man (so she loved Malta and set about opening a manufacturing centre in Malta); and secondly because Maltese labours are relatively flexible and very hard workers.
Playmobil also have manufacturing centres in Germany but they product more SKUs in Malta than Germany, surprisingly! Large products are manufactured in Germany while the small products are manufactured in Malta. Another interesting point.
Although the conversation was short, we got a clear understanding of Playmobil, and the centre was impressive. Imagine discovering how your favorite toys were produced!
How cool is that?!
Please keep checking my blog, I’ll be sharing more about our study tour in the next one.
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