Royal pram maker gets rolling in China

Silver Cross first entered the Chinese market a decade ago with the establishment of a subsidiary in Hong Kong, run by Halsall's son. It has sales and market for the Asian marketing as its key functions.

Halsall says the choice was due to Hong Kong's location as a relatively central place to serve markets in Asia, Australia and the Middle East. In 2012 Silver Cross also established a store in Hong Kong's Ocean Terminal Shopping Mall.

Two years ago, Silver Cross decided to invest in the Chinese mainland market and set up a wholly owned foreign enterprise to support its Chinese distributor.

"We were not happy with just having a distributor in China. We wanted to be there to help them with the marketing and promotion. We also wanted to see how they do things in store, work with them to maximize sales," he said.

Silver Cross also provides training for staff in over 100 stores across China, to make sure sales staff understand the brand and the way the products function.

Silver Cross' current brand representatives in China are the pop star Zhang Jie, 32, and his wife, Xie Na, 33. The couple has many fans who are or will be young parents. They had a famous wedding in 2011, in Shangri-La, Yunnan province. Friends who attended the wedding including Chinese celebrities who host the television show Happy Camp together with Xie.

Silver Cross prams are sold in retail stores across first-, second-and thrid-tier cities and its products also retail on Tmall, the Chinese equivalent of eBay.

Halsall said that the sales of Silver Cross prams in China remain small, and the subsidiary has not yet reached the break-even point after having invested so much to tap into the Chinese market. But he believes profits will come in the long run, providing Silver Cross continues to invest in building the brand's reputation and products to suit Chinese consumers.

"We have to work with the Chinese consumers to deliver what they want, which is quality, high-end luxury products. The Chinese consumer is very discerning and expects a high-quality service. Given our office in Shanghai, we can offer the support the young mum in China needs to support her purchase."

Halsall agrees that the Chinese market is challenging and delayed entering it until he was confident that he had both the product and marketing knowledge required to make it a success, which he said is starting to show already.