Kader Industries

Kader Industrial Company Limited was founded in Hong Kong in 1948 by Ting Hsiung Chao. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1985 and presently trades under the name of "Kader Holdings Company Limited".

The company today is one of the world's largest manufacturers of toy and hobby railways, and also has wider manufacturing interests as well as substantial investments in property. The vision of Mr. Ting Hsiung Chao is shared by the Ting family, which continues to lead the Kader Group.

Kader's initial focus product was to manufacture plastic flashlights, which at the time were a novelty.

Today the companies main facilities are located in Dongguan, PRC. Manufacturing operations are divided into two categories, ODM manufacturing (the contract manufacturing of goods for the brand/design owner); and manufacturing of precision model railroads designed and marketed by Kader group companies. ODM customers have included toys for Disney, Hasbro and Mattel; and electrical goods housings for National Panasonic.

In light of falling profits, financial difficulties, and its inability to compete with Kader, its customer 'Bachmann Bros.', in 1984 Kader acquired Bachmann. It changed the name to Bachmann Industries and used the brand to draw in North American customers.

As well as introducing its own brands to North America, Kader under the Bachmann brand built itself up as the largest volume seller of model railways by purchasing other failing companies, using the Bachmann name to front a series of purchases in the rest of the world to combat the then poor perceptions of Hong Kong-based production quality. In 1989 a European division was set up initially reusing the moulds previously used for the Palitoy 'Mainline' UK model railway products to create the Bachmann Branchline models. 1992 it bought Liliput of Austria and in 2000 it bought Graham Farish. In 2007 it acquired the assets of Williams models and launched "Williams by Bachmann".

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