Chinese New Year – 2018 Year of The Pug

Chinese New Year is a very important day for All Chinese, regardless of the place you are in or whom you are with.  Firstly and just to clarify, 2018 is actually the year of the Dog. However, we’ve selected the Pug. ODM are going to focus on this Chinese Breed for our marketing.  We can also arrange other designs if you have a strong preference on tying other breeds into your marketing campaigns.

It is the day where everyone in the family sit together to celebrate and have reunion dinner. Fireworks, presenting gifts to elderly and kids, catching up with friends, street parades and arts, gifting red packets containing lucky money and hoping for luck. In China, there are many other regional customs; the importance of buying gifts, decorations, food to clothing varies.

With the industrialisation many Chinese people have moved to the big cities all over China and crossed several provinces to work and live. The celebration of CNY should take place in the hometown, and this therefore causes millions of people travelling to home towns at the same time! Travelling during this month is definitely going to take much longer time and more hassle than usual.

The most popular question from our clients during CNY is: “When do the factories close?”. Here is the answer:

Factories and businesses in general close for approx. 4 weeks, but vacation schedule varies from business to business. Some prefer to close much in advance before CNY and get back to work right after, the others close on the day of CNY, allowing their workers 1 month holiday after.

The closing of factories will delay the productions and shipping from China. We have just gathered a few things, you need to keep an eye on, if dealing with China during Chinese New Year:

• Holidays last for 3 to 4 weeks depending on the region and factory. 2018 Year of the Dog – which ODM prefers to call “Year of the Pug” – will be approx. from February 5th to March 5th. The actual Chinese New Year Day 2018 is February 16th.
• Employee turnover can be high after Chinese New Year which is typically when companies pay out annual bonuses to workers. This means that on return to work quality problems may occur since staff who know your order and requirements may have left the factory. For this reason it is important to schedule regular quality control around this time.
• Some factories will choose to remain closed after the holidays if in financial difficulty. Some factories without large orders may extend their holiday period to save on labour costs.
• This is the 1st major holiday of the year where most migrant workers get to travel home to their province. Travel in China will be chaotic in the extreme.
• Some factories will stay open in exceptional circumstances but this really is the exception and clients should expect to be paying high overtime fees. The run up to Chinese New year is always a race for production to finish before factories close.

Given that factories in China will be closed for much of February ODM is advising clients to plan all orders in advance to avoid the rush.

ODM office in Zhuhai will be closed from February 15th, returning Monday, February 26th. Dedicated staff will remain in constant communication with factory managers and our QC team for critical projects.

Lastly, ODM announces 2018 to be The Year of the Pug and we are launching both our new range of Pug socks and a really fun Pug Toy! Both are designed for co-branding with company logos. Follow ODM blog for more updates!