Goodbaby's explosive development is also in part thanks to a meeting at his factory in 1999 with Rachel Chiang, a private equity specialist on the prowl for investments.

"I saw a video of how they deliver strollers," she once told Forbes magazine.

"They were on the back of a donkey in the snow, somewhere in China. It showed the entrepreneurial spirit. I felt Goodbaby and Mr Song had what it would take to become a truly global company."

With the help of the capital market, Goodbaby International Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Goodbaby Group, went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November 2010 to gain an even bigger slice of the international market.

Linking product innovation to safety, especially when it comes to the ongoing development of children's car safety seats is a proven formula for higher gross margins, said a recent report on the company by Guosen Securities (Hong Kong) Financial Holdings Co Ltd.

But in spite of its dominance, Song said Goodbaby still faces the fact that its brand recognition, notably in Western markets, remains limited.

It makes more than 10,000 strollers a day under 15 different labels for mostly overseas brands.

But Song said contract manufacturing is not the end to his aspirations. The company has been selling its own brand in Japan since 2006.

But "in the US and Europe, we have to take things slowly, because it's risky to irritate competitors just to gain a slice off our long-time partners, who have been helping us tap into those markets", Song said.

For instance, cooperating with the UK's Mothercare, Goodbaby can leverage its already proven business pattern to gain retail market share.

"This international cake is still very big, so we are entering carefully," he said.

"Maintaining a win-win situation with your foreign partners is most critical when you are running an overseas business."

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn