Images_Digital_Edition_February_2020

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 42 images FEBRUARY 2020 including the new website. “We’re going to hit the industry hard,” Kelly adds. Last September, new branding was launched featuring the new tagline of ‘We do it better’. Targeted at only the trade, EasyPrint has been focused on product and service, but not so much on promoting itself, Dan points out. “Our suppliers used to say we were the best-kept secret in the industry, but we are changing that.” With a 26-strong workforce, EasyPrint has come a long way since Dan – now 41 – started out with a second-hand Hopkins carousel printer 10 miles away in Rochford, near Southend-on-Sea. “We’ve gone from just me with one machine to where we are now,” he says. One of his first employees was Steve Willis who, 13 years later, is production manager, with Dan focusing more on growing the business. However, Dan remains hands-on. “When reps come in, they say there aren’t many people left in the industry that spend time on the shop floor like I do. There are not many screen printers out there of our size with someone who did it on their own in terms of being a 100% shareholder. It’s been a hard slog to get here.” A screen printing dynasty However, Dan would not be where he is today without the support of his late father, Vince Blake, who headed Screen Print City until his death seven years ago. “My dad was one of the pioneers back in the 70s,” Dan says. “He built his business from nothing. He was an amazing man, not just to me but to the industry in terms of how he changed how the industry worked.” Dan started out working at Screen Print City at 13 but he was not given an easy ride, with EasyPrint started out in 2006 specialising in T-shirt printing his father assigning him basic tasks. Although Dan later set up EasyPrint on his own, Vince was on hand with his expertise. “My dad was supposed to retire at 65, but he changed his mind. He agreed to assist me, like an apprenticeship. Every question I needed answering, he answered. Every mistake he’d made, he made sure I didn’t make. We allowed his company to make the errors and I learned from them. One day, he told me I already knew the answer, and then less than six weeks later, he died.” A large photo of Vince still watches over Dan in his office. In the early days, EasyPrint boosted revenue with overflow work from Screen Print City, especially urgent orders of T-shirts for big-name rock concerts, which would be ordered on a Friday for delivery Sunday. The business grew and diversified, with a boost from work linked to the 2012 Olympics in east London, and then seven years ago, EasyPrint moved to its current unit in Wickford. Dan says this steady expansion has been thanks to careful recruitment. “You can have the shiniest machines but, if they’re not run by the right people, they are worthless. I couldn’t have got to where we are today without the people round me.” Those people now include his 21-year-old son Lewis who joined last year, specialising in the digital machines. Much like his dad, Lewis was helping out at the business from the age of eight, again in basic jobs, although he gained experience by working outside of the business in engineering. Dan’s 24-year old daughter Paige has also worked at EasyPrint, while his other son, Logan, aged 15, helps out in the vinyl room. As he looks ahead to the 2020s, Dan is committed to maintaining the values that the company is known for. “We give our clients peace of mind. They need to know that once we say yes to them, their life is easy. We don’t let people down. We have old-school methodology with modern technology – an old-school touch in a modern world. Not many people have all that.” www.easyprintgb.com Our suppliers used to say we were the best-kept secret in the industry, but we are changing that [L-R] Terry Willis, Scott Parry, Dan Blake, Lewis Blake and Kelly Tullett