Images_Digital_Edition_January_2020

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 34 images JANUARY 2020 Alan Bainbridge tells Mark Ludmon how T-Print emerged from a donkey shed to become a pioneering UK garment decorator T -Print has come a long way from its beginnings above a stable for the donkeys that gave rides on Blackpool beach. After starting out printing T-shirts in the tiny lock-up in the early 1970s, Alan Bainbridge went on to develop a leading business in the garment printing sector – his company now employs 67 staff at its 4,180sqm (45,000sqft) base and has production capacity of more than 100,000 pieces per week. “People have always said that we were one of the first to take textile printing out of the back streets and the old mills,” Alan says. “We have done it by being innovative. We always strive to do better.” Sitting in T-Print’s stylish first-floor showroom, surrounded by fashion garments, Alan recalls the excitement of building up a business in the embryonic garment decorating industry. Still heading the business at 66, he recalls having “a lot of fun”. He came to textile printing in his 20s, during the early 1970s, after seeing transfer printing in action in the US. At that time there was very little T-shirt printing around, especially up north. He soon moved out of the cobbled donkey shed to a shop on Blackpool’s Promenade, Decorating to a T Today there is so much pressure on margins armed with a transfer press for printing T-shirts on-demand, from a selection of black and white and one-colour artwork. It was then that he discovered screen printing: laboriously, he would print one colour at a time on long wooden tables and then hang up the shirts to dry before hand-ironing them to cure the prints. With T-Print established as a screen printer from 1979, sales grew swiftly, as local hotels and other businesses embraced the novelty of having T-shirts with their names on them. Alan recognised that his strengths lay in sales and business development, so David Hargreaves handled the artwork: 38 years later, David is still with the company. “I can do sales; I have never been a ‘printer’,” Alan adds. “I enjoy sales, meeting people, developing the business.” Tizer and Irn-Bru A major turning point came in 1986 when Alan approached AG Barr, the Scottish- based drinks group that also had a site in Manchester, offering an idea for a sales promotion. He fondly recalls how easy it was to access decision-makers in those days, from big brewers like Bass and Greenalls to major football clubs. It paid off with AG Barr, which launched a promotion across millions of bottles and cans of Tizer and Irn-Bru, offering a branded T-shirt for £1, sent with a leaflet on how to order more. “We hadn’t realised they were going to put it on so many bottles and cans,” Alan says. “We were getting two sacks of mail a day. We had to recruit temporary staff. We were still printing on tables in a long narrow building so we realised very quickly that we needed an automatic machine.” He can’t remember much about that first machine although he thinks it could print only four colours. But the dryer was from Adelco, which T-Print has remained loyal to ever since – the company’s print shop currently houses five Adelcos. As business soared, T-Print invested in a second four-colour machine and moved to larger premises within Blackpool, supported by a bank loan. In 1989, Chris Bonin joined to help with sales and, 30 years later, he also remains at T-Print, now as sales manager. “We were knocking on doors all over the country by then,” Alan says. “Anyone who could use clothing, we were there. Whether I knew it or not, I was going into the promotional market.” He also took on his first employees which was a new challenge for the entrepreneur. “Some of the temps joined us permanently and some ended up working for us for over 20 years. People are your biggest asset, but also your biggest cost.” Alan Bainbridge, founder and owner of T-Print