ImagesMagUK_Digital-Edition_January2018

www.images-magazine.com JANUARY 2018 images 21 DECORATOR PROFILE and the printing and the quality that we supply." With Amazon muscling in on the on-demand arena, some companies might be concerned that there won't be enough work to go round, but Alex has the opposite view. "One thing that Amazon coming into the industry does tell me is that we're in the right industry for growth. They're obviously confident that it's an up-and-coming market." In 2017, the company changed its systems so it could be completely paperless. "That was one difficulty we were having in production as we scaled and increased volume: every order still had paperwork assigned to it, which had its own problems. There can be thousands of orders at a time – it's quite easy to misplace a piece of paper or put something in the wrong place, which confuses the process." Every order now has a barcode, and each operator has a tablet that allows them to carry out their tasks with the touch of a button. As well as reducing the likelihood of making mistakes during production, the system offers accountability and traceability, and a lot of data that can – and is – analysed to see where the service can be improved. "We can review how long each process is taking, if there are particular products that are troublesome in production, and which ones may be failing quality control more than others." This attention to the small details as well as the bigger picture is key to the successful scaling up of Inkthreadable, and appears to be an innate skill. "A lot of my family are self- employed or run their own businesses, so I guess it could be genetic," comments Alex. "I've just been brought up around a business environment." A perfect Storm Up until 2016, Inkthreadable also offered a screen printing service alongside DTG printing and embroidery. As the on- demand side proved throughout 2016 that it was the right area to target, they jettisoned the screen print operation and invested in a Kornit Storm Hexa instead; they're planning to install another one in the first half of 2018. The Kornit is "hands down, the best investment the company has made”, believes Alex, with the software a very close second. The integrated pre- treatment is one of the main reasons they decided on the machine, along with the quality of the print, the wider colour gamut afforded by the Hexa six-ink set-up, and its performance in a production environment. "There's just no other machine that competes with it," he says. The company still runs four Texjets as well, having decommissioned the others when the Storm Hexa was installed. The final four will be removed from production when the next Kornit arrives. Some companies prefer to rely on a greater number of smaller DTG machines rather than one or two large production machines so that they always have back- up options in case of machine failure, but Alex says it's a case of needing to have The most popular T-shirts among Inkthreadable's customers are those from Continental Clothing. "As soon as someone feels or wears one of their T-shirts, they don't bother looking at the rest," explains Alex. He concedes that the Continental tees may be a bit pricier than some other brands, but finds people are willing to spend extra for the quality. faith in your suppliers. He reports that to date, placing his trust in Amaya and Kornit has proved successful. The Inkthreadable team has achieved incredible growth since setting up in 2013. In 2015, turnover was £100,000; this year turnover will be £1 million. In 2017, Inkthreadable launched integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce that allows customers to download an app to their website that creates the integration to send the orders automatically. In the first half of 2018 they will be launching at least three or four other integrations. They also moved into a new 8,000 sq ft warehouse in 2017. As well as space, it offers a much more enjoyable environment for the staff, of which there are 12 including Amy and Alex. They've moved five times in the past three years. "Our business was growing at such a scale, we just kept running out of space. This time, as with the software, we've put more of a plan in place for us to grow into as we need it." Whether this space will last them for the next five years, as planned, remains to be seen. Looking at the speed of the company's growth so far and Alex and Amy's intelligent, data-driven approach to scaling up, the odds are in favour of them continuing to out-perform all expectations, even their own. Inkthreadable is a modern business in every way: the new unit includes a relaxed staff space where they can enjoy their daily free breakfast The Storm Hexa has a six-colour ink system, which increases its colour gamut, giving Inkthreadable an extra edge in its sector of the market