Images Magazine Digital Edition October 2018

www.images-magazine.com 28 images OCTOBER 2018 The Aeoon Kyo factor In 2014, after carefully considering the options available to them in the DTG market, Richard and Kerry bought an Aeoon Kyo DTG machine. “The Aeoon won hands down on a sustainable point of view, speed and the actual quality of the print.“ It hasn‘t been without its problems, but that‘s expected with a new machine so they persisted with it, they explain, and the low price of consumables has allowed them to do more corporate work. “We‘ve never wanted to move to another brand,“ Richard states. “Recently, the improvements deployed by the Aeoon teammean the quality just keeps improving, as does the speed. From our point of view, it‘s not a static product.“ More automation may come in the form of packing machines, but for now the next step in the plan is to move to premises that will offer more space. “We certainly need to move in the next year, otherwise there‘s going to be a bottleneck to our own scale,“ says Richard. Charitable concerns Another standout feature of the company is that for every T-shirt sold, money is about then helped them to build a mini enterprise around it, which they then pitched to their peers. They‘ve now received funding to deliver the course again next year in Ipswich, and are also working with the YMCA to take it into its network as well. “It‘s something that we would like to develop into a separate business in the future because there is a real need for it,“ says Kerry. “We see the results we get from working with these kids for one or two days – it really boosts their confidence and gives them other things to think about rather than just following the traditional career pathway.“ Future challenges The ambitious duo’s plans don’t stop there – over the summer they visited the English Fine Cottons company in Dukinfield in Greater Manchester, which is the only commercial cotton spinner in the UK. “One thing that is really important to us is traceability,“ says Kerry. “We’re going to be testing DTG prints on their Supima Star cotton in the next couple of weeks and will then look to stock one of their T-shirts to offer as a premium product for our clients.“ Kerry and Richard’s level of energy and enthusiasm is as impressive as their to do list, but they maintain that their philosophy is very straightforward. “It stems from thinking about the kind of business we wanted to be part of, what we wanted to offer. Family is so important, so we‘ve involved our kids. It‘s really informed our thinking and opened our eyes to the world. It‘s not about being completely product focused, it‘s around what difference you can make. Kids are a great way to make you realise what‘s important in business.“ www.tshirtify.com given to charity through Buy1Give1. It allows the team to continuously give money to projects across the globe. “Each time we print a T-shirt, we do an ‘impact‘ to one of the projects,“ says Kerry. “Together with the team we‘ve decided that for the next three months we‘re helping to build a house for a family in the Philippines. Every single T-shirt that we print for ourselves and for our clients will mean that we‘re contributing towards this one big goal. We count up the ‘impacts‘ and then at the end of the month, we contribute that amount towards the project.“ Kerry and Richard‘s big passion, however, is education, which is why they‘ve recently teamed up with an education provider to introduce children to thinking differently. They worked with 160 children in Ipswich on a course where they supported them to find something they were passionate Having a coach and a mentor really allows a different perspective Tshirtify uses profiling to ensure it has the right people in the right role The company has teamed up with an education provider to introduce children to thinking differently