Images_Digital_Edition_January_2019

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 33 images JANUARY 2019 generating its own workload would give the company more control over its future. “I just always felt licensing was a good way forward,“ explains Lee. “Whereas a lot of people in this industry rely on work coming in, working for third parties, we‘re working for ourselves. Our production is very geared around our own businesses. Absolute Cult and Brands In are the biggest customers of Fresh Air. They go and sell T-shirts every day and they come and buy them from us. And likewise, they couldn‘t do what they‘re doing if they didn‘t have this behind them. I think if we‘d just sat back and relied upon trade orders, we wouldn‘t have got anywhere. We would have had a big T-shirt business, but that would‘ve been about it. We‘re more in control of our destiny. Obviously, it‘s risky. You‘ve got to invest. A lot of money‘s been invested.“ Over the summer the company invested more than a quarter of a million pounds in an 18-colour MHM Synchroprint 5000 auto, an M&R 16-colour double-decker Chameleon manual carousel for samples, a Spyder II direct-to-screen machine, and a packing line consisting of an M&R Amscomatic K-950 Automatic Shirt Folder and LS- 350 Long Sleeve Folder in combination with a Beck Packautomaten bagging machine from Friedheim International. “It‘s a very good bagging machine. Our problem was bagging hoodies and then T-shirts and switching about all the time – with this, you don‘t need to change the bags. We used to have to do a lot of it by hand. We‘ve had the machine about four months now, and we‘ve already done over half a million bags through it. It‘s paid for itself.“ Fresh Air has a mix of MHM and M&R machines, although Lee favours the MHM presses, which he describes as “more robust, sturdier“ machines. “Our old one here, our 4000, we think it‘s done about 10 million prints and never missed a beat. It‘s as good as the day it was new. He adds that the new manual sampling press is an M&R “because they do good carousels”. Online growth The company also has two Kornit Storm and one Brother GTX DTG printers. Yet in spite of all this equipment, it has already hit capacity and outsources around 1,000 DTG prints every day to another printer – one of the three businesses that will be moving into the new premises. Speaking of DTG, Lee believes that digital technology still has a way to go before it replaces screen printing. “Eventually, maybe in 20 years‘ time, it will all be digital, but not yet. If you‘ve got to print 10,000 Iron Maiden T-shirts with a 14-colour print on it, they‘re just not there yet [on DTG]. Small runs of 200, though: you don‘t have the origination costs and it works. These new [Kornit] Avalanches, they‘re phenomenal quality. But they‘re 400 grand. Whereas our new MHM is 100 grand and that‘s a top-of-the-range T-shirt machine.“ Online is where the real potential growth for the business exists, confides Lee. “We can take that as big as we want to take it. That’s what the future‘s really about for me. The whole operation will be around online. It‘s worldwide and it‘s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, printing music and film and character designs onto T-shirts. It works.“ He adds that the T-shirts appeal to everyone no matter what language they speak, making them easy to export. Plus, T-shirts are “non- perishable and very transportable, they don‘t break in the post. It‘s a really good product.“ For Fresh Air, maintaining the licences from companies such as Disney and Warner Bros is vital: the company employs two people at Brands In whose jobs involve doing precisely that. The company also prints for a large number of retail shops including New Look, Sports Direct, Topman, TK Maxx, River Island, Debenhams – the list rolls on. Further investment Fresh Air’s investment in its business is on-going and one of the first areas of its new facility to see further investment will be the pre-press department. Automated cleaning and reclaiming equipment similar to that which the company already uses at Silk City is top of the shopping list. However, Lee is quick to point out that the current manual system, run by two staff at Fresh Air, is highly efficient. “I‘d put them up against Silk City all day long and they‘d beat them hands down,“ he says. Lee would also like to add an inline reclaimer, because he feels that it’s a better way to reclaim screens compared with reclaiming by hand – it is, he says, “more of a cleaner than a reclaimer. You put the screens in one end, it cleans them and blasts the old emulsion off“. Screen coating will probably still be The newpackaging line, which includes the Beck Packautomaten, has already handled more than 500,000 packages