IR talks to...Stuart Maclaren, Your Print Partner

Stuart, welcome to the world of wide-format print! I guess the first question has to be ‘why have you got involved in the sector?’

It’s a strange one. My background is sports management and I am involved in handling a lot of sports events, especially to do with powerboat racing - and also concerts. Earlier this year I decided that it was maybe time to do something a bit different and as I work a lot with sponsorship branding at events I felt there might be an opening there. From a production point of view I’d found it quite difficult to get suppliers that could provide flags etc. on the right material in a quick turnaround timescale. So I decided it was possible to become a print broker to source the right products for the market.

How did you turn vision for Your Print Partner into reality?

Being quite young it was a lot of money to invest – setting up offices, staff, marketing, websites… I managed to secure a business partner who created the company and started working with us – who’s now actually stepped back to leave myself to run it. Also, with it initially being a print broking company we didn’t have to pay for machinery to start with so we were able to secure enough funding to start-up and win enough work off the back of my contacts in sports to get going.

Initially the company operated as a print broker but in August you installed your first piece of print kit – a Mimaki Tx400-1800B direct-to-textile printer. Was the intention always to become a print company – and was the focus always textiles? 

It’s odd – in the UK we don’t have much large-format print direct to textiles – not of the type of work that we now do. We had a three year business plan when we started and that was to start as a print broker and sub-contract out the print but then to slowly start producing banners etc. ourselves.

We’ve seen a lot of companies starting up wide-format go straight into PVC work because the kit and materials are relatively cheap, but the sports markets at least is wanting textile-based products and when they started wanting that in any kind of volume we found those supplying it couldn’t cope and so we were really letting our clients down by not being able to turn enough work round quick enough – so it was a big decision to invest a substantial sum in buying the direct-to-textile print kit ourselves. In our business plan that was going to happen next year but in reality it happened this year.

You have already undertaken some very high profile jobs – like the F2 Powerboat World Championship and Tom Jones tour. As a start-up how have you managed to reach and engage with the right people to win those types of contract?

Having the right background and contacts definitely helps. If you’re a designer you have contacts in that area then I’m sure you’ll have done a lot of design work that clients want printing so you could offer an all in one package. That was the same with my background – because I was working on events where we aimed to supply the whole package from management to branding to make it as simple as possible for the event organiser. So in terms of sport stuff, we’ve managed to win quite a lot of print work.

We’ve also won a lot of trade accounts because people like the fact that the output is ‘made in the UK’ - they like the fast turnaround that provides but the big brands in particular also like the fact that it’s made in the UK by British people, and it’s helping the British economy.

Is there a sustainability story in producing printed textiles as well then?

Yeah, I guess – now that we’re producing the print ourselves it has secured the company’s future I think and people’s jobs. So in terms of business sustainability I think textiles is the way forward.

 Also, with some of the machines now out there you’re able to match European prices, plus you can offer the faster turnaround so we’re finding that UK buyers will go with you.

What % of your turnover do you expect to be from wide-format print produced in house by the end of the company’s first year and do you expect that % to grow?

I do expect the wide-format textile print turnover to grow. With our customers they use the fabric branding products for events mainly – stage drops etc. However, we have seen a big switch from PVC. A few years ago everyone would use PVC at these sort of events. We not buy in about 10% of the print we actually sell. By the end of this year I’ll say it might even be down to 5% because so many more people are turning to the fabric prints.

You’ve pointed out that the majority of your direct-to-textile printing is for the events market. Do you see a wider scope for that type of output?

Yes – there are a couple of big areas we could move into. The first one is for internal hanging displays within shops. You see them a lot now in stores that no longer use the cardboard cut-outs etc. You’ve also got all the showhomes on new estates. They used to use PVC banners but they’re moving to the breathable stuff. They are also using flagpoles – it’s nothing now to see 200 flags on one site and they could never be made out of PVC. But the biggest other market, which a lot of people are going into, is interior design where your’ve got your cushions, roller blinds, curtains – that sort of thing. We can print all that on this same machine we’ve bought – it’s just about playing around with the fabrics and inks and making sure we’re comfortable with what our overall image is.

You’ve not been in direct-to-textile print that long, but are there any downsides you’ve noticed?

The biggest downside – though it might be a nice downside to have – is the finishing of the products. You can just cut PVC. With the fabric prints we have to sew the banners round every edge, add a reinforced hem etc. So finishing is the downside – it takes a lot of man hours because there’s no machine out there that will just automatically do the lot – which I’d love to have because it would make my life a lot easier!

At the time of installing the Mimaki you said you were looking to double your staff to eight. What does your staffing structure look like now and are there areas where you expect to see further development?

The Mimaki textile printer we’ve got is a very easy machine to operate – basically a graphic designer can operate it. So how we work is that we have a full-time graphic designer, who also runs the machine for us. We have a couple of people in the warehouse for dispatch but we need to increase our sales and admin staff so I don’t think the structure will change that significantly

Looking ahead, what’s your vision now for Your Print Partner and has that vision already changed since you first had the idea for the company?

I would quite like to see Your Print Partner installing another machine. We’ve already looked at the possibility of a 3.2m direct-to-fabric printer. There’s a big demand at the moment for flags –probably because of the Olympics and outdoor sporting events, so with a 3.2, wide machine we’d be able to print three flags/banners side-by-side – or even offer the 3.2m width products to clients. So, I’d love such a machine – however, we may need a slightly bigger building before we do that.

Given that you are on line for a £600,000 turnover in your first year do you think you’ve done the right thing by setting up Your Print Partner and entering the wide-format print market?

Yeah, definitely. It’s worth getting into. It’s a bit of a headache to start with – securing finance and other bits and pieces - but once it’s all there and working its general maintenance – making sure everything is working! It’s definitely the right way forward.

An edited version of this interview can be seen as a video.