Banner Box Print Solutions has confirmed it printed all the flags for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The firm, and sister company Flagmakers - a hand sewn flag specialist - won the work through competitive tender. The contract was awarded on the basis of price and technical competence.
The brief was to deliver every single flag required by the organisers throughout the games. This included flags of the 72 competing nations for the 25 venues in and around Birmingham, the protocol flags of the Commonwealth Federation and other sporting governing bodies, flags for the Athletes’ Parade opening ceremony, and flags for the medals’ ceremonies. In all, this amounted to over 7,000 flags, installed both indoors and out, depending on the venue. Part of the complexity of the project was to ensure that the finishing was suited to each site, and as such, four different variants were used across the whole job.
The flags were printed by Banner Box on its Mimaki and EFI printers, using inks and textiles all supplied by CMYUK.
“We have a long-standing relationship with CMYUK for production equipment, materials and multiple consumables which made them the natural first choice supplier,” said Banner Box director Ryan Shelton. “Delivering contracts like the Commonwealth Games required fantastic teamwork and partnerships with our suppliers. CMYUK delivered thousands of metres of fabric and hundreds of litres of ink on time, ready for our hardworking team to turn them into finished products.”
Banner Box has long been a user of Pongs materials, available exclusively from CMYUK - Pongs Supreme Fabric Flag Material is the company’s go-to solution for knitted polyester flag production and has been profiled to work with its EFI Vutek FabriVu digital textile printer.
“We achieve accurate colour reproduction and importantly for flags, a high percentage print-through to the reverse of the fabric. In addition to the flag materials, we source several other substrates and ink types from CMYUK, these include Frontlit and Backlit polyesters, Black back, and a range of eco-materials for our UV print systems,” said Shelton.
As a part of the Commonwealth Games tender process, Banner Box needed to demonstrate its commitment to responsible end-of-life disposal. Post games, many of the flags will be re-used at other international sporting events. Flags that cannot be re-used will be collected and directed to the appropriate recycling streams as part of the company’s wider product lifecycle management system. All flags are made from polyester that can be recovered and reused in the manufacture of second life products.
Winning the Commonwealth Games contract has been significant for the company, helping it to build further commercial momentum. “Large sporting events are a fantastic shop window for our work. In our wider business we produce graphics for cultural events, retail, hospitality, and other sports branding. We have grown our business by using the Commonwealth Games as a steppingstone to compete and win other high-profile jobs and new clients by demonstrating competence and a track record of delivery,” said Shelton.