M&P was formed by husband-and-wife team Julian and Lydia Mainwaring in March but the deal was signed with Pongs around six weeks ago, at the same time as M&P launched its website.
The deal involves M&P taking on a number of Pong’s products for distribution to the UK market, although it is not the first to do this. Textiles are shipped to its Hertford facility and distributed from there. M&P has a trading address in Manchester but is currently based in an office in Barcelona, with Julian Mainwaring stating that he will be looking for the business to set up permanently in the UK in the coming months and will have commenced its Spanish operation by then.
The products are mostly intended for use with HP Latex technology and Julian Mainwaring said that Latex users are the primary focus, from print shops to architectural firms with in-house machines. He has knowledge of the area having worked with Latex machines in the UK market in a prior role.
He said: “We are selling the portfolio range that Pongs has that is compatible with HP Latex and UV because it has polyurethane coating.
“Customers typically with the older generation of Latex would be using polyester or polypropylene but with third-generation inks now they can print on textiles and the great thing about textiles is that they can be folded and easily transported.
“So we are targeting HP Latex end-users because those customers that have Latex machines haven’t been able to print on these materials in the past. People are always looking to the future and these are certainly futuristic products and applications that they can get involved in.”
Mainwaring highlighted a number of the new Pongs’ products, of which there are 26, that he thinks will sell particularly well, including its Descor range for walls and ceilings and its 2016-launched Silencio noise-reducing acoustic fabric.
The company, which has circa 10-staff, is soon to establish an in-house installation team and has a three-year plan for growth.
“We are very confident that we are going to grow very quickly and work with lots of partners to grow their businesses as well,” added Mainwaring.
