Cannock-based Colourgraphics has invested £150,000 in a new Mtex 5032 PRO as part of a new textile printing facility. It is renting a new 557sqm unit opposite its existing 650sqm factory, adding sewing machines, launching a new website – fabrix.co.uk – and employing three new staff, in an investment totalling £200,000.
The company is awaiting delivery of the keys to the new unit today.
Director James Birch said: “Moving into dye-sub has been on our wish list for a while but space was an issue. So when the unit came up it was a great opportunity.”
Birch and his managing director father Steve Birch met Mtex UK managing director Stewart Bell at Sign and Digital UK, held in Birmingham from 29 April to 1 May, and subsequently visited Mtex’s new UK factory to run tests.
“We said let's do it,” Birch added. “We like the quality, we like the speed. We looked at dye-sub in the past but we thought the extra process of using a calendar was a bit long-winded. Having that in-line was what sold it.”
The 3.2m-wide textile 5032 PRO is made by Portuguese manufacturer Mtex Solutions, features in-built heat fixation and takes a 400mm-diameter roll. It uses Epson print heads and runs at between 540 and 1440dpi resolution and at a speed of up to 58sqm/h.
The investment brings the 12-staff, £1m-turnover company back to its roots as a home furnishings shop, which moved into t-shirt printing and eventually the wide-format sign and display market.
Birch senior moved into printing after attending a home furnishing show and being attracted to an adjacent print show in the same venue.
The company also runs a 1.37m (54in) Novajet solvent printer, a 3.2m-wide Vutek QS3 Pro UV large-format printer, two Mimaki CJV30 solvent printers, a 1.5m (60in) HP Z6200 aqueous printer, a Canon Océ ColorWave, a Konica Minolta C6000L and Duplo finishing kit.
“The soft furnishings and fabric market is 10 times bigger than the sign market but our market is mostly in signage, so that’s what we will start with. We want to push out into other markets,” Birch added.
Bell said: “We’ve had an excellent response after Fespa. We took 14 orders for the new Mtex 5032 HS at Fespa – three from the UK – and we’ve got seven or eight further prospects. There’s a big demand from the soft signage side, both for exhibitions and POS.”
The Mimaki-based machine uses fifth-generation Ricoh heads.
