WHAT'S THE COST OF DOING NOTHING? EXPLOITING THE GROWTH OF ON DEMAND GARMENT PRODUCTION
How a long-established family business and a digital native chose to get busy?
The direct to garment industry has gone from strength to strength over the last 10 years. As a disruptive technology offering a digital alternative to manual or semi-automatic screen printing - Digital DTG has quickly become the industry’s fastest growing sector - and with good reason!
The global market for custom t-shirt printing alone is expected to cross $10 billion US Dollars by 2025 at a CAGR of 6.3% through the forecast period 2017-2025. (Source: Credence Research). Digital technology unlocks a dynamic world of opportunity - its fast, affordable and versatile - and importantly meets the needs of a new consumer with an acute requirement for on-demand manufacturing at any scale. The requirement for infinite iterations and multiple personalised products within the sector is spawning many new successful and highly profitable B2B and B2C business models.
How has the sector changed - what does the future hold?
Digital technologies have advanced over the years to offer a seamless, efficient and highly profitable garment decoration industry. As print volumes have grown the average cost of production has fallen to create many new opportunities. Delivering; high print quality, exceptional colour, superb fabric handle, high speed production, workflow automation and operational efficiency. As a sector utilising disruptive technology entrepreneurial growth is high with many new entrants to the print marketplace.
Based in Cheshire Shirt Monkey and its founder Nic Simons demonstrate an entrepreneurial DTG success story.
With no previous experience in textile printing Nic Simons set up his company from home in 2013. Whilst unsuccessfully trying to source print for his own business he soon saw the future potential of digital garment production at scale and began his digital journey using Brother technology. Nic has since built a vibrant print on demand production facility offering a B2B print service and provides online 3rd party ecommerce fulfilment.
The business produces over 550,000 individual garments per year, sold predominantly in the UK to a network of loyal clients and online brands. The business model is built to offer 3rd party online fulfilment, on demand. Shirt Monkey have encouraged their loyal clients to shift to online fulfilment where possible. They aim for next day delivery, however, supply chain issues and double-digit growth during the pandemic have put an operational strain on the business. Re-equipping with a further two Kornit machines to meet a surge in sales has now been achieved. Scaling at pace does create challenges - hence the move to new premises and further investment in Custom Gateway to expediate the production workflow from the moment of sale to dispatch.
“Growth has been swift and our print suite here at Shirt Monkey now operates with 6 Kornit Avalanche HD6 DTG machines. We are currently in the process of moving to a new 25,000 sq.ft premises and expect to expand print capacity further in the future with room for another 6 Avalanches, bringing the total to 12 high speed, high quality pigment based print machines” - Nic Simons - Shirt Monkey
“Our business supports an infrastructure of reactive manufacturing, its risk averse and our clients hold either a small stock or no stock. Orders are driven by purchase activated manufacturing or intelligent sales data driven by predictive merchandising trends. We offer a simple pricing structure and have created an equally simple automated sales strategy online”.
“As ecommerce technologies have developed our customers have thrived, as has our commercial vision - online is booming. Intuitive ecommerce platforms such as Shopify have accelerated the growth of e-retailing and generated an explosion in designer brands. Augmented reality, and visual simulation technologies go further to build growth as the consumer becomes increasingly confident to create and purchase in the cloud”.
“We have built our reputation on high quality, exceptional customer service and speed of delivery. Growth has been organic to date, and our business has grown alongside its reputation. As we move forward with our expansion plans, we will invest further in marketing to support growth. For the future I can see us having a production hub located in Europe and in 2021 we will seek external finance to expand the business”. Nic Simons – Founder, Shirt Monkey.
Established screen printers are investing in digital technologies to provide hybrid production for personalised printed products
Based in North Wales Jami Q’s are a family business that has been trading for over 20 years.
Built on a bedrock of screen-printed products and an impressive catalogue of many hundreds of customisable products, the company are tooling up for the future and have invested over the last 5 years to build a suite of Kornit Digital DTG printing machines. Currently production is 80% screen and 20% digital, printing over 1,500 products per day in a hybrid production workflow. Clients increasing require super-fast delivery with optimum agility – order sizes vary, as does product complexity and production can be programmed for maximum efficiency.
Tomos Kneale of Jami Q’s is very proud of his family achievements and believes adapting to market trends is essential for future success –
“Digital technologies are getting close to competing with screen print, we are approaching a tipping point. Demand has grown for customisation, and in our business orders for personalised products are equally strong. Costs for small orders using digital technologies are vastly reduced, the quality of DTG print technology has improved dramatically and the gap between digital and screen is decreasing” Tomos Kneale - JAMI Q’s.
“In my view digital will become the technology of choice and screen print will be utilised for artisan production and specialist applications very soon”.
“Our business has an USP and a reputation for superfast, efficient service. To achieve this, we operate on a strict production protocol and a transparent production workflow. We offer exceptional customer service and value to our clients. We are investing in our ecommerce platforms to further enhance our customers experience and simplify the customised ordering process. Our ongoing investment in DTG technologies will further support our objectives”.
“Looking forward we are excited by the prospect of simplifying our polyester printing process to utilise digital, this will also extend our personalised product offering utilising our existing catalogue. High visibility garments offer us a new opportunity for expansion as do printed polyester garments and an accelerating requirement for fashionable workwear with style, we aim to offer a range of durable garments that can also be worn outside the office”.
“Sustainability is also high on our agenda, and the Kornit NeoPigment inks offer a certified, eco-friendly platform for our printed products. Kornit Digital is well placed for sustainable production and supports our vision to offer inherent sustainability at the heart of production and our own label brands.” Tomos Kneale – Jami Q’s
It’s more than just T-shirts - DTG Technology has expanded and evolved far beyond its original purpose to unlock new marketplaces and new product applications
Fashion, Sportswear, Workwear, Childrenswear, Athleisure garments, Accessories and promotional items offer an array of new markets for expansion and commercial development.
Summary of Key factors driving demand:
Customisation is big business and it’s driving accelerated growth.
Creativity - Design and product diversity are in high demand.
New technologies - Offer expanded applications and generate new markets.
Entrepreneurial business models - Flourish and continue to democratise the sector.
Print on Demand - Agile manufacturing is risk averse, it removes dead stock and lost profits.
Speed of Production - Instant manufacture is a modern-day requirement regardless of volume.
Ecommerce and workflow automation now offer seamless production efficiency. As the market for customised, personalised products accelerates a suite of automation technologies have developed in tandem to create the perfect storm. Controlling multiple orders - each with unique attributes - demands automation, without which production slows and operational costs and errors increase.
The consumer demands product diversity at speed - implementing workflow automation delivers transparency upstream and down to support the DTG manufacturing cycle and to successfully navigate the product and its embedded specifications from the point of sale through manufacture and onto dispatch.
