The Printed Gift Shop has installed a Mimaki UCJV300-160-160 1.6m wide roll-to-roll UV printer to personalise gifts.
The new brand Printing X will serve the firm’s B2B clients. It will be focusing on sign boards and canvasses as well as its B2C offerings of promotional gifts, tshirt printing, embroidery, and t-shirt printing.
“Whatever our customers want, we can provide it,” said Ravi De Silva Lindamulage, co-owner of TPGS.
The expansion into B2B will help to eliminate seasonal peaks that can be found in consumer-focused work. At the moment, there are three employees. However, it hires up to three temporary workers during busy periods.
Lindamulage said that TPGS is located in Newcastle-under-Lyme and has a physical shop with adjoining production space. This has allowed for a lot of walk-ins.
Lindamulage and his wife Achala Wannipuge founded TPGS in 2016 together. Initial production was limited to cushion covers and phone cases using sublimation. A sublimation printer was installed at their home.
Their first printer, a Mimaki UJF-3042FX flatbed purchased from supplier CMYUK set the foundation for the installation in September of the UCJV300.
Lindamulage revealed that the couple made the decision to trade B2B. PrintweekAfter realizing the demand for large-format printing in local businesses, they created a new brand. The company is now able to focus on the business’s core competencies.
Lindamulage predicts that the company will soon have to expand its production space to accommodate any new wide-format machinery.
For now, however, the business, which turns over around £300,000, is happy where it is – the site, he said, “is a really nice place.”