GOODFIELD – Jason and Cheryl Davenport, owners of JC Screen Printing, have designed their business around excellent customer service. “My wife and I value our customers so much, we will go the extra mile, even in some cases when it’s not our fault,” Jason Davenport said. “We believe as a customer, you deserve the product you paid for. Some say we almost bend over backwards too much for the customer, but I truly believe it goes a long way these days.”
As a testament to this philosophy, JC Screen Printing has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the Davenports’ basement to its current thriving location at 10 Legacy Drive in Goodfield.
Jason Davenport had no idea that he would own a screen-printing business. Davenport was discharged from the United States Marine Corps in late 1990s and took up a position as a graphic design assistant at a soybean chemical manufacturer. The company produced a line cleaners for the screen printing market.
“While there, I would attend around 10-15 trade shows per year, over the course of 14 years, for the screen printing market. So I would talk to screen printers about cleaning and eventually learned everything there was to know about how to screen print,” Davenport said. Cheryl, Davenport’s wife, decided that they would try screen printing and put all their knowledge to work. They printed t-shirts from their kitchen table in 2005 and baked the shirts in the oven. They bought a small press soon after and moved everything to the basement. JC Screen Printing operated from the basement for many decades.
“With only word of mouth, minutes became hours and hours became all weekend printing as it just kept growing and growing.” Davenport said. In 2010, the couple decided to purchase more equipment and move operations to their three car garage. First they used one bay, then two, and then three—”leaving the vehicles in the cold of winter!” He laughed. He eventually quit his job at the soybean plant to focus full-time on JC Screen Printing. It was “perfect timing,” he recalled, “as the very next year we doubled in sales.”
The couple opened their 10 Legacy Drive facility in mid-2018 after putting their cars back into the garages. The difference was like “total night and day,” Davenport said, as they had much more room for their ever-expanding business. “Since about 2014, the business has grown on average 30-40 percent each year (other than Covid years).” Including Jason and Cheryl, there are nine employees.
They were down just nine percent during the Covid years. “Which seemed like a lot to us,” Davenport remembered, “but our clothing vendor called me specifically to ask, what were we doing as almost all their clients were down over 65 percent and we were holding around 9 percent down for the year.”
The Davenports have always had the right answer: commitment to quality work and customer service.
They also offer embroidery and screen printing. In a matter of weeks equipment will arrive for the new technology DTF (Direct to Film). “It will allow us to do almost any design asked of us, even as a one off, which was tough to do before,” he said.
Davenport said that screen printing is similar to stenciling on a wall when asked how it works. “You have a design on a board and you push paint through the design onto the wall. It’s the same process for T-shirt printing. We attach a design to a screen-mesh [similar to a screen door, but with much smaller holes]. We then align the design onto the press and place a certain color of ink on the screen. We then lower the screen, using a squeegee, push the ink though the screen. After lifting the screen up, you can see the ink that was pressed through the screen, being left on the shirt.” The ink will not air dry, he said; rather, it must be heat cured/dried. “We take the shirt off the press and lay it on a big conveyer belt that takes it through what looks like a giant pizza cooking oven. While going through, it will heat the ink to over 325 degrees, at which point, the ink cures (and should not crack or peel off the shirt),” he said.
Davenport said he knows that people are short on time, so he wants them to have an “incredible and easy experience” with JC Screen Printing. “We know folks are busy in their life, so we try to help as much as possible and work to communicate back to customers right away. This is not possible if you wait 4 days! We strive to respond the same day if possible to clients.” This promptness and respect for customers’ time makes a difference. “I can’t tell you how many jobs we have received, where the client stated, ‘I emailed two other screen printing shop and after a week, I still haven’t gotten any response–yet your company messaged me back the same day.’”
You can reach JC Screen Printing at 309-300-2772 or [email protected].