The company, which now has 18 staff across its production and office teams, has likewise invested £200,000 in screen-printing equipment, including a new computer-to-screen (CTS) imaging system and Zentner screen washing and reclaiming system, installed in August.
“Screen-printing is still the most effective way to print 10,000-20,000 bags, and I think that will be the way for some time to come,” said co-owner Melvin Green.
Green, who runs the business with his wife Helen, founded the business 12 years ago printing Christmas T-shirts as a sideline to their full-time jobs.
He told Printweek that the business’ ability to deliver even substantial orders within 24-hours was key to its continued success, as customers were often coming to them after being let down by couriers, international suppliers, or having waited to the last minute.
“Last Sunday, we received a call at 2pm, and by 3pm, a job was signed off for 800 bags. The job was done by 8pm, and was handed to the courier at 10pm, delivered to London for 6.30am. We’re quite used to doing jobs like that – and having the CTS, we can actually set up a job within minutes,” he said.
The firm has seen substantial growth recently, tripling in size over the past three years to £1.6m, and is aiming for £2.4m this coming year.
Part of the reason for the growth has been changing customer behaviours, with more and more people looking for fast-turnaround printing. This, Green said, means that Samedaybags is not just taking orders from those in a panic.
“What we never expected when we first set up the business was that customers would come back to us over time. We’re retaining customers, and that’s really giving us growth,” he said.
As well as printing with its screen presses – eight- and six-colour MHM automatic carousels – Samedaybags also generally prints direct-to-film (DTF) for jobs with more than three colours, using a small stable of Chinese machines and a Mimaki TXF-series DTF printer bought from Xpres.
The Mimaki came after several years of pain wth the Chinese-made kit, Green said.“DTF can be extremely frustrating – you get head crashes, poor colour-matching, shaky units – all common things. We’re used to it now, and can use the machines without any problem – but we can match colours much better with the Mimaki.
“It’s their own ink, it’s a closed system, and we can get Pantone colours with ease, where they’re sometimes different on the Chinese ones. The Mimaki might cost twice as much as a normal DTF machine, but it’s something we can press print and leave it printing; the colours are perfect.”
