ImagesMagUK-July-2020

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 32 images JULY 2020 messages and Helly Hansen shorts and T-shirts packs, leading to one of the furloughed printers being called back in. “That is our core business so we do still need to keep thinking about that even though it’s much more fun buying in PPE and just selling it. You don’t have to do anything with it!” While South East Workwear was able to get a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan, it wasn’t eligible for any other government support. “Our landlord was good and gave us a month free which is something. That loan isn’t going to last forever so we’ve got to really start getting moving again. Even though we’ve had the money coming in through the PPE, the margins are quite tight so it’s just kept us ticking over really, even on the volumes that we’ve been doing. The business still has big overheads even with staff furloughed. There’s machinery costs, the rent – the money is still coming out of the business.” Inkthreadable At digital print specialist Inkthreadable in Lancashire, founders Alex and Amy Cunliffe have found themselves in the fortunate position of needing more machines and more space to cope with soaring demand. Back in March, they rushed back early from a family holiday in Dubai to steer the business in the face of “ambiguous advice” from the government. “This was one of the most challenging two weeks that we then had because advice was changing daily,” Alex says. “Nobody really knew what was allowed. To stop us from promising a service we couldn’t deliver on, we suspended our service publicly completely. We did continue to receive orders and we did stay operating with some capacity. We couldn’t have risked completely closely while we were allowed to be open and returning to a backlog of who knows how many months it could have potentially have been.” Although many suppliers of blank garments were shutting down, Alex and Amy decided Inkthreadable had to carry on fulfilling orders for its customer base, which includes online fashion retailers. “We support thousands of small businesses and sole traders that are selling products online so without access to our service, their income stops as well. As much as we could have closed our doors straightaway, we had an obligation to the thousands of customers that we have, to allow them to carry on making an income because at the time there was no support from the government for self-employed people and a lot of our customers fell in that gap.” Inkthreadable bought in about three months’ worth of the company’s most popular products and now offers a limited catalogue of about 60 compared to the normal range of 220. “Suppliers are all back but they’ve increased their lead times from what they generally would be,” Alex adds. “Prior to coronavirus, we saw same-day shipping from suppliers, which went up to seven days, but now it’s back to lead times of two or three days for most.” In May, Inkthreadable processed 2.9 times more orders than in May last year – and more than its peak months of November or December in 2019. “People are not working but furloughed and receiving 80% of their wage,” Alex suggests. “They don’t have travel expenses, they don’t have leisure expenses. They have far more time on their hands, so you have people at home spending money they wouldn’t usually be spending. On the flipside, the whole of the retail industry was closed. That includes fashion on the high street. Instead people have gone to shop online. People are finding new independent brands that they like and they’re the people that we’re helping supply and deliver their products for.” He admits that Inkthreadable has been fortunate. “I know of plenty of people that are in business who are struggling through this. I have seen many businesses having to close.” After initially dropping plans to buy two more Kornit machines when lockdown began, Inkthreadable needed to increase capacity, adding two Kornit Avalanche HD6 machines from Amaya Sales UK in June alongside its existing Kornit Storm Hexa and another Avalanche HD6. To accommodate the extra stock, the business took over two neighbouring 1,500 sq ft units to complement its existing 8,000 sq ft site in Blackburn. But, with extra staff being recruited, more space is needed so, in July, Inkthreadable moves a mile away to premises that are triple the size. “That allows us to sustain growth for the next few years and be able to do it whilst maintaining very good service levels,” Alex says. “We suspect social distancing is going to be here for the long term now so being in a bigger facility allows us to keep growing the team to a bigger level as well.” Alex says it is difficult to plan for the rest of the year. “Whilst forecasting is difficult being in the situation we’re in and the stability of the economy is uncertain, we’re now experiencing order volumes that we expected to be seeing not for another 12 or 24 months so we’re planning for massive scale by Q4 this year. Growth isn’t easy and it comes with uncertainty of the future as we don’t know how coronavirus will affect the economy. We’re planning for upscaling and downscaling at the same time, I guess.” Inkthreadable founders Amy and Alex Cunliffe: the company installed two new Kornit Avalanche HD6 printers in June