IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 32 images APRIL 2022 Step inside the headquarters of Fashion UK in Leicester, and you’re met by Homer Simpson, Thor, Pikachu and a host of other characters from film and TV. These are the stars at the heart of the business which, since 1999, has become one of Europe’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of printed licensed apparel. Spread across four floors – with offices in London and other countries around the world – the group had only screen printing operations in Leicester until this year, with other decorating outsourced or carried out at its factories in China or Poland. But in February, it took direct-to-garment (DTG) printing in-house with a new specialist team and two of the first industrial Brother GTX600 printers in the UK. The group was founded by Gurdev Mattu with his brother Mickey Mattu, who remain at the helm, with Gurdev’s son, Pally, now also on board in business development. The workforce of nearly 80 people in the UK includes licensing experts at its Global Licensing arm and a team of designers who create apparel from Fashion UK’s impressive line-up of licences comprising, among many, Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Netflix, Pokémon and The Simpsons. This apparel can be found in major retailers such as Next, Asda and Primark, with Creative licence Licensed apparel specialist Fashion UK has branched out from screen printing to add a DTG operation based around the new industrial Brother GTX600 printer Fashion UK known for childrenswear, while its Heroes Inc business specialises in more adult-oriented apparel through smaller, independent retailers such as Forbidden Planet. Moving into DTG The printed apparel market is changing, however, prompting the company’s move into DTG, explains Nic Wastell, who is managing director of Heroes Inc and looks after Fashion UK’s print department with production manager Traian ‘TJ’ Dobre. Nic has been in the industry for 20 years, including 17 years running his own business, CID (Completely Independent Distribution), a Leicester-based distributor of licensed music and entertainment apparel. “There is a change in the market with a lot of business coming back to the UK now. Some of the reasons behind it are a bit grim – war and pandemic – but ultimately you can feel the wind in the sails. It is being driven by print on demand. When I You can feel the wind in the sails Full-colour printing on one of the Brother GTX600 printers Fashion UK’s headquarters in Leicester Childrenswear manufactured by Fashion UK
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