ImagesMagUK_January_2021

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 28 images JANUARY 2021 E ssential Embroidery Design has always embraced the new. This passion for constant innovation defines the company, and has seen it grow and diversify from embroidery into screen print, digital print, heat transfer, embossing, laser etching and, most recently, ecommerce. “It highlights our ethos as a company that we are always chasing something new and different that will differentiate ourselves and benefit our partners,” explains co- founder and managing director George Georgiou. “Our partners rely on us to be sourcing new products and new technologies that keep them at the forefront of their industry.” When George and his wife Nicki started out 23 years ago – buying the assets of a small company that had gone under – the textile trade was entirely new to them. “I knew nothing,” George freely admits. “When I bought the company, I didn’t even know how to switch a machine on!”. Essential services George and Louis Georgiou talk to Mark Ludmon about how innovation continues to drive growth at Essential Embroidery Design building Essential into the business it is today. Nicki joined full-time after taking voluntary redundancy from Barclays Bank, using her redundancy money to invest in new machinery to accelerate the company’s continued growth. Thirteen years ago it moved to its current site in nearby Dunstable, where it now operates from a modern, fully equipped and recently extended 20,000 sq ft factory staffed by a dedicated, 60-strong workforce. Early adopters Working closely with creative agencies and focusing on high-end blue-chip companies, Essential always aimed to establish itself as a “one-stop shop”, People come onto our site having never spoken to us before and place orders [L-R] George and Louis Georgiou Barudan embroidery machines in action at Essential Operating out of a unit in Luton, Bedfordshire, with a 10-head embroidery machine for company, George worked all hours, often sleeping in the office (there is still a sleeping bag in the showroom as a legacy of this time), as he began