ImagesMagUK_July_2021

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 30 images JULY 2021 organised, we have our fingers on pulses we didn’t even know existed.” South East Workwear At South East Workwear in Abingdon in Oxfordshire, the past 15 months have also led to significant change. Before Covid-19, the business expanded its premises, increasing its overall footprint to 6,000 sq ft. However, the forced shutdown of its store and workshop had the unexpected effect of revealing alternative ways of working, explains owner Ady Burton. “It’s definitely made us change our business model, made us re-assess everything, how we work.” A year ago, the store had reopened only for visits by appointment or if someone rang the doorbell, with social distancing in place and clothing put into quarantine for 72 hours before being put back on display. Formerly open to the public, it remained in this limbo state until last month, with business now starting to pick up, Ady says. But after having a bricks and mortar retail operation for 30 years, it made him realise just how much the company could operate through ecommerce. “We have almost run this business for the last 18 months without a shop because it’s been closed through Covid and what that’s done is really made me think that actually you can run a business if you have a really good website.” level of growth or pressure as we did last year,” Alex adds, “but our revenues and our sales are still far greater than what they were pre-Covid.” There is still unused space for further expansion which, combined with the option for extra shifts, meant Inkthreadable could go ahead with the launch last month of Hyper DTG, which provides short-run printing aimed at areas such as promotional merchandise, uniforms and events. “Over the past eight years, we’ve built a factory with just-in-time production, almost exclusively with digital printing, which puts us in a really strong position with our people and our resources to be able to bring that service to market. One of the key reasons for us to enter the short-run space is for the business to become multi-shift faster, to be able to support service levels for print-on-demand sooner.” The uncertainties of the past 16 months have made Inkthreadable a more resilient business. Despite the explosive demand, planning for every eventuality meant turnaround of orders was better than ever. “Our team performed exceptionally well to be able to maintain good service levels throughout the whole process and leading us into a Q4 with the best service levels that we have ever had during a Christmas period. We planned earlier than usual, we planned more than usual and we put forecasts in place in far more molecular detail than we had historically done. That level of planning taught us a lot of lessons that have changed the way we operate the business today. We are far more structured, we are far more With this in mind, the company has invested heavily in a new website, developed by digital agency Eighty3 Creative. Due to go live in August, it will be a full ecommerce solution and allow customers to upload designs and see a mock-up of how their garment will look before ordering, alongside other content such as videos and blogs. “This year is going to be a big push on ecommerce for us. All the day- to-day work coming through can be streamlined. I can then focus on our contract work and get the sales guys looking after the big companies.” At the start of the Covid-19 shutdown, South East Workwear had to furlough its production staff before orders started to pick up, chiefly thanks to sales of PPE. “One of the great things about selling PPE is that it’s opened a lot more doors for us,” Ady adds. The workforce is down from 20 to 12, most of whom are in sales and only two in production. While orders are nearly back up to where they were before Covid-19, much of it continues to be outsourced to trusted partners, which is the business model that Ady sees as South East Workwear’s future. “We outsourced during Covid because we didn’t have enough work to have the full team back. I think we will always have a need for some small runs, but it makes the business a lot more portable being more ecommerce focused. We’re really heading towards a completely sales-based operation by the end of this year if we can do it. You’ve got to move with the times.” With just one eight-head Tajima embroidery machine, two Epson SureColor DTG printers and a Mimaki vinyl cutter, Ady suspects the extra space Ady Burton is moving South East Workwear towards a completely sales-based operation Oxford Workwear’s Radcliffe trousers It’s definitely made us change our business model