ImagesMagUK_March_2022

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 32 images MARCH 2022 I n his early 20s, Scott Wrigley was serving as a gunner and loader on Challenger 2 tanks in the Royal Armoured Corps. After leaving the army, his love of military life led him to become a reservist for the Royal Air Force Regiment. Now his passion is garment printing and embroidery as owner of Wrigleprint Personalised Merchandise based in Newark-on- Trent in Nottinghamshire, however his years of military service have left their mark. “I think my military training has helped,” he says. “You set your target and you aim towards it. I have no doubt that this experience has made me the person I am today and given me the foresight, persistence and integrity to push the business forward.” Before joining up, Scott learned printing at South Notts College in Clifton, achieving a distinction, before becoming an apprentice printer at a large lithographic firm. After leaving the army, he was working in middle management for a company that had some unused garment printing equipment. “I pitched the idea for doing something with it, but they weren’t interested. So I went and did it myself.” He founded Wrigleprint in 2014, operating from home. At first it was the bedroom, but then it took over the garage, hallway and kitchen until, after five years, his wife persuaded him it was time to find premises. After two years in a smaller unit in New Balderton, Wrigleprint relocated just before Christmas to a 147 sqm new- build in Newark’s Balderton Business Park – only five minutes’ drive from its former base but twice the size. ROI in a month The catalyst for the move was the purchase of a four-head Barudan embroidery machine which would not fit into the old premises. Back when he started out, Scott had just a second-hand Mimaki CG-60SL cutting plotter, heat press and Mac and then added an Oki Pro 8432 white toner printer, but in 2017 Wrigleprint expanded into embroidery, purchasing a single-head Melco machine. “This turned the business on its head,” Scott recalls. “We ended up getting a lot of school and workwear contracts.” He now has two Barudan single- heads, but demand last year led to the investment in the four-head. “Barudan are the Rolls-Royce of embroidery machines,” Scott comments. “They’re a workhorse. They don’t give you any grief. The only time the machines stop is when the bobbin finishes. I did a lot of research and spoke to a lot of different companies and competitors to sound them out. Barudan are really helpful and always on the end of the phone whenever I need them. When they installed the four-head, they also helped me move my single-heads as they’d got their wagon with the winch and ramp. Not many suppliers would do that.” He adds that the four-head machine, delivered on 21 December, had paid for itself by February. Wrigleprint still has the Oki printer and the original Mimaki CG-60SL – “it’s a workhorse, it has never let us down” – plus a larger Mimaki CJV150 printer/cutter, a Stahls’ cap heat press for neck prints and several other heat presses including a Hotronix Fusion from Stahls’ and an Adkins. To provide other personalisation services, it also has mug presses and several printers At the double Scott Wrigley talks to Mark Ludmon about how he went from military service to building up Wrigleprint, his fast-growing print and embroidery business Wrigleprint team: Scott Wrigley, Rosa Merchant and Vanessa Stanco Rosa Merchant at work on the new four-head Barudan Orders for leavers’ hoodies doubled in 2021