ImagesMagUK_September_2020

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 34 images SEPTEMBER 2020 A ndy Smith is remarkably upbeat for someone whose business has been hit by two disasters of near-biblical proportions in the first half of this year. Like many others, Calder Screenprint has been fighting to keep going in the face of a global pandemic that devastated its customer base. However, the outbreak came only weeks after the company’s premises in Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire were left three feet under water when Storm Ciara caused the neighbouring River Calder to burst its banks. Miraculously, the business has not only survived but thrived, with Andy and his wife and business partner Jane using the coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity to “catch up” and invest. “We have spent a lot of money but business is going to come back – and hopefully come back stronger,” says Andy. As the company’s name suggests, it has been close to the River Calder ever since Andy started out in business from his bedroom in Brighouse, south-east of Halifax, in 1993. After school, he worked Jane and Andy Smith of Calder Screenprint Grist for the mill Andy Smith talks to Mark Ludmon about how Calder Screenprint has grown over the past 27 years, and how surviving Storm Ciara and Covid-19 in the past six months will ultimately make the business stronger for a tile screen printer but, when he found himself unemployed, Jane – then his girlfriend – encouraged him to set up on his own and invest in some kit. “It was a small six-colour manual machine with wooden platens, that I kept setting on fire. I put it in my main bedroom; I slept in the box room.” From this base, he slowly built up customers for garment decoration, supported by a Prince’s Trust loan. “Nobody really plans to go into this industry,” he adds. “I just sort of fell into screen printing. It’s funny how things can come around.” After about four years, Calder Screenprint moved into its first unit in Elland – about three miles west down the River Calder. But Andy says it has really only been in the last 10 years that he and Jane have actively driven expansion. “The business grew slowly. I was chipping away. But things change. I had a young family and got a little more ambitious. You want to leave something for your children. We have pushed it a lot in the last 10 years.” Still specialising in screen printing plus embroidery, garment finishing and a little DTG, the business now employs 10 full-time staff plus up to 10 agency staff at busy times. A lucky break One of the luckiest breaks for the business was buying its current factory three years ago in Sowerby Bridge, a further four miles west along the “We really like S Roque. They are very reliable,” says Andy