30 years in business

30 years can see a wide array of changes, but for Justin Baker, it saw his business, The Embroidered & Printed Clothing Company, go from subbing out most of its work to becoming this huge garment decoration operation. To learn more about his journey, acting editor Benjamin Austin paid the company a visit in its newest facility.

So much can change in 30 years. It only took three decades for a modest contraption made out of bike parts for aviation to develop so far that its later iteration was able to fly around the world in only one week.

30 years from that, and we went from flying the skies to flying into space, so imagine the development for any company over that time.

For Justin Baker, that time frame has allowed him to go from providing outsourced garment decoration to running a multi-faceted in-house decoration business, communicated through bespoke, state-of the-art piece of software.

Lay of the land

In its current state, the Embroidered & Printed Clothing Company works from two units, a head office in Margate and a new production facility in Ramsgate.

The latter was moved into around 1 1/2 years ago and has most recently brought DTF printing into its portfolio, bringing the company leaps and bounds ahead of where it all started.

Justin said: “I had a single-head Melco embroidery machine we picked up, and we started doing jobs for local campaigns, just working with a handful of T shirts for their staff.

“We were originally paying a company to embroider them for us. During that time, we found out more about it and the machines; both what they were and how much they cost.

“After about a year and a half, we said we probably had enough work to justify getting our own machine. We started with one auto and built up from there.”

Showing growth

The business covers 60,000ft.sq in area, 25,000ft.sq in Margate and 35,000ft.sq in Ramsgate. The main office houses the embroidery department, with a six-machine Tajima setup as well as the company’s pair of DTG Kornit Avalanche machines.

The Ramsgate facility has been an ongoing project since it was bought a couple of years ago.

Justin said: “Funny enough, when I was first doing embroidery, there used to be a company in this facility called Air Atlantica and I used to deliver them their polo shirts”

“When it came on the market it seemed ideal for us and what we were looking for”

“When we moved in it was a complete shell. We had to sort out the gas, electric, pipework, the whole layout”

“And we had to do it while still producing orders for clients in Margate.”

It currently houses seven MHM screen printers with plans to install an eighth, a Pantone ink mixing station, and its most recent purchase, an Adelco DTF printer.

Justin said: “We’re screen printing about 1.6 to 1.8m T shirts a year, so we’re probably decorating somewhere between two to two and a half million garments a year in total, we are now one of the largest trade print suppliers in the UK.

“DTF has definitely been a game changer and it lets people get into the industry and produce full colour logos on a T shirt that they couldn’t do before because they’d have to buy a massive screen print machine and have a huge amount of space to do it.”

The site also uses a SAATI LTS 8012 laser developer, used to create all the screens with great accuracy and efficiency.

Justin continued: “We’ve noticed a real big improvement in the detail of the screen printing that we can hold with the SAATI LTS.”

The software

But the company’s spotlight piece of tech is its bespoke software it uses to run the entire facility. It allows customers to make an order, track its state of completion and view the finished result. From a manufacturing point of view, it keeps all staff aware of what jobs are being run, at what machine they are running from and how many pieces need to be printed.

Justin said: “We have two in-house software engineers, and we started making it five or six years ago when we recognised it would make our customers’ lives a lot easier; we’ve been developing ever since.

“As soon as we start a job on one of the machines, the client can see that on their portal. They can see what machine it is being printed on and as soon as it’s complete.

“They can check on it anytime, if they’re sat on a bus, they can get their phone out, log in, and quickly check their orders.

“People expect things to be a little bit more automated. We’re all used to buying things on Amazon and getting them delivered the next day; we’re trying to replicate that with our software.

“We also photograph every item we produce, so the clients can see live photos of all of their jobs on the Portal.”

From one embroidery machine to two facilities filled with top-of-the-range equipment and its very own bespoke software, The Embroidered & Printed Clothing Company has really come a long way with Justin at the helm for every step.

The result

With all the investments made across three decades, the company is no longer subbing out work.

Justin said: “There isn’t too much extra equipment we would want to buy right now. Everything we do is done in-house by us.

“We’re pretty self-sufficient in that respect.”

It’s not to say it has all been plain sailing.

Justin continued: “We made mistakes as we went along and there’s lots of things I’d change if I could go back in time. But that’s how you learn valuable lessons.

“I am happy with where we are now, and we have big plans for where we want to go next.”

Comparing the company from its start to where it is now shows huge changes, but to Justin, he doesn’t see it that way.

He said: “If I went back 30 years to where we were then, yes, I probably would be surprised how far we’ve come.

“But because it’s been a gradual process and I’ve been there every step of the way”

“this is where I expected us to get to because of all the hard work and effort we put into it.”

So, with 30 years of experience in the business, Justin has truly seen a lot of growth when it comes to The Embroidered & Printed Clothing Company.

From a single embroidery machine all the way to a myriad of hi-tech purchases, the company can only look forward to another 30 years in business.