So, it is a pleasant Sunday morning and there you are relaxing with your second cup of coffee and a dainty, fresh croissant reading the Sunday supplements. As you look through something takes your eye that would make the ideal gift for your friend’s birthday. It is a glass tankard which you can have engraved with his name.

Not an unusual situation is it, but have you ever wondered who does the engraving, or embroidery, hot foiling? Well, wonder no longer because we can reveal that it is a company called Express Gifts who are the largest supplier of personalised gifts in the country.

As you may have noted from the Sunday’s or from one of their own catalogues - Studio - they offer an amazing range of products that can all be personalised. Whether it be a glass, cutlery, name tapes or embroidery, Express offer a wide range of products to suit individual tastes.

But why, you may ask, is a company such as Express being profiled in magazine that concentrates on printing and embroidery? The reason is the latter, embroidery. Express are embarking on one of the largest embroidery plant upgrades seen in the last few years but more of this later. First let us look at the company and some of the products they offer.

In essence, Express offers five types of decoration. Embroidery, engraving (including laser engraving), lettering (utilising transfer print or flock), hot foiling and glass engraving. Each type of decoration is contained and operated from a separate area within the Accrington based production unit with trained personnel specialising in a particular skill thus producing high quality work every time.

All of the orders placed by the public are mail order and may include various items with different forms of decoration but this does not worry Express because they have installed a stock control system second to none. The order is initially split and sent into the appropriate area for product decoration but the control is so good that the same order will be reassembled ready for despatch ensuring that the customer receives their complete order. Because of this two things become vital:

1. Stock holding - Express Gifts maintain a multi million pound stock holding covering all of the products offered in their catalogues etc. All items are held in a computerised warehouse with automated picking. A truly amazing sight.

2. Support from their suppliers and it is this area that neatly leads us into the subject of embroidery.

All of the embroidery is small units of personalised product so although they produce large quantities of embroidered products, large bulk production machines are of no use to them. In fact the company have been working with a mixed plant of 31 single head Meistergram and Brother embroidery machines and it recently decided that, to maintain production and improve quality, it was time to investigate changing the plant to more modern machines.

As you would expect, the company investigated what was available and thoroughly checked out both the product and the supplier. Each of the major suppliers was invited to submit a machine for testing as well as putting their case as to why their particular machine would ‘fit the bill’.

In the end, the machine chosen to replace the existing plant was the SWF 1201C Compact embroidery machine from Your Embroidery Services Ltd. Peter Burton, the man with the responsibility of making sure everything runs smoothly said, ‘We had to look at the quality of the machine and what came off of it and also at the company supplying it. Your Embroidery Services impressed us with their overall knowledge and their attitude.

’The machine (SWF 1201C) will do the job well for us. The compact style of the machine is perfect for our style of embroidery as well as the floor area we have to accommodate the machines. In the end it came down to a choice between two machines and it was YES that swung it for us.’

The first batch of machines have been installed and are already turning out work to help keep up with the increasing demand experienced by Express. In time the plan is to change the whole plant of 31 machines.

As an embroidery plant, Express has perfected the art of producing bulk embroidery in small units. Last year they embroidered in the region of 300,000 pieces of individual embroidery and project a 15% increase this year. With figures like this, it is easy to see why they set so much store by the quality of the supplier as well as the product.

Each production area is a team in its own right but, in turn, is part of a much larger team where each member has to support the other. If embroidery fails then that holds up engraving or flocking or whatever else formed part of the original order resulting in delay and a dissatisfied customer.

The garment industry has suffered more than its fair share of bad news these last few years and so it is good to be able to report an area that is seeing increasing success year on year. Although embroidery forms only a part of the whole as far as Express Gifts is concerned, it is a part that is growing year on year and therefore needs to be efficient and productive.

For Express, this investment will ensure that they maintain their position as the number one supplier of personalised goods. For embroidery in general, it helps to keep our industry at the forefront of the public’s mind. A healthy state of affairs for all concerned.

For more details on SWF embroidery machines please contact Your Embroidery Services Ltd on 01623 863343 or by email at sales@yesltd.co.uk.

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