Managing director, George Georgiou, has installed the nine colour, 12 station MHM Plus S Type screen printer at the company's new, 18,000sq ft premises in Dunstable. Formerly based in Luton, the company has also undergone a rebranding exercise.

"On the face of it, we are a decorator, but there is a lot more to the company and the name change to Essential reflects the true nature of what we do," said Mr Georgiou. Established in 1998, the former twoman operation now employs 38 staff.

"Print was a direction that we would quite naturally evolve into," added Mr Georgiou. "In the early days, we went direct to garment print, which created a market for us."

Essential developed a market for its Kornit digital machine, but needed to look at screen print as demand grew. "Our problem was space," added Mr Giorgiou, who initially considered opening a separate screen print plant, or buying an existing operation.

"Then these premises came about and at the end of February, beginning of March, our screen printer was installed and is now up and running." Essential had been offering the service for two years, but subcontracting.

"It meant that we were never in total control," said Mr Giorgiou. "The screen print facility is now winning business. All our existing customers use screen print and we are getting new customers on board. It's an ideal scenario for us.

"It would have been very easy for us to buy second hand machinery and to set it up on a budget, but we have bought the best on the market - MHM - and already it's proving very popular and very successful. "I would be shocked if we don't bring in another machine by the end of the year."

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---