Anyone in the screen printing business?

[Railrust]

I have two friends that are in the business (one owns their own company and the other works for a bigger company). Both are hurting right now. Anyone in the business doing outside the box thinking to bolster business? Primarily they both deal in trade shows...printing on t-shirts, pens, coffee mugs, jackets, etc.

Orders for the summer weren't cancelled but put on hold.

Any ideas? Or outlook/forecast for the industry going forward?

 

[pandus13]

[kind-of-off-topic]

I'm basing this on my experience on regular printing industry in 2007-2009.

Shops who have VDP personalization, some digital marketing and capabilities and regular projects coming, will survive.
I saw some big shops close doors/liquidate equipment for cents on the $.
Some survived by using the big brokers in the industry, which became bigger. (blah blah cost cutting/optimization, etc = more headache dealing with somebody who didn't understand the project)

also, good people could do work somewhere else for almost 2X the money (VBA, VB.net, ASP.net, javascript, graphic design, Python, Access, SQL) so they lost some to leaving the industry.

When it starts opening, there would be a lot of catch up to do so your (friends/ friend's business/employer) should secure better rates UPS/Fedex/DHL/Amazon/USPS.

Since they have the equipment: phone/tablet cases (not everyone wants 250 coffee mugs), stress balls, squishies for the kiddos, etc.

Also, advertise the t-shirt business to the local trendy community. Hint, some of them are still working and making money...

 

[Barkleymut]

Never been in that business, but I've been in sales for a long time. All businesses are hurting right now, if your friends are able they need to be out there selling like crazy right now. Go to any open business and ask about employee loyalty initiatives and ask how they can help. Ask about future advertising plans and how they can help. Look into Google advertising, contact the owners of internet forums that may have merchandising needs (I would buy a BITOG tshirt or coffee mug). The good news is that if they can survive this current situation, they can probably survive anything.

 

[Railrust]

Originally Posted by Barkleymut
Never been in that business, but I've been in sales for a long time. All businesses are hurting right now, if your friends are able they need to be out there selling like crazy right now. Go to any open business and ask about employee loyalty initiatives and ask how they can help. Ask about future advertising plans and how they can help. Look into Google advertising, contact the owners of internet forums that may have merchandising needs (I would buy a BITOG tshirt or coffee mug). The good news is that if they can survive this current situation, they can probably survive anything.


Good stuff, thanks!

 

[Railrust]

Originally Posted by pandus13
[kind-of-off-topic]

I'm basing this on my experience on regular printing industry in 2007-2009.

Shops who have VDP personalization, some digital marketing and capabilities and regular projects coming, will survive.
I saw some big shops close doors/liquidate equipment for cents on the $.
Some survived by using the big brokers in the industry, which became bigger. (blah blah cost cutting/optimization, etc = more headache dealing with somebody who didn't understand the project)

also, good people could do work somewhere else for almost 2X the money (VBA, VB.net, ASP.net, javascript, graphic design, Python, Access, SQL) so they lost some to leaving the industry.

When it starts opening, there would be a lot of catch up to do so your (friends/ friend's business/employer) should secure better rates UPS/Fedex/DHL/Amazon/USPS.

Since they have the equipment: phone/tablet cases (not everyone wants 250 coffee mugs), stress balls, squishies for the kiddos, etc.

Also, advertise the t-shirt business to the local trendy community. Hint, some of them are still working and making money...


Good ideas.

I think the friend that owns the business does zero percent of actual printing, sounds like someone else does it. He has people in sales...believe he does a lot of sales, packaging, shipping, etc.

The other one I'm sure has the equipment to print and in-house their own stuff.

 

[BISCUT]

Good friends own a shop together. 1 is a full time the other is part time. He's a ok even though he's suposed to be shut down. We (me/us LE) do not close him even though our NAZI governor says he can't be open. He has his him his wife his brother in law (live together) and he rotates 1 of his 2 Latino (undocumented) workers a day so they all can survive and feed their kids.

It's not easy but things can be done here to keep people working in a safe manner. The biggest issue is certain textile manufacturers are just not able to provide the basic T shirts or Blauer or other tactical gear companies articles for work on...so no basic clothes no work can be done. Most but not all originate from China. They also have suppliers form Philippines.

The real answer is diversity. These guys are also FFL and have a small firearms business. Enough to keep afloat for these difficult times. Wish your budies the best.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I get it that's it high tech, but once you desire to print, just what does screen printing entail? Hate to be oil fashioned but what if you wanted to print 500 T Shirts ?

 

[alarmguy]

This thread is one year old, in the mist of the pandemic.
Im commenting because, wow have things changed in the promotion industry of which screen printing is a huge part.
The promotion industry is so back logged with massive amounts of orders, lack of inventory, shipping issues, lack of product, lack of workers, that everything and anything a buyer for companies can get their hands on they are buying.
Factories running are running at full capacity, producers/suppliers the option for 48 hour rush orders has been cancelled for now, ten day lead times to ship can now take up to 12 weeks.

The industry is doing fine and many others, now the workers just need to get back to work, with all the government (taxpayer) handouts, bonuses and stimulus checks handed out people seem slow to want to go back to work ... but we will get there as the money stops flowing to them...
Its time for Americans to get back to work, there are shortages in all industries and lack of workers.