Page 16 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2019

Textile Printing
PrintLocker
grows niche with Kornit
This custom t-shirt printer took a major step up with a Kornit Storm printer — a move that went so well it put in a second just six months later.
Everyone in the print industry knows that margins in commercial print can be tight. Niche sectors on the other hand offer
higher margin opportunities, but first identifying a niche, then having the courage to leave what you know and step into a new area, is far from easy.
Marino Tribuzio started his print career as a broker, before moving into manufacturing himself. He ran a typical print shop with a conventional multi-colour offset press, but as the GFC and the internet hit print he started to think about finding his own niche.
Giving our customers what they want: Marino Tribuzio with one of the Kornit printers
Reflecting on those days of six or seven years ago he says, “I knew digital was the path for me, and as I assessed and analysed I saw that the demand for t-shirts and associated products was good and I thought it would only grow, in line with the trend for personalisation.”
With his partner Melissa Trewella he bit the bullet, sold the offset printing business and started printing t-shirts. He says, “We were the classic start-up, operating from home, one simple printer, folding and packaging the t-shirts ourselves.”
Trewella came from a signwriting background, and with Tribuzio’s
“It was a major step up from desktop to industrial, but our business was growing at 30 per cent a year, in fact it still is” – Marino Tribuzio, partner, PrintLocker
sales and manufacturing experience, customer service and attention to detail were key planks in the strategy and execution of the fledgling business. Tribuzio says, “We developed great relationships with customers, based on our quality and ability to deliver.”
The company soon moved on and invested in a pair of higher spec printers – although still desktop,
as it moved out of the dining room and into business premises. Taking advantage of the reach of the internet and its interactivity, the duo developed the business further, until they were able to invest in a Kornit Storm II, described by its manufacturer as “the industrial level printer engineered for speed and volume”.
Tribuzio says, “It was a major step up from desktop to industrial, but our business was growing at 30 per cent a year, in fact it still is. We
needed a print production system that would meet the demands of the market, which is for on-demand t-shirts, and would give us the volume capacity to grow further.”
The Storm was the first system from Kornit for PrintLocker. Tribuzio says, “Kornit was clearly a well established innovative business committed to its customers, with
a direct to garment product that offered reliability, consistency, quality and productivity. As we analysed the market for solutions the Kornit Storm stood out.
“Its all-in-one system works well for us, with pretreatment in the machine itself. Also important are its environmental credentials, with no water, and bio-degradable inks.”
The move to industrial scale printing paid off for Print Locker and its customers – in fact it went so well that just six months later the company installed a second Storm to run alongside the first.
Tribuzio says, “We run a print on demand business. The Kornit Storms enable us to give our customers
what they want. The first Storm performed so well and enabled us to go to market with confidence, and soon demand was there that justified a second.” One year later both Kornit Storm printers were upgraded to Storm Hexa.
The company is now in its third premises, a 1000sqm building, and the staff numbers have risen from the two of them to a dozen. Work comes in from all over Australia and some from further afield, with 90 per cent driven by e-commerce. Markets are B2C and B2B, with
the general public able to order, upload or create artwork, and pay all online. PrintLocker also offers wholesale fulfillment.
Selling an existing business in an area you know well and moving into
a new niche is not for everyone – but companies like PrintLocker show that for those prepared to back themselves the move can be a winner. 21
16 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019