So, Elliot Sampson, managing director of the company, which offers a trade print and embroidery service to promotional merchandise distributors, reached out to his contacts in the industry that ran similar businesses and asked if it could do their own branding work to keep its machines ticking over.

“I recognised an opportunity to help businesses with their own garment branding, mainly printing and embroidering onto company T-shirts and polos, and the business has gone from strength-to-strength from there,” says Sampson

While the company started out printing and embroidering onto garments, it quickly became clear their was appetite from The Branding Lab’s customer base for a wider range of branded products to choose from.

A potential growth area identified by Sampson, which was requested by one of The Branding Lab’s most important customers, was the personalised and customised drinkware market. However, the business only had a flatbed UV machine, which wasn’t capable of printing 360 degrees around an object.

Sampson started researching machines capable of undertaking such work and came across Inkcups’ cylindrical inkjet machines, the Helix and Double Helix.

These particular models were not in the company’s “price range at the time”, but what was in its price range was the entry-level Helix ONE, a compact bench-top, cylindrical UV inkjet machine.

In October 2023, Nick Macfarlane, UK and Ireland sales rep at Inkcups, visited The Branding Lab and took Sampson through a virtual demo of the machine. Sampson was impressed by what he saw, but he wasn’t able to justify the investment at that time.

However, in January the following year he saw the machine running at the Promotional Services Institute (PSI) show in Düsseldorf. “I could really see the benefits once I saw the machine in person,” says Sampson. “Once I saw the quality of the print I knew it would be perfect.”

He decided to take the plunge, ordering the machine in February 2024 with an expected delivery date a month or so later.

“Shortly after this, Nick got in touch to inform us that they would be showing the machine at an event at Birmingham NEC, just down the road from us, and asked how we would feel if they actually installed our machine at the NEC event, then brought it straight over to us on the van from there,” continues Sampson. “We were perfectly happy with the arrangement, and it meant that during installation the machine was already set up perfectly, having been used for demos at the show.”

As a result, installation at the company’s Birmingham facility went smoothly and to prepare for the arrival of the new machine all The Branding Lab had to do was hire a forklift truck to transport the Helix from the van and lift it into place. From the machine’s arrival at the company’s facility it took two days to set up and train the machine’s operators on how to use it and the software.

As the team already had a good under- standing of all technical aspects of artwork it didn’t take them long to get up to speed on the new device, which Sampson says is “pretty easy” to use.

The rotary printer prints directly to drinkware or other cylindrical objects like candles, while they’re spinning, which gives seamless 360-degree designs.

The bench-top machine, which uses UV-curable inks for full-colour, high-resolution graphics, is more compact than Inkcups’ flagship Helix, but it utilises the same rotary UV printing technology.

Sampson says he’s really happy with the quality of work the Helix ONE produces and with the way the machine has been working since it was installed. “It’s definitely fulfilling what we need it to do and certainly performs as advertised,” he adds.

He’s also happy with the service package provided by Inkcups. As with all new machines Sampsons says there were a couple of teething issues when it was initially installed and more recently The Branding Lab encountered a slight challenge printing a square logo onto a drinkware product. They just couldn’t get the logo to look right, but Sampson says Inkcups’ European service department “were great and gave us loads of options to try and overcome the issue, until we achieved the desired result”.

Based on the company’s own experience, Sampson would whole-heartedly recommended the Helix ONE to other companies who are looking for an entry-level option for cylindrical direct-to-object printing

As for what potential buyers of the machine should look out for, Sampson says it’s important to know how to use different primers to get optimum finishes on products.

“When we first got the machine, we were only printing products for a customer who was keen for us to offer cylindrical printing,” he explains. “Then as we expanded our customer base, we found we would need a number of different primers for different materials. We have had to explore the range of primers we require, so I think it’s important that other buyers ensure they are well-versed in what they’ll need.”

Sampson struggles to find fault with the Helix ONE, but he would like it to be able to print all the way up the tapered neck of a bottle, which the machine isn’t currently capable of doing.

Other than that he is glowing in his praise for the Helix ONE, which has enabled The Branding Lab to offer new services and complementary services that just weren’t possible before. This in turn has allowed the company to bring in new customers that it wouldn’t have previously been able to service and because of this, it has boosted turnover.

“We’ve created a niche in offering a very, very quick turnaround, and this machine has definitely helped reinforce that niche,” says Sampson. “We’re able to offer a very quick turnaround on 360-degree bottle printing, an area in our industry that some of our suppliers really struggle on. For small to medium volumes, we can turn jobs around in a couple of days, whereas much of our competition has two-to-three-week lead times. This machine has been instrumental in making that happen.”

SPECIFICATIONS

Part diameter 45mm-116m

Part length 51mm-310mm

Lamp style 8W LED

Ink type UV LED

Max resolution 600x1,200dpi

Weight 295kg

Footprint 1,227x825mm

Price Around £60,000

Contact Inkcups Europe +49 151 1164 7146 www.inkcups.com

Company profile

The Branding Lab is based in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, and offers a trade print and embroidery service to promotional merchandise distributors. The company started out primarily offering branded garments such as t-shirts and polo shirts, but it eventually branched out into customised drinkware products. In addition to the Helix ONE the company also operates SWF embroidery machines, a Resolute DTF V8, Mimaki 6042Mk2 Flat UV printer and various transfer presses. The Branding Lab employs seven full time members of staff and three casual staff and generates annual turnover of approximately £500,000.

Why it was bought…

One of the company’s most important customers wanted to order personalised and customised drinkware products. However, the business only had a flatbed UV machine, which wasn’t capable of printing 360-degree print.

How it has performed…

“We’re really happy with the quality, which I knew would be the case having been sold on the quality of the print when seeing the machine in action at PSI,” says The Branding Lab managing director Elliot Sampson.

“It has also allowed us to offer quick turnarounds on small to medium orders, which is essential for us. It’s been great to enhance our team’s skill sets as well, they really enjoy using the machine and have been able to receive additional training and ultimately take on more responsibilities.”