Brett Platt, who started in the newly created role today (2 January), has joined the company from Mimaki distributor Hybrid Services, where he worked as textile product manager since 2017.

Based at CMYUK’s Shrewsbury demo centre, Platt will work alongside the firm’s consumables commercial director Michael Crook, establishing an R&D infrastructure that the business said will bring new fabrics to market.

“CMYUK has done textiles for a little while, but we’re going for a big push as of now. Whether that be for soft signage – which a lot of people are already doing – or other areas, it’s a big growth area in digital printing,” said Platt.

“Today is day one and there are many things to put in place, but we certainly have big plans for this year.”

Platt has a background in textiles stretching back more than 20 years. His career started at The Dorma Group where he worked for nine years, most prominently as senior creative colourist.

He later joined kit reseller RA Smart, where he worked for 11 years across both its print bureau and equipment sales divisions, before moving on to Think Positive Prints prior to joining Hybrid Services.

“I’ve worked in textiles all of my working life and from a digital point of view textiles printing has changed massively,” said Platt.

“When I started we were still screen printing for samples. In the last five years things have moved forward quite rapidly from a speed, cost and size point of view.”

CMYUK’s textiles hardware portfolio currently includes EFI’s Vutek FabriVu dye-sublimation printers, which the business became the sole UK and Ireland distributor for last year, and a raft of Mimaki devices.