What did the job entail?

The Darwen, Lancashire-based family-owned company worked with Aldi to produce the changing mats, based on a brief supplied by Aldi that was inspired by current design trends.

Babywise’s two 1.6m Roland Soljet Pro4 XR-640 wide-format printers, which are equipped with Colorific Lightbar solvent-UV ink technology, worked simultaneously to print around-the-clock for four months to produce thousands of metres of printed PVC ready to convert into the 40,000 mats.

The firm had purchased the first of the two Roland machines shortly before receiving the Aldi order, which prompted an immediate requirement for a second to manage the additional workload.

How was it produced?

The designs were printed onto soft PVC material using the two Roland devices. High-speed colour saturated print was achieved with the CMYK inksets, which both printers are configured with, while the automatic material take-up systems on the machines helped to facilitate the large print run. 

After coming off the printer, the PVC sheets were cut down into panels by hand and the material was then filled with foam inserts and heat welded together using Babywise’s six Ultrasonic welding machines.

What challenges were overcome?

The mats had to be produced to a very tight deadline because of Aldi’s ‘just-in-time’ approach to stock holding. “It was very challenging because it’s such a tight delivery schedule. There’s no delay or delivering any earlier allowed, they want the stock only two or three days before it goes on sale in store,” said Babywise managing director Kathy Cunliffe.

Handling such a large order also provided a production challenge as Babywise generally specialises in much lower volume orders as well as personalised one-off prints.

What was the feedback?

“Aldi were happy with the finished product and subsequently placed a repeat order for a further 40,000 mats,” said Cunliffe.