The new top-floor curtain manufacturing department will comprise of 720sqm of space, and will include new welders, sewing machine, fitting bench, and floor welding area, and is due for completion before the end of January.

Such an increase in manufacturing capability has been required, according to general manager Mark Wayman, since the installation of Sapphire’s Vutek printer in March 2022.

Previously, the company had been using traditional manual signwriting practices to paint livery on the lorry curtainsiders, alongside digital solvent printing. 

While the firm could guarantee high quality product, the process was time-consuming: while with the Vutek Sapphire prints 14 pairs of lorry curtains a day, previously it could only produce two pairs in the day, and would then need an additional 24 hours’ degassing time.

“We’re now more competitive in the market,” Wayman told Printweek.

“We’ve expanded - I never thought we’d get to where we are with curtainsiders at the moment, it’s brilliant.”

Sapphire has even had to invest £55,000 in a new storage area to house the curtains, from increased productivity alone.

The company, Wayman said, is also eyeing up a new curtain manufacturing machine that would boost production of the curtainsiders themselves by 70% - something that would never have been possible before the Vutek was installed.

Customers, likewise, have been stepping up to order since they heard that it had been installed.

“We’ve had a lot of enquiries from LinkedIn, from social media [...]

“It’s down to the machine - it’s clear people know about these machines. Yes, I’ve been brought up with traditional hand-painted signwriting, but customers don’t want to wait, they want their vehicles out on the road.”

Despite the success of the new printer, however, Wayman added, the firm will not be giving up the traditional processes.

“We still get a lot of customers who like the traditional signwriting,” he said.