The machine was installed last Wednesday (26 October) and was fully operational by the Friday. It joins Shirt Monkey’s existing Avalanche, which was installed when the company was founded around two years ago.
The Cheshire-based company also revealed it plans to relocate to new premises in the early part of next year and will be supplementing the relocation with the purchase of a third Kornit in Q2.
The machine has a list price of $400,000 (£328,000) but Shirt Monkey director Nicholas Simons said he “got a good deal on it”, as Shirt Monkey already has an existing relationship with the supplier Sabur Ink Systems. Sabur has also been appointed the long-term supplier of Shirt Monkey’s inks.
Sabur Ink started distributing the Kornits in June of this year, when the Barnsley-based supplier took on all of Kornit UK’s DTG and pigment machines for distribution.
Simons said: “We already have one Kornit and capacity is pretty much on the brink at the moment so we made the decision to get another one for the run up to Christmas. This was very much a case of saying, ‘Let’s get one as soon as possible’, so even though it was a big investment it was an easy decision.
“We feel that Kornit is the premium brand in terms of DTG printing. Commercially, it’s the only machine that makes sense and with the Avalanche range we feel we are at the top, it is capable of the best quality and top speeds and that’s the reason we went for it.”
Simons said the Kornit is printing at around 70 or 80 t-shirts per hour while Kornit says it can reach maximum speeds of 300 light A4 garments per hour. It prints in CMYK plus white at resolutions of up to 600dpi.
It prints on a variety of materials, including cotton, linen and polyester, with a maximum printing area of 600x900mm.
Simons said Shirt Monkey's relocation was coming out of pure necessity as his nine staff had started “falling over each other”. It currently operates from a 232sqm premises with a 100sqm mezzanine and is looking to move somewhere local around three times the size.
“DTG is a growing market and the clients we have managed to pick up are all growing themselves, which is helping,” added Simons.
“We are nearly at the point where we are having to turn work away, which obviously isn’t ideal but isn’t the worst situation to be in.”
Shirt Monkey, which has recently taken on three temporary staff that Simons hopes it can make permanent, is aiming to break the £500,000 turnover mark at the end of this year.
It has also picked up a number of new clients, including Scottish clothing brand Wellcoda.
