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Standfast and Barracks
Northwest-based fabric printing company Standfast and Barracks is using a Capital Investment Grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) to propel its business into the digital age.
Standfast and Barracks was established in the 1920s and is the longest surviving fabric printer in the UK. The Lancaster company prints furnishing and clothing fabrics for high-end customers like the Designers' Guild, Ralph Lauren and Liberty, as well as high-street brands such as Laura Ashley. It produces 3.5 million metres of fabric every year.
It applied for a capital investment grant of £159,000 to invest in the latest digital printing technologies, helping its business develop as the market shifts towards this area, and the most up to date equipment for wet printing.
The first instalment of the grant was received by the company in May 2008.
Barry Forester, Standfast and Barracks' managing director, said, "much of the UK's textile printing industry has now moved offshore, where costs are lower. We've survived by investing a lot in design development and providing a really competitive service for our customers. In 20 years' time, the market will be in digital printing. The CGI grant will help us move the business forward into the next era."
Digital printing will allow Standfast and Barracks to print on a scale that, unlike traditional screen printing, is not restricted by the constraints of a screen printing machine. It enables designs to be created and printed to the customer's exact specifications.
"Our main focus is safeguarding jobs in an industry which has seen an increase in contracting them out, and creating jobs in digital printing," explains Mr Forester. "Digital is integral to the sustainability of our business, it's a revolutionary change in technology and it's vital that we evolve with it. Businesses which adopt these new technologies are at the top end of the market."
The company will use the grant for a business development project, where it will comprise 15 per cent of the total project value. The three-year project to develop the company's digital and wet-printing capabilities includes investment in new digital software and creating new jobs. The project is now at the end of its first year and the grant funding will help secure the project's next two years.
Mr Forester recommends the funding scheme to other businesses with development projects in the pipeline.
Said Mr Forester, "there were some complicated forms to fill in, but the NWDA were very helpful and supportive, as was Lancaster City Council. The application process is fairly rigorous, but in going through it, it helped us to think long and hard about what we wanted to achieve, and the NWDA's feedback, guidance and support was excellent. In addition, the fact that we went through the process and received the grant at the end of it, reassured our parent company that the project was worthwhile."
