Whew! 2020 was a bit of a blow out and so far 2021 hasn’t faired much better. This time round coming out of lock down felt a bit different – a bit more long term, but it’s still early days as I’m writing this in the middle of April 2021 and we still don’t really know what’s going to happen next.

One of us has been vaccinated and one of us hasn’t. One of us had to isolate 5 times due to a high risk working environment, and the other sailed through without any issues. The kids spent some time being home schooled and making the best of it, and then going back to school early with a few friends, being part of the “Keep Britain Going!” group and made the best of that too.

And out of all that, we decided that we should think about getting back to what we love and getting back into the printing industry. Because we hadn’t really wanted to leave it, but circumstances dictated that our paths as we knew them had to change.

So, on a bit of a whim, we spotted an old Roland plotter cutter machine that was up for sale, and before we knew it, had committed to buy it. And then it was here. Karl worked his IT magic on getting it running again and we were printing onto garments and big stuff again, the old fires had been stoked, and we both knew we were never going back.

There is nothing quite like buying these big sheets of vinyl and films for garments and transforming them into custom clothing for your kids or your friends, turning these ordinary pieces into one of a kinds that nobody else has.  Or your little people drawing something and being able to turn it into something far bigger that they can wear, or stick on the wall, turning it into a tangible product and being amazed at how that 2D thing became a 4D reality. It’s something we have a great passion for here at Appleton Print, and we bring that to work with us every day.

We’ve continued to invest in equipment, and we now have the ability to wide format print onto all sorts of products. We can dye sublimate onto small stuff like mugs, coasters, jigsaws, t-shirts, phone cases and all sorts of other bits and pieces, we can cut single colour films for hoodies and vinyl for car and van livery, and we can print and cut the most beautiful printed tablecloths, roller banners, posters, canvas images, signage and all sorts of big stuff that we used to do day in and day out for 18 years between us.

Honestly, it feels like coming home.

Being a start up is nerve wracking at the best of times. In the wake of a never-seen-before pandemic it infinitely takes on a whole new meaning. We’ll be re-learning about social media and product photography in a new world that moved on without us at an alarming pace, trying to build a customer base from fresh air and no doubt stumbling as we go. But if we can keep doing what we always did, which was excellent customer service, ingenious product creation and manufacture and making sure that the customer is always right and always gets what they need in the time that they need it, hopefully in a year’s time, the landscape will have changed again and we will all be moving forward in the right direction towards a new, more robust and more healthy normal.

Please do join us, we would love to have your company along the way.  And hey, if you need something printing, please do give us a shout.