HASSLE-FREE GROWTH When visiting Trade Embroidery, we had anticipated seeing a flurry of seaside rides, perhaps eating some ice cream or donuts, and looking up to see the Blackpool Tower in all its glory (with the business being situation in the heart of Blackpool); but we hadn’t anticipated seeing two planes and a helicopter taking off. This is due to the company’s premises being nestled next to a private airfield, making for a relaxing and entertaining coffee break spot in between production. Managing director and founder of Trade Embroidery’s Jake Adams' start in the print industry was, like many others, an accident. Adams first discovered the possibilities of print whilst at high school at the age of 14 when his graphics teacher encouraged him to print onto mugs for a project. With his interest piqued, Adams convinced his parents to buy him a heat press, and off he went. Adams began producing promotional items such as mugs and coasters for local charities and community initiatives. When he left school, he continued doing this and invested in some more kit which enabled him to offer smaller-format signage and graphics. Under the brand Creative Print, Adams produced work locally and began printing banners and large-format work in-house. With this came demand for garments and Adams soon began outsourcing this work with the smaller-format work cheaper and easier to get into initially. This was Adams’ business model for around five-to-six years and at the age of 18, he took a loan out to buy more equipment and in turn began turning over profit whilst still outsourcing around 75% of print. Adams then had the opportunity to bring embroidery in-house when the company he outsourced to closed due to its owner retiring. As a result, an embroiderer was brought over from the pre-existing company who had years of knowledge and experience in that field. This was beneficial as Adams wasn’t familiar with the ins and outs of this area. Valuable Experience Having always been entrepreneurial, Adams has never worked for anyone other than himself and admits, at times, he didn’t know entirely what this would look like. Looking back at the company’s inception, Adams describes it as “all happening by chance” and despite now producing work in-house, he says outsourcing was a valuable experience for the growth of the company as it showed him the pain points of outsourcing, which enables him to remove these and have a greater understanding of the process for his own clients. Then along came the pandemic and with it came the busiest period to date for Adams with business tripling. During this time, the company saw a boom in demand for embroidery and as a result transitioned to a trade-only model. This was also when the business transitioned to the Trade Embroidery name, moving away from other printed products and focusing solely on this area of the market. The company has now been in its current premises for four years and is almost outgrowing it. The site is also situated within close proximity to around 20 print and garment decorating companies so it is well placed in its current location. Market Domination To date, Adams explains that there are still only a small number of companies offering trade-only workwear and garment printing within the industry. Instead of diversifying, Adams says the company plans to focus on dominating the trade workwear and branded sphere. “You can’t do it all effectively. We’ve done wide-format print in the past but we’ve streamlined it now to be the experts in embroidery. Any tricky jobs shouldn’t be a problem as customers can offload these onto us. Any complex stuff tends to come Trade Embroidery’s way.” Learning from mistakes is something Adams says has happened a lot over the Although not one to bask in the limelight, we shine a spotlight on the story of Trade Embroidery and how managing director Jake Adams grew a successful business from the ground up from a young age ▲ Trade Embroidery exhibits regulary as it is a good opportunity to onboard new customers 37 www.printmonthly.co.uk November / December 2023 - Issue 345 30,000+ – white label garments offered 22 – application positions available 11 – staff members 2016 – founded 2020 – rebranded to Trade Embroidery 3,000sq ft – size of premises Statistics COMPANY SPOTLIGHT / TRADE EMBROIDERY
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjM0NDIxOA==