Strategy

Scalable Press Aims for Quick-Turn Decorating

Scalable Press views itself as the Ford Motor Co. of the apparel-decorating world. “Most screen printers are like auto mechanics – small and manual,” explains Doug Sill, vice president of sales for the single-invoice wholesale decorator with branches in California, Texas, Indiana and Pennsylvania. “We’re more like an assembly line.” Meaning, he adds, that Scalable Press can churn out quality, high-volume work without batting an eye.

Scalable Press Aims for Quick-Turn Decorating

A former sales executive for a major apparel supplier, Sill has first-hand knowledge of the many steps involved in getting a blank good ordered, decorated and shipped to the end-user the traditional way. Apparel suppliers typically have a high level of technology in place, he says, but many screen printers and embroidery shops still operating without that layer of process and technology. “As a result, turn times might be anywhere from eight to 12 days,” Sill says.

Scalable Press promises shorter turn times, from three to seven days, depending on the items being decorated. Three-day items would be those stocked in one of its facilities. Five-day turn times are for items that need to be shipped in before being decorated, and the seven-day cutoff is for more obscure items. “We’ve really created an incredibly efficient production process, from beginning to end,” Sill says. “What that process allows us to do is become the lowest-guaranteed price in the industry.”

In the four years that Scalable Press has been around, it has decorated more than 10 million items – the company offers screen printing, embroidery, DTG and sublimation. Scalable Press employs over 300 people in its 200,000+ square feet of production space, spread over five strategically located facilities. Though Sill wouldn’t give specific revenue figures, he did note that Scalable Press has averaged triple-digit growth over the past three years.

Scalable Press Aims for Quick-Turn Decorating