Death becomes her
The mortality rates of Australia's flat bed machines are sickening. Boasting 23 in Melbourne and seven in Sydney just eight years ago, today they number two and three respectively.
David Lennie, CEO of Sydney hand printing company Signature Prints (SP) says the biggest change in Australia's print industry is the disappearance of machines - the blame for which he lays squarely at the foot of Asian print companies.
"Five years ago over 90 per cent of our production was for the garment industry at prices needing to be competitive with Asia alternatives. We made the decision to develop print methods that took it out of this price control and began declining print work to focus on our own brands. Most of this print [work] then went to Asia, attracted by the price advantage."
However, today Helen and David Lennie find it interesting that SP is continually offered printing work by garment companies "wishing to return to a local printer as the errors and difficulties severely affect the perceived cost advantage".
"Asian print companies are good at doing what they're taught, but they don't think outside the square," adds Lennie.
"When a printer is taught what they can and can't do it controls what they produce. I have never had any certified training in printing, so a lot of prints I do come from my lack of knowledge. A more formal printer will say I can't do this, but that's why we've been able to stay in business, we do what others don't. Our point of difference lies in what we print and how we print it."
An example of this is a 500-metre print run SP did for its regular client Akira Isogawa.
"It broke every rule of screen printing," states Lennie.
"That's something [Asian printers], firstly, just don't understand and, secondly, just can't do for you. These points of difference must remain and be added to keep us in the eye of the end user. We do things that Asia doesn't understand. Look at an Akira garment and you will see handprint excellence (or madness) at its height - we break many print rules to achieve the look Akira desires. We must continue to break rules and boundaries."
Specialising in sampling and short print runs, Bravo Digital Print Group (previously Colour Fabric) provides yardage and placement prints to fashion clients including Anna & Boy, Vixen, Gorman and Bettina Liano.
Setting up the operation in the last three years - "after most of the screen printing businesses have gone", director Denny Sebek says his operation can generally supply a customer with sampling in no more than two weeks and in some cases faster.
"There are virtually no screen printers left in Australia so most screen printing is outsourced to China, India, Pakistan etc. [The problem is] small runs of less than 1000m are very difficult to get done in these countries. Therefore, you need to place large orders [with them]; [But] I think the market has changed and designers don't want to print thousands of meters of the same design. More and more local designers prefer to print short runs of many different designs."
Graphic designer and screen printer Stephen Woods, proprietor of Screenhaus (previously Fabprint), loves producing a physical product.
It is, he says, a 'gift of work' thing.
"We work constantly with designers from street to high-end to students starting out - sometimes two to three a day. It's a pretty stimulating environment not possible in a mass manufacturing organisation. [To me] the aspect of onshore accessibility to yardage hand screen-printing [is important]. To be able to dye, weave, print, cut and produce a garment onshore for designers encourages growth of the industry, quality of outcomes and diversity."
The effect the Asian countries have had on Australia's screen printing industry is absolutely phenomenal, says Woods.
"The pricing is so competitive that large manufacturers find it fiscally irresponsible to produce onshore for large quantities. It's an age old problem. While the big companies control large slabs of the retail markets and produce offshore, the skills and profits from manufacture follow offshore. It's fine for big businesses, but not much good for a diverse, creative industry onshore. That said - there's renewed onshore manufacturing at a city by city level. Designers are doing their sums and seeing what's possible. The value in walking into the factory with a Pantone matching system book half an hour from home and a two to three week turn around time is significant."
Working with Signature Prints since the late 1990's, Akira Isogawa says he has a strong relationship with the company. Accessing SP's Florence Broadhurst library (to which it owns the rights) Isogawa is able to manipulate some of Broadhurst's designs for his own collections.
"There may be a three colour print of which I may take [the design used for] one colour and manipulate it. It gives me the flexibility to be more creative."
With the print studio only a 10 minute drive from his own, Isogawa also finds SP's location convenient.
"If we worked with China we would have to send a parcel which would take a few days then we have to be in constant contact. It can be a two to three week process to choose the correct colour [when you print] offshore, where as if it's local it's only a week."
Not against everything being made offshore, Isogawa sees it as a trend.
"It depends on the nature of the company and the design. It's important to accept rather than fight against it, but in my case I'm more careful working with an offshore [company] as I've had a bad experience [with it] in the past. We sent a CD Rom and selected a Pantone colour number and still the colour was wrong. The sample was fine but when the production fabric arrived the colour had changed. Luckily we had time to send it back but if we didn't it could have been catastrophic. It all ended up costing us more also."
Previously using Fingerprint for the past four seasons - the only business in Brisbane still capable of hand-printed yardage - menswear brand Vanguard is now one of the many labels to move its production offshore due to cost issues.
Vanguard director Sam Cottee says previously Asian clothing manufacturing and printing had a reputation of producing poor quality product, but this has changed.
"Asian hand printing quality is on par if not above the quality of that produced in Australia at almost a third of the price. Many Australian labels have already gone to Asian countries to produce and if Australian printers don't find a way to bring down their prices it's going to be very hard for them to keep competing with the Asian hand printing market.
"Previously it cost me approximately $10 per metre for a one colour print at Fingerprint but now I can get a finished T-shirt shipped back from Bali with a three to four colour reactive dye print for less than $20. I know many Australian labels would love to keep printing and producing their product in Australia, however it's already such a tough industry that many labels have no choice but to produce in these Asian countries in order to keep their businesses profitable."