I hope that this is the correct board for this information to be posted. There’s been a lot of chatter around the forums the past couple of days regarding recent changes related to manufacturing and distribution of Panel Frame™ products. Given that Nazdar SourceOne has distribution relationship with Rex White of Panel Frame Systems and with Shurloc products, I thought that it would be opportune to provide the following update to existing and potential owners of these products. To be sure, the game has changed, but moving forward I believe that the changes will be good for the garment screen-printing industry. I'm not claiming to know all of the facts but I think that I have a decent handle on what occurred and what the future looks like.
Rex White had established a Master Distribution relationship with a manufacturer from China who was producing certain products that were marketed under the PanelFrame brand.
There was a breakdown in this relationship that resulted in Rex separating from this manufacturer, and his establishing a commercial relationship with the folks at Shurloc. (These are really good people)
During the dissolution of his relationship with the Chinese manufacturer Rex was able to secure the Trade Mark Brands for the PanelFrame system, however he was unable to secure claim to the design or technology of the current products that were being manufactured in China.
Rex has assumed a Sales and Marketing role with Shurloc and will be representing all of their products to include a series of newly developed products that will be marketed under the PanelFrame brand. These products will be based on Shurloc technology and manufacturing processes, and are not the same products that were previously sold under the "old" PanelFrame brand.
Rex's former offshore partner maintains rights to manufacture, and to sell the original design products that they previously supplied to Rex, but they cannot use the PanelFrame brand to do it.
This manufacturer happens to have a relationship with a screen-printing mesh manufacturer to provide them with a Roller Frame Clone, and it's my understanding that this relationship will be expanded to utilize this mesh manufacturer's distribution network to bring frames and mesh insert panels to market on a worldwide basis. I am unaware of what brand or product name these will be sold under.
The mesh manufacturer will be providing product and technology support to improve the quality and reliability of the mesh insert panels.
End result there will continue to be competition and increased innovation in this product and market space. Those early adopters of the PanelFrame system from Rex will have support with high performance mesh panels from Shurloc, and presumably a more reliable product coming out of China. For people looking to add to their existing inventor of Frames they'll have choices from an expanded range of Shurloc product options, and then sometime in the near future the original design frames will again be available on the US Market. And through it all we still get to work with Rex, a stand-up guy and is an asset to the garment screen-printing industry which is a good thing
