Contract Printing

[skent]

 I own a screen printing company in VA, and was looking to get into contract printing. I was wondering a few things.........

1. How many colors should an automatic machine have if trying to get into contract work?

2. Is there a certain manufacturer you would recommend I look into and if so a
certain machine from that manufacturer that would be ideal for contract
printing.


3. How important is it to be able to do specialty jobs i.e. puff, special
effects?


4. How important is it to be able to track orders on-line?


5. How important is it to be able to give free samples or are most companies
willing to pay for it with no complaints?


6. Is it worth mentioning that we also do embroidery (though not for contract
work) as well as all of the other services we have i.e. banners/signs


7. Is it imperative to be able to offer packaging, bar coding, hand tags, tag
&bag?


8. What is the standard reject rate?


9. Is it important to have references?


10. What size job would you suggest we start with to "get our feet wet" with.



Thanks for any and all advice/suggestions you can give me.


              Steve

[Screened Gear]

Contract people are no differant then retail people. You give them a discouted rate becasue they are bringing you a ton of work. They also konw the business and should be less of a pain. This is not always the case. Many don't have a ton of work and many are a pain. I only do contract work for 2 guys. They had to prove they do the volume of work and also prove they were getting contract pricing before. I don't like doing contract work. Retail is were the money is unless you have autos just sitting. Don't get me wrong you can make a ton doing contract but your really putting your self in a position were losing one customer can make you lose 20 to 50% of your business. I have seen this happen.




1. How many colors should an automatic machine have if trying to get into contract work?
The more the better but you don't have to have more than 6. There are contract guys around here that only do 5 on dark and 6 on white. They are plenty busy. 

2. Is there a certain manufacturer you would recommend I look into and if so a
certain machine from that manufacturer that would be ideal for contract
printing.

This will just start a long thread mostly about service. But I will say they all can do the work. Some just do more things automatically and easier. They all do the job.


3. How important is it to be able to do specialty jobs i.e. puff, special
effects?

If you can do it offer it. If not then don't. I have never done a contract puff or foil job.


4. How important is it to be able to track orders on-line? Most companies done have that.


5. How important is it to be able to give free samples or are most companies
willing to pay for it with no complaints? With contract nothing is free. You are basically doing everything for the cheapest you can, that means samples are not free. You also change for every little thing. If they ask for somthing it costs more. You need seps = here is your price, boxing and shipping = here is your price, sorting jobs = here is your price


6. Is it worth mentioning that we also do embroidery (though not for contract
work) as well as all of the other services we have i.e. banners/signs
If they are coming for contract work they will most likley not want to pay retail on your embroidery. You can offer it, nothing against that.


7. Is it imperative to be able to offer packaging, bar coding, hand tags, tag
&bag? If you can, do but nothing is a needed thing. As long as you can ship it and send them a tracking number they will be fine. The rest is just you being more professional and may get you a few clients because your easier to deal with. 


8. What is the standard reject rate?
Most do 1-3 percent. I have always paid to replace items if I could. I hate playing the it falls in the percentage of waist.


9. Is it important to have references? I don't think so but samples are good.


10. What size job would you suggest we start with to "get our feet wet" with. Most contract people want 12 as a minimum from my experience.




   

[Frog]

Opinions
Is this and similar posts on this subject better served moved to Business? (which does require verified status)
I think so, but am curious as to what you guys think.

One problem though, the OP is not up to verified status yet and wouldn't see it for a while, which is also probably why it is posted here anyway.  LOL!

[blue moon]

see below!

I own a screen printing company in VA, and was looking to get into contract printing. I was wondering a few things.........

1. How many colors should an automatic machine have if trying to get into contract work?

8 is plenty, you could probably get away with 6 but will have to turn some jobs down. It would get you started though. We ahve an 8 color press and had to turn down two or three jobs in last few years. One of them was for 20k pieces so it hurt, but almost everything can be done with 8.

2. Is there a certain manufacturer you would recommend I look into and if so a
certain machine from that manufacturer that would be ideal for contract
printing.

most presses will do what you need. We have an MHM and are pretty fond of it. They do supposedly have the fastest setup time (due to the registration system) which when you are going through a lot of orders make a difference. I should add the if going with M&R make sure to get the trilock as just like MHM FPU it will save you a lot of time.


3. How important is it to be able to do specialty jobs i.e. puff, special
effects?
very important and not important at all! Spend a weekend and print few jobs. Just play with it. You will have something to show your customers. In the end, they will never order any of it as it is too expensive (make sure you price it so they don't buy it and if they do you will be charging enough that it is worth the time)


4. How important is it to be able to track orders on-line?
we don't offer it. . . yet. Eventually, we will, but you can do fine without it.

5. How important is it to be able to give free samples or are most companies
willing to pay for it with no complaints?
we very rarely give free samples. They always come to the shop or somehow see the goods (at a show for example).  Buy 50 shirts (that's $100) and print 25-30 samples you can give away when needed. If printing a cool job, run few extras out of that pile and give them away as needed.

6. Is it worth mentioning that we also do embroidery (though not for contract
work) as well as all of the other services we have i.e. banners/signs

If you are not offering it on contract bases it makes no difference. They will not be willing to pay the retail price so they'll care less that you do it. It might even go against you as if they need something else and you charge them retail they will think you are gauging them. Also, most brokers don't want to give work to ppl that are cometing with them! This can be a huge problem!


7. Is it imperative to be able to offer packaging, bar coding, hand tags, tag
&bag?
we don't and are doing fine. We will eventually, but you can start without it . . .


8. What is the standard reject rate?
what ever your customer allows! Standard is about %1, but it goes up or down from there. In cases when they need exact number of garments, it is 0%. You can not deliver 11 pieces to a 12 man team!


9. Is it important to have references?
I don't think so.


10. What size job would you suggest we start with to "get our feet wet" with.
any job is fine. We print from 1 to 10k, what ever the customer needs. You will not dictate the size of the order. Find somebody who wants to work with you and give it a go.


Thanks for any and all advice/suggestions you can give me.


              Steve

[ZooCity]

8. What is the standard reject rate?
what ever your customer allows! Standard is about %1, but it goes up or down from there. In cases when they need exact number of garments, it is 0%. You can not deliver 11 pieces to a 12 man team!

I'm curious about how this works if the contract client ships you 12 Ts for exactly 12 people, the job is on press and 6 Ts in one has a big hole in it from the mfg.  Do you call the client and have them re-order, or do you do it yourself?  In any case you would be sitting there with that job until you do or have to tear-down/re-set the whole damn thing.  Do contract clients know to include extras?

Point of my question is you charge for everything, line item style for this kind of work but it seems like with that approach and no padding on the margins everywhere a situation like this could singlehandedly wreck a big chunk of that gross profit.

BTW, you all give really good advice John and Pierre.  I'm not interested in doing contract work but that was a good read.

[Frog]

I used to do "contract" for a few trinket sales people (ad specialties) and it was almost always small quantities, and it was spelled out quite clearly that if exact count was needed, to include extras.
That was the trade-off for them getting the full discount on their own shirts.

[royster13]

I have used a lot of contract printers over the years......So I comment as follows:

1 - Most of my work could be handled on a 6 colour press.....Lots of 1, 2 & 3 colour work......
2 - Not a printer so no comment here......
3 - Not much specialty work over the years...but I do have a small list of folks that can do the work for me.....
4 - On line tracking not common or required.....
5 - Are you talking about free pre-production samples or just free samples of past work?...I do not expect free pre-production samples and have enough other samples that I do not need more....But if you are just starting out, you will have to show your work to prospective clients and that will require you do hand out some samples....
6 - I generally use specialists in either screen printing or embroidery....It seems that most shops that do both, do not do both well....
7 - Packaging, bar codes, etc. is a nice touch if needed....Rare for my typical job....
8 - Rarely see or hear about any rejects.....Most of the shops I use do enough volume that they just look after the problems.....
9 - I never allow any of my contractors to use me as a reference....I used to be an insurance adjuster and as a risk management procedure I find it best to keep my mouth shut....
10 - My typical jobs average 150 pieces.....As far as a range they go from 6 to 500 pieces....

As far as volume, I have never had a shop tell me I needed to do a certain volume in order to get their best prices.....
I try not to use shops that also do retail work......
I try to use shops that have multiple automatic presses....
I try to use shops that turn work in 2 to 4 days.....
I try to use shops that deep discounts on shipping.....
I try to use shops that have free daily deliveries from suppliers.....
I try not to take orders for 12 shirts for 12 people....Because these are a problem waiting to happen.....
Most shops I use check in garments in advance to find "duds".....Many have extras of the basics on hand and just replace them....They do enough volume with suppliers on their own or in the aggregate that they can swap out duds on their own....
More and more lately I use suppliers that have arrangements with printers or print them self....That way I just need 1 PO and it is way easier.....

Now having said that, I have to ask why on earth you want to do contract work?....There is so much excess capacity that the prices I am getting lately are near insanity......And some of my long time printers are begging for work....Go knock on some doors and get some retail work.....That will serve you better in the long run.....

Sorry to say for me, sometimes bottom line is more important to me than loyalty......I need to worry about feeding my own family 1st, so I do make decisions based on lowest cost from time to time....

[ZooCity]

I try to use shops that turn work in 2 to 4 days.....

Damn, that's fast for a standard turn.  It takes us 3 days to get blanks in from the closest warehouses via UPS ground, as short as 2 days via LTL on the bigger orders so that would be hard for us due to location. 

You know, I would have initially thought the answer to # of press colors would have been 12-14 co. but, now that I think about it, we're retailers on the other side of the biz and all the flagship designs I use there are very simple in terms of print work- 1-4 colors.  This makes a better retail product with a good margin v. a fancy pants 9co. print with special effects on top.  It's much more about branding than over the top prints.  Unless you are really going for the epic qty orders, a 6 color with rapid setup capabilities is probably just fine.

Interesting thread! 

[Screened Gear]

royster13 hit on every reason I turn down every contract person that calls. If you need work contract guys will give you work. The problem is there is so much competition that they have there choice. Most of them will work you on price. They will tell you they do 100s of orders and they are all big. Then if they do get a good job they will shop it around and then want you to match some low ball bid.

I'm not saying it has to be like this. You can find loyal clients with good jobs. You just have to get all you pricing and rules set and stick to it.

[royster13]

I try to use shops that turn work in 2 to 4 days.....

Damn, that's fast for a standard turn.  It takes us 3 days to get blanks in from the closest warehouses via UPS ground, as short as 2 days via LTL on the bigger orders so that would be hard for us due to location.

Welcome to Montana......lol....2 days would be hard if you can not get shirts...Strategic location is important for a contract printer.....The big ones locatae close to suppliers.....Then they negotiate with the suppliers to have late order times and late pickups.....So in some locations they can get stock the same night.....Because bigger shops work around the clock this gives them a quick start....

Why not stock shirts?.....I figure if a shop is big enough to need an auto, they probably do enough volume to have a few colours of basic tees in stock....In looking over my orders, I think black, white & navy are over 75% of orders....