Snuggle Printing Cozies Up to Digital Production

Based in Peterborough, England, Snuggle Printing built its operation providing on-demand print services for small-to-mid-size businesses needing promotional t-shirts for events, uniforms, sweatshirts, and hoodies. They first adopted Kornit Digital’s direct-to-garment (DTG) capabilities with a Storm Hexa system in 2017, which enabled them to imprint a wider range of items, and at a faster pace than with traditional analog means. More business soon followed, and to accommodate demand for added capacity, Snuggle added two Avalanche HD6 systems to its production floor.

“Where we were printing one t-shirt in approximately three and a half minutes, we took that down to about one minute,” says owner Shabbir Maimoon in 2018, adding “I think going into the future is an exciting time for us all, with prints better than ever before.”

As that busy holiday season came around, the business struggled still to meet demand, even with machines running 24/7. When the Kornit Atlas was unveiled in January 2019, it was not a moment too soon for Snuggle.

“One of the largest challenges you have in the print-on-demand market is the big spike in Q4, which is the end of the year, at Christmas, and demand shoots through the roof,” says Maimoon. “Thankfully, when we invested in the Kornit Atlases, it meant we had the capacity for almost 12,000 prints per day, so we were able to get through it really easily.”

Before long, Snuggle outgrew its initial production space, adding two new buildings to accommodate their success. While Snuggle’s growth can certainly be attributed to the speed and versatility of their production, quality and responsible practices have played a role, as well.

“What our customers are increasingly demanding now is water-based, eco-friendly sustainable prints that obviously are high quality, which we are now able to do with the technology we have,” says Tom Levitt, their business development manager. “They give our clients flexibility in what they can achieve, so it means they don’t have to commit to high volumes. If they need to order things like samples to get approved for bulk runs, we can easily do that, and we can do that in a very quick and efficient manner.”

When Kornit announced the release of its Atlas MAX systems, with XDi technology to simulate heat transfer vinyl, threadless embroidery, dye sublimation, and 3D graphic effects using the same single-step production mechanism, Snuggle was among the first Kornit customers to sign up, adding two of these state-of-the-art machines to their production fleet.

“The Atlas MAX has been incredible,” says Maimoon. “You’ve got a better white, a more consistent white, especially on difficult-to-print garments such as 50% cotton and 50% polyester blend, which before would not look so great, but now you’ve got amazing-looking white, amazing-looking colors.”

Furthermore, the Atlas MAX offered a very practical benefit for keeping Snuggle’s operation running smoothly and efficiently.

“The great thing with the Atlas and the Atlas MAX is that they’re very similar machines,” adds Maimoon. “You can have an operator interchanged between them all, even from Avalanche HD6, the operators are very easily able to come to an Atlas and do their prints, the operation is the same, very quick, very easy to learn.”

These systems have also empowered Snuggle to deliver an ever-widening range of products and applications for increasingly demanding customers.

“Now we can achieve different print positions that we weren’t able to achieve before, for example long-sleeve prints, inside neck prints, nape prints, prints towards the hem, prints onto joggers, and also different types of garments, such as polyester-based garments and different variables we weren’t able to do, say, a year or two ago,” says Levitt.

According to Maimoon, the Kornit Konnect module allows them to monitor system throughput and downtime, measure operator productivity, keep track of ink changes, and so on—essential information spanning multiple units in multiple buildings, ensuring transparency and accountability.

“For me, as a business owner, the relationship with Kornit has been amazing, and the exciting thing with working with these systems is the development into the future,” says Maimoon. “I’m really proud of where we’ve gotten, to be honest with you, because we never imagined we’d get here. Things have come along in the right ways, and we’re growing naturally. Thankfully, we’ve had a reputation for service and quality, and hitting our customer SLAs, so I could never have been prouder.”