Name: Oliver Mustoe-Playfair
Job title: Co-founder
Company: Prinfab
Location: Kent
Oliver Mustoe-Playfair
How did you end up working in the textiles/textile printing industry?
I’d spent 15 years creating stock based retail businesses in the craft sector. Textiles were always of interest, but storage and handling made a stock based model inefficient and difficult to scale.
Research suggested it would be commercially viable to create a textile retail business that printed every order on-demand. The concept was compelling as it solved many of the challenges associated with a stock based model. It was this concept that provided the impetus to start working in the textile printing industry.
What do you enjoy most about working in the space?
The potential to revolutionise the way textile products are made and sold in consumer markets.
What textile printing equipment do you operate?
In 2021, we partnered with Epson to become the first company in the world to install their next generation industrial textile printers. We now operate a fleet of direct-to-textile pigment and dye sublimation printers from Epson.
What innovation/technology in the sector is making you most excited?
Direct-to-textile pigment on natural fibres is a multi-step process. New ink technology has the potential to reduce production to a single step and enable printing on untreated fabric.
What is the biggest issue/challenge facing the industry?
Severe disruption to the global supply chain has affected and continues to challenge every part of our business. It has meant putting more capital into stock and planning far further ahead than what we had become accustomed to.
What advice would you give to someone just entering textiles/textile printing?
Textile printing has nuances that can only be learnt from experience. Listen to others but approach with an open mind as much of print technology is new.
Are there any specific applications/areas you expect to see surge in popularity in the years ahead?
More stock based retailers of fashion and homeware products will adopt stockless production on-demand business models. As a company, we are focussed on developing the processes and systems to enable businesses to achieve this at scale.
What are your future goals?
Prinfab has proved that it is commercially viable to create a textile retail business that prints every order on-demand. Our goal is to take this further and manufacture textile products on-demand. Our aim is to revolutionise the way textile products are made and sold in consumer markets.
