Located in Lancaster, England, with a heritage stretching back nearly a century, Standfast & Barracks is one of the most versatile and distinctive fabric printers in the world. The company takes an artisan approach to fabric printing on a wide variety of cloth types and weights, from fine cotton tana lawn to heavy slub linens, raw silk, velvet, wool, nylon, and Trevira flame-retardant fabric. In addition, the company has the ability to apply a variety of technical finishes to enhance fabric performance, including water repellence, antibacterial, flame retardance, and others. The company employs 200 people and produces more than 50,000 yards of printed fabric per month.

Although its factory, established in 1924, has been in operation for nearly a century, the company has certainly not rested on its laurels and has been aggressive in pursuing digital technologies to stay at the forefront of the industry. I found this statement from its website both inspiring and intriguing: We don’t just stay up to date with the latest digital techniques—we invent them.

“We started introducing digital technologies into our operation about 15 years ago when we acquired a Stork TCP machine to enable us to eliminate mini-screens,” said Stephen Thomas, the company’s Managing Director. “That started us on our digital journey, and we subsequently purchased other small Stork printers. About five years ago, we realized we needed to step up from 10 to 20 meters per hour to faster printers. We went out to all of the key manufacturers and had them print our files, working with our employees to evaluate the output. We narrowed it down to the top two.”