Company Overview
Bennettsville Printing, located in Bennettsville, South Carolina, has been in operation for over 20 years and provides home, industrial, military textile printing, dyeing, and finishing services. The company has a passion for providing the highest quality products, best color matching, on time delivery, and excellent customer service. This is due to their dedicated and experienced staff. Their in-house colorists have an average of 34 years of experience with exceptional color and shade matching. All of their processes are ISO compliant, providing the most efficient manufacturing and finishing for their customers.
Situation
Bennettsville Printing first engaged with SCMEP in 2014. At the time, they were struggling to stay in business and had their employees working three-day weeks in order to keep them from leaving. The company has always serviced the home goods, printing upholstery, and drapery fabric market. Those markets have been devastated by imports and Bennettsville Printing had been unable to replace the business. During that time, they were working to get qualified as a supplier of printed fatigue fabric for military uniforms.
When the military printing contracts increased, SCMEP identified a primary constraint to throughput and profitability – Sanforizing. Sanforizing is a process that pre-shrinks fabric prior to being sewn into a garment. The company owned a very old sanforizer but it was not in working condition. As a result, they were losing weeks of product lead time and paying a great deal for outside processing.
Solution
SCMEP performed their Competitiveness Review assessment. Developed by SCMEP, the Competitiveness Review is a comprehensive, on-site evaluation of a company’s operations that both appraises capabilities and gauges the effectiveness of business systems. Following the assessment, it was recommended that Bennettsville Printing work on implementing an ISO 9001 Quality Management System as well as position the company to handle the military business when it arose. SCMEP was then able to connect the company with other state resources to gain grant assistance. Over the next four years, SCMEP continued working us Bennettsville Printing in developing a sales and marketing program and website. This enabled credibility for the company.
Results
Due to SCMEP’s assistance, Bennettsville Printing was able to overhaul their current equipment allowing them to quadruple their capacity. They saw a $360K savings during the first year. Bringing the process in-house cut lead times by 75% and set the company up for future growth. The company estimates a cost savings of $600,000 over the past 18 months. Sales have increased by $5 million and 4 new employees have been added. They are currently looking to add a third shift and 5 additional employees. Moving forward, the company hopes to add an additional $250K in equipment. SCMEP is currently assisting Bennettsville Printing in setting up an ecommerce site in order to receive online orders.
“We would recommend SCMEP to other companies because they are very pro-business and understand their mission clearly. There are many “experts” who want to work with small businesses but do not understand the business. SCMEP and the South Carolina Department of Commerce have always lived up to their word and done what they promised to do. South Carolina is committed to business and is the reason why the State has been so successful at winning new companies.”
“SCMEP became a true partner in our business and helped us succeed. They learned our business very quickly and helped us overcome major challenges which set us up for future success.”
Victor Winogradow, CEO