Australian provider of products and services to the textile, heat transfer, dye sublimation, direct to garment, digital solvent and screen printing industries, GJS, has been recognised by Brother International Australia (BIA) as a founding direct-to-garment (DTG) partner.
GJS was handed a special award acknowledging more than 10-years of collaboration and market education on DTG printing.
GJS launched the first dedicated, industrial direct-to-garment printer to the local market with the introduction of the Brother GT-541 single-platen DTG printer at Visual Image Impact Expo on the Gold Coast in 2010.
Since then, GJS has gone on to become one of Australia’s premier suppliers and distributors of direct-to-garment printers and consumables with hundreds of Australian businesses now using a DTG printer as a cornerstone for digital garment decoration.
“Great business relationships are far more rewarding than just great business. When companies and their representatives have a synergy that delivers outstanding experiences for all stakeholders, it’s something to be proud of,” Brother International Australia national manager Greg Benardos said.
“When starting DTG for Brother International Australia I was given a difficult task, new technology, new markets, unknown competitors who simply didn’t deliver on their promises, the goal was to be different, deliver our ‘at your side’ by finding and securing the best resellers in the industry.”
The launch of the Brother GT-541 marked the progression from screen printing technologies to a cleaner and quicker way to transfer images directly onto garments. Since the GT-541 there have been five subsequent DTG evolutions from the Brother brand released in Australia: the GT-782 dual platen DTG printer, the GT-3, the GTX, the GTXpro and the GTXpro Bulk.
“I’m proud to have worked with Graham Stone in those early years, but it was Greg Stone who had the vision and enthusiasm to drive the paradigm shift from what was predominately a manufacturing business into the digital leaders GJS are today,” Benardos added.
“I saw that in our first meeting and knew then, this is the business type we need. I have seen their growth over the past 10 years in DTG as well as the many other areas they are successfully trading, it has been a pleasure to be ‘at their side’ during this time.”
The introduction and growth of direct-to-garment printing technology in Australia has also helped drive the democratisation of print and digital decoration with hundreds of new businesses emerging and consumers benefiting from the ability to create customised garments in short runs coupled with quick turn-around times without a commitment to minimum quantities or the need to send printing work offshore.
“Being part of the introduction and wide-spread adoption of DTG in the Australian market has been an incredibly rewarding experience,” GJS managing director Greg Stone said.
“From fledgling beginnings and overcoming the stigma created by inferior re-engineered paper printers pretending to be garment printers, to educating the market on the potential and now seeing some of our customers purchase their fourth, fifth and even sixth DTG printer as their businesses continue to grow gives the entire GJS team great pride.”
Stone added that GJS firmly believes in a partnership approach to business, and this is exemplified in the work that it has done over the last 10 years with Brother International Australia to help drive DTG adoption and educate the market through events and courses, trade shows, webinars, whitepapers, ebooks and social proof in the form of customer success stories and videos.
“I’d like to thank Brother International Australia for this special award and extend a special thanks to the GJS team around the country who work with our DTG customers each and every day to achieve success,” Stone said.
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