[VIDEO] Forza Italia captures customised print market in Melbourne

With an Epson SureColor SC-F2000 direct-to-garment printer forming the cornerstone of its customised printing operations, the Melbourne-based retailer is now exploring and producing complex designs on business shirts, t-shirts, hooded jumpers and more.

General Manager of Forza Italia, Joseph A Gerace chats to GJS about how engaging customers in the production of their customised products, as well as the ability to create or personalise a product in minutes has changed the dynamics of its business.

Transcript:

Forza Italia is Australia's largest Italian retailer, we focus on large Italian brands such a Ferarri, Juventus. We also now personalise and customise a large number of products on demand, with a turnaround time of 10-15 minutes. 

Forza Customs is the custom printing division of Forza Italia, it has a purpose built web designer, which allows you to customise all your products on-screen, with a real-photo visual so you can see what a design would look like on red, black, grey etc. We've seen that it has made a massive difference to clients, online and in-store, where they can really see what they want.

We currently have a large range of equipment, ranging from our latest F2000 Epson printer (direct-to-garment), to a BN20 Roland cutter and printer, which does all our transfers, to mug press, cap press, boot press, sublimation printer, it's a one-stop shop and it's all built internally for us to manage ongoing, so whether it's midnight on a Friday night, we can still do all your printing needs.     

We decided we needed a DTG printer when we started going into more of the affiliate market. Since we've had the DTG it has really changed everthing, it's allowed us to explore the complexities of designs on all our clothing, and customers just love what they can do.

For us, we chose the Epson F2000 because of its simplistic design, software, it allowed all our staff to be able to use it at all times, and easy maintenance, so it was definitely a real winner for us.

Currently on the F2000 we're printing a large range of products, from business shirts, to t-shirts, to hooded jumpers, to shorts, pretty much any natural fibre products we're giving a go and it's producing amazing results.

We offer in-store personalisation on all of our products, so from an official licence branding point, a Ferrari t-shirt for example, we'd be able to offer the child or person's name on the t-shirt. The F2000 makes that super quick because you can just go on the computer, type the name, drag the file in and print it on-demand within a couple of minutes.

The benefits we see using the F2000 in-store, it has improved the in-store experience, but also our customer's engagement on an in-store level and web-store level. It enables them to feel part of the process that gets involved in the design and production of their own t-shirt.

Customised products are extremely important to people today, they love expressing themselves in the way they dress and the way they feel, and that's really changed across caps, t-shirts, etc.

We're located in the heart of Lygon Street, we're open seven days, everyday 'till late, 'till 10 o'clock and midnight Friday and Saturday. So it's quite a 'night owl' store, so it gives it that European flair to shopping at night, and that really changes the dynamics of it all.

So being able to personalise, within store, in minutes, or after someone has gone for dinner, the come back and collect their t-shirt, has really changed the whole dynamics of our business.

• Highlights
• Design and print hundreds of customised products for customers: all in-house and on-demand
• Epson SureColor SC-F2000 desktop direct-to-garment printer
• Roland VersaSTUDIO BN-20 Metallic Desktop Eco-Solvent Printer/Cutter
• Viper XPT-1000 Pre-Treatment Machine