With summer almost over, now is the time to start thinking about which stock inks to stock for quick customer deliveries. Here is Mark Brouillard with some tips:
Every quarter we ask our sales people for forecasts of which stock inks we should have on the shelves. They always tell us that about the next “season.” Below is a breakdown of what they usually tell us to have in inventory for the upcoming seasons:
Fall:
Halloween:
- Glow-in-the-dark
- Reflective Inks
- Yellow, orange, and reds
Thanksgiving:
End of the year holidays:
- Red, green, gold, and white
- Crystallina
- Metallic and shimmers
Why is knowing what stock to stock is important? If you don’t already have some on the “Back-to-school” inks in stock the opportunity to print for it may be too late. At this point, you may want to check with your vendor to see if they have some. It is always hard to print for an upcoming season if you do not the ink in stock or have access to the correct materials. A note of caution, however, is to not over-buy for the season. Sounds reasonable, but I have seen it several times where someone buys too much Glow-in-the-dark for Halloween (a drum when it should have been a pail), and then wants to return it. Most vendors will allow for returns, but there are generally some caveats to it. There is usually a re-stocking fee, the material must be in un-opened containers in sellable condition, and then there is the shipping charge for returning the material.
Another seasonal, for that matter the entire year, caution to keep in mind: People don’t know what they want. With today’s just-in-time ordering patterns, many customers don’t know what they want until it is almost too late. However, it may be something as simple as a local team going to the playoffs, or an unforeseen event where you will need some ink and supplies quickly. There was a recent tragedy where two young boys went missing on a fishing trip off the Florida coast. In that tragedy, a local printer was able to print some apparel very quickly in the hopes of finding the boys (#findaustinandperry). It could be a planned event, something as rewarding as the Special Olympics, where so many people turned out that they needed to print more souvenir shirts (recently in Los Angeles).
Keeping in mind the above, you should think about what inks to start stocking up on or making sure is in stock at you vendor for the upcoming seasons, or for unplanned events.
Mark Brouillard, International Coatings’ product manager, has considerable experience in formulating and manufacturing industrial compounds. For the past 16 years, his focus has been on the formulation and product development of textile screen printing inks. Brouillard coordinates the company’s product development efforts and deployments.
International Coatings manufactures a complete line of non-phthalate
screen printing inks, including a wide variety of
whites,
specialty inks,
special effects inks,
color matching systems,
additives and reducers. For more information on our products, please visit our website at
www.iccink.com.
With summer almost over, now is the time to start thinking about which stock inks to stock for quick customer deliveries. Here is Mark Brouillard with some tips:
Every quarter we ask our sales people for forecasts of which stock inks we should have on the shelves. They always tell us that about the next “season.” Below is a breakdown of what they usually tell us to have in inventory for the upcoming seasons:
Fall:
