Impressions - October/November 2012 - (Page 56)

Shop spotlight Kaule’s Screen Works Screen Printing ‘In Our Blood’ Despite the economic recession, Kaule’s Screen Works has managed to thrive by relying on a Steel City work ethic that results in customer satisfaction time and time again. By Michael J. pallerino, Contributing Writer After initially operating out of a back room in Robert Kaule’s office in 2007, Kaule’s Screen Works has grown to a 3,000-square-foot shop in the basement of a standalone building. Kaule’s Screen Works At A Glance Company Name: Kaule’s Screen Works Address: 7703 Perry Highway, Ste. 100 Pittsburgh, PA 15237 Founded: 2007 No. of Employees: 2 Decorating Methods Offered: Screen Printing, Embroidery Company Website: KaulesScreenWorks.com Facebook Page: facebook.com/KaulesScreenWorks hair styling/day spa/tanning center on the main floor, and offices on the second floor. Garrett Kaule says because the shop is 80% underground, temperatures are cool in the summer and warm in the winter. “The only down side is that it’s hard for new customers to find us,” he says. The company mainly operates equipment from Vastex Intl. Inc. — a six-color, six-station manual screen printing press, 54-inch oven, exposure unit, 3,500-watt flash unit and washout booths — plus a few homemade items. “We still have our original four-color, one-station Little Giant press we use for tags and sleeve prints,” Garrett says. ompared to most projects, the job was relatively small. A cancer survivor needed a small quantity of T-shirts printed during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It wasn’t the kind of the job that was going to boost those bottom line numbers. The customer knew that, and so did Garrett Kaule. But he found value in what the job represented. He understood what the shirts meant to a woman who had survived something all of us fear. Those shirts were her message — one that he was set on helping her deliver. So Garrett Kaule, who co-owns the business with his father, Robert, printed the shirts and watched as the lady expressed the 56 Impressions >> October/November 2012 c kind of gratitude that sets the foundation for how a company succeeds — focusing on customer satisfaction, having an eye for detail and the ability to always leave them smiling. That’s the Kaule’s Screen Works way. The Pittsburgh-based screen printing and embroidery company cut its teeth on what Garrett Kaule calls those “can-you-make-me-one-shirt” customers. Family reunions. Landscapers. Schools. Restaurants. Clothing startups. Bike clubs. But times are changing. Lately, it has been working with a few large companies on the local level that count on Kaule’s to turn around small- to medium-sized jobs that cannot be outsourced. Those companies include New Balance, Merrell, Tupperware, L.L. Bean and The Home Depot, to name a few. From small things big things one day come. Today, the company operates a 3,000-square-foot shop in the basement of a standalone building that also houses a PREPPING FOR BIG BUSINESS Kaule’s Screen Works was started in 2007 after Robert Kaule was looking for T-shirts for a local motorcycle club he founded. He knew his son and nephew, who both had backgrounds in art, were interested in screen printing, so he went online at eBay to buy some equipment. When the “junk,” as Garrett Kaule recalls, arrived, the company was set into motion. Father and son sought a local screen printing supplier to help get things set up and explain the process. “My dad is an engineer and has a custom software business (his day job), so he caught on pretty quickly,” Garrett Kaule recalls. “Our initial shop was in the back room at his office. We had our 4 x 1 Little Giant, a flash dryer, exposure unit, some 110 screens and a CD player.” The company’s first job was T-shirts for the motorcycle club — a two-color front design and a two-color back design on impressionsmag.com http://www.KaulesScreenWorks.com http://www.facebook.com/KaulesScreenWorks http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - October/November 2012

Impressions - October/November 2012
Contents
First Impressions
From the Show Director
FYI
Product Gallery
ISS Conference
Embracing Digital Technologies
DTG vs. Dye Sublimation
Digital Products Preview
High-Performance Fashion Yields a Technical Edge
How To Sell More With Every Order
Shop Spotlight
Embroidery Production
Screen Printing Production
Online Directory
Screen Printing Technique
Digital Decorating
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - October/November 2012