$1 million Henderson T-shirt plant formally opens
Several of the work tables on Spreadshirt’s production floor, with their sky blue metal legs and light gray tops, would not draw a second glance from most people.
But as the company formally opened its $1 million T-shirt plant in Henderson on Tuesday, CEO Phil Rooke pointed to them as one factor that helped swing losses to profits in 2010. T-shirts do not stick to the laminate surface when they are ironed, saving workers a few seconds compared with conventional table tops.
"If you take a little bit of time on 2.9 million items a year, that adds up to considerable savings," Rooke said.
With revenues continuing to grow rapidly and cash flow now positive, the privately held Spreadshirt, based in Leipzig, Germany, decided it needed a new plant. Spreadshirt liked the location because it shaved shipping time and cost to California, which accounts for 20 percent of U.S. sales. The Southern Nevada site also raised its hopes of building a steady work force.
The only other U.S. production plant is in Greensburg, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
Spreadshirt now has 22 people at the Las Vegas site. The company expects to add 60 more by year’s end, though some of them will be seasonal because of the upward spike in orders before Christmas.
He said Spreadshirt will hire another 100 people next year. Several companies have arrived in town trumpeting big numbers only to have them later evaporate, but Rooke said his projections are based on contracts already in hand.
This year’s revenues, he said, are on track to rise 81 percent to 67 million euros ($87.1 million at current exchange rates) from 37 million euros ($48.1 million) last year. Nevertheless, he said, the company’s name recognition, particularly among individual as opposed to corporate customers, is still spotty.
"A lot of people don’t know you can get something like this," Rooke said.
Spreadshirt.com, the company’s store, carries 600,000 T-shirt designs listed by several thousand individual promoters. The website lets people pick what they want, or upload their own ideas and have them applied to a chosen size and color of material. The prices are generally on the premium end – for example, $23.90, including shipping, for a standard T-shirt with the emblem of the Minnesota State Golden Eagles – for the custom process and what Spreadshirt promotes as superior quality.
As a result, the average order includes 1.7 items because Spreadshirt shuns mass production.
"To be honest, if you want an I (heart) Las Vegas T-shirt, you are probably are better off at a two for $7 rack on the Strip," he said. "But if you want I (heart) Henderson, we are the only one who would have it."
Spreadshirt lists several other items in its catalog but only hoodies sell in significant numbers and in much lower quantities than T-shirts.
The production area of the 37,000-square-foot building in Henderson is divided between what the company calls text, where decals are placed on the shirts and ironed on by hand, and flex, where computer-controlled machines spray on the designs. Because of the American taste for intricate patterns, about half of the shirts are flex-made compared with 30 percent in Europe.
As another cost-saving measure, the two flex machines now in operation were purchased used and refurbished at a cost of $40,000 each. A couple of new ones, which will arrive shortly, cost $250,000 each, Rooke said.
While taking part in the ceremonial ribbon cutting, Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen admitted to being "a bit humbled."
"A few years ago, this would have been just a blip on the radar," he said. "Now it’s a new day with the recent downfall of the economy."
Contact reporter Tim O’Reiley at toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.