Impressions - May 2018 - 41

Hitmaster

GrapHics at a Glance

C ompan y n ame: Hitmaster Graphics
address: 1706 W. Fig St., Tampa, FL 33606
Foun ded: 2008
no. oF employees: 38
servi Ces oFFered: Screen printing, DTG printing and embroidery
C ompan y Website: hitmastergraphics.com

Production equipment
includes M&R Challenger,
Sportsman and Gauntlet
screen-printing presses,
among other embroidery and
DTG printing machines.

One for the Money
Perhaps a unique reason for Hitmaster's
success is its solid foundation in finance.
McKown met the company's rapid growth
with personnel capable of executing
sound financial planning and strategy.
This included his son, Brant, who attended
Cornell University and the University of
Florida, and attained a law degree before
joining the company. McKown's wife,
Lynette, once served as chief financial
officer of a $40 million nonprofit organization, so tabbing her as the company's
accountant proved prudent.
McKown and his team even had an
ordering and fulfillment system built
specifically to accommodate the garment-decorating world's specialized
processes.
"Our order-management system allows
a broker to log in, see an order in the system, know within hours of its arrival, and
see it marked as completed," McKown
says."Brokers appreciate knowing when
an order has shipped and the tracking
number for the order."
Since its founding in 2008, Hitmaster
has steadily evolved. McKown started with
contracts already in place, adding brokers
and expanding the business via word of
mouth. Screen printing was the first decorating method offered, with transfers and
embroidery added by 2010. Retail sales
originally were the focus, but McKown
and his team gradually have veered toward
contract decorating.
Production equipment includes M&R
Challenger, Sportsman and Gauntlet

screen-printing presses; SWF multihead
embroidery machines; and a Kornit Avalanche 1000 direct-to-garment (DTG)
printer.
Services offered include discharge,
water-based and four-color process printing
on light garments; nine-color, simulatedprocess printing on dark garments; highdensity and reflective printing;special-effects
printing, such as glitters, metallics and puff;
embroidery; and DTG printing. In-house
art services also are offered.
Finding Good Help
McKown says finding dependable employees has been his greatest challenge.
After all, hiring just anyone - experienced or not - looking for work proved
not to be the best way to find press operators. However, as the company has grown,
it has attracted experienced prospective
employees who, upon being hired, are
trained by two of the company's best
press operators.This helps to eliminate
and avoid bad habits on the shop floor.
McKown also says the hard-working
local Cuban community has positively
impacted his ability to hire and retain
good employees, most of whom hear
about the company via word of mouth.
For years, Hitmaster ran three shifts.
Because of an emphasis on efficiency, the
company has scaled back to one busy shift,
with two employees stationed at each of its
six screen-printing presses.With looming
growth potential, McKown thinks the
company could add a second shift.

"We work extremely hard to stay competitive in the industry by investing in
the newest technology," he says."We have
[an] automatic screen coating [machine],
as well as direct-to-screen equipment,
which enables us to produce screens faster
and with less cost."
#PrinterGoals
Hitmaster is in the process of upgrading
its website, an important development
because it's the portal through which
most brokers find the company. Email
marketing also is a frequently used tool.
The following tried-and-true methods work well for McKown's business:
Provide quality printing with a fast turnaround. Stand behind the work and offer
competitive pricing. If a mistake is made,
replace the garment - no questions
asked.
McKown says the company's shortterm goals are to perfect the production process to make it as efficient as
possible. In the longer term, he plans to
open four more locations around the
country to better accommodate national accounts. These new locations will
strategically place Hitmaster within a
one-day shipping proximity to most of
its customers. 
Jennifer Morrell is an award-winning writer who
has written for a number of national consumer
and trade publications. For more information
or to comment on this article, email Jennifer at
jennmorrell@hotmail.com.
MAY 2018

P.41

http://www.hitmastergraphics.com

Impressions - May 2018

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