Richard Love is just the sort of prospective customer David Thompson Rowland was hoping to meet on his recent Roadshow tour from Buckinghamshire to Yorkshire with his new CoJet print system: a creative thinker and a true entrepreneur. In fact, Richard is so ideal he could have been a set-up waiting for it all to happen ... though both Richard and David Thompson Rowland swear that it’s not so.
Thirty-three year old Richard seems to be one of those lucky people with an ability to see instantly how elements of his business can be changed and adapted to play a more vital role in his business scope overall. When the RW Machines roadshow came to town he was the major shareholder in a bespoke kitchen and bedroom manufacturing company and has now sold off his lion’s share quota to his fellow directors in order to focus more effectively on the new graphics capabilities his CoJet print system will give him.
“Seeing CoJet at RW Machines’ Leeds showroom was one of life’s ‘wow’ experiences”, he says. “My mind went into overdrive after a series of light bulb moments made it clear the graphics scope I could address with this new technology. I just had to have it!”
No stranger to be being thrown in at the deep end, Richard left the UK with this parents for Holland at the age of 11; his new school obliged him to learn the Dutch language and taught him also to adapt fully to life in a different country.
“My experience of moving to Holland has definitely had a major influence on the person I am today,” he says. “I’m not scared to try new and different things; in fact, I think that I go out of my way to be unique,” he adds.
However, it was the simplicity of the machine right across its capability range and also of confidence and belief in RW Machines for its highly regarded customer support standards that made the decision to invest so easy to make. CoJet has no restrictions – Richard is free to design whatever he wants and to use a range of materials that are both waterproof and lightfast.
Richard’s wife Helen will also play a major part in terms of using the machine to its best advantage; she is a grahic designer and has been prominent in the development of graphics software and systems for children. She also has a specialisation in doors at all levels and now wants to bring ceilings within her speciality range, particularly in the short term to include designs for the new Manchester showroom building which has been bought by Richard as a gallery and production studio for the new printing business.
As well as being part of the manufacturing printer culture of Richard Love’s new studio set-up in Manchester, his very popular coffee shop Love Lunch will also become one of the first of the Love family businesses to come under the refit microscope.
In addition to redesigning the style of inside and outside seating areas, Richard and Helen are keen to also move forward with new eye-catching prints for the outside elements of the business that can perhaps now withstand the worst of the very changeable northern British climate.
A new design strategy has been established for wall panels and ceilings, as well as for table tops and covers, menus, signage, and for general graphics displays that are now UV protected and are also printable on the vary latest of lightfast materials that will withstand just about anything the British climate can throw at them. Richard is also now in talks with local authorities on their own plans for creative outdoor signage and billboard advertising across the region.
Indeed, Richard Love can see demand arising for additional CoJet print systems to address other needs across the territory – especially if weather prospects remain good for coming months.
“The future is not such a puzzle,” says Richard. “I am young still but I have seen enough of the markets I’m closely involved with to know that this is the right time to invest in new technologies.”
While he is confident in the new doors that this machine will open for his business, he admits that none of it would have been possible without the help and guidance of David Thompson Rowland and his RW Machines team.
“From the moment I signed on the dotted line, RW Machines’ support has been invaluable. They even arranged for a German CoJet engineer to visit us for a week of machine training ... how many companies these days would – or even could – do that?”
