Coniston Corporate

Tell us a bit about your business

Coniston Corporate in Cumbria has more than 3,000 clients throughout the UK, ranging from large, national companies with thousands of staff to small businesses who only need one garment at a time. Established in 2000, the company has 20 fulltime staff, all of whom make it their business to care about the thousands of orders processed each year.

What is the latest embroidery machine you’ve bought and did you look at any others?

The ZSK Racer 4. Our previous machines were made by Brother, but once they had stopped making them we had to look at other options. We looked at a few makes, some that were made in China, but we decided that the German-made ZSK, although not the cheapest, would be better value for money in the long term.

Why did you choose that particular embroidery machine?

I enjoyed meeting Andrew [director of Stocks] and knew that Stocks would provide excellent support for my business going forward, and trusted he had a good team of engineers ready to help with any on-going maintenance. I also believed in the ZSK brand as all the reviews I could find were favourable.

Is there anything you’d like to see in an upgrade or don’t particularly like about it?

The spool cover for the arm is just a shield that clips on, but heavier garments can easily knock this off and garments often get caught and ruined. These really should have a secure fastening so they can’t just get knocked off.

What’s it like to use?

Apart from the issue highlighted above, it has been excellent.

What is it used for?

Every type of order, from small runs of 10 items, to bigger quantities of 1,000 plus.

What other machines do you have?

They are all ZSK now. We did have some Brother ones, but they have all been phased out.

What would be your advice to others thinking of buying an embroidery machine?

Speak to Andrew, he’s been excellent to deal with and has helped my business grow over 10% month on month, year on year.

Credit: Article taken from Images Magazine from the April 2017 edition. View the article online by clicking here. 

Paul Reilly, Managing Director at Coniston Corporate UK, with their ZSK four-head embroidery machine.