Digital Helps Hong Kong Extend a Heart2Heart to the World

Grandion Group is a Hong Kong-based manufacturer with production facilities in mainland China, managing apparel production from fabric sourcing to cutting, to sewing, to decoration, to finishing and shipment. They provide OEM printing services for brands such as Zara, Bossini, and Baleno. In 2015, the company initiated its TML (“To Make Locally”) project, which seeks to make good use of Hong Kong’s competitive advantages, including talented designers, logistics, liquidity, and a well-established legal system for protecting intellectual property. Establishing a brand on the “made in Hong Kong” message has enabled them to broaden and enhance their supply chain capabilities while supporting and promoting local culture.

TML produces t-shirts, hoodies, and cushions on demand for Hong Kong theme parks, as well as enterprising designers and end-consumers who create and upload their own images and designs via the Snaptee platform and mobile app. The latter group includes customers as far-ranging as Europe and Japan, and the business has even expanded to include kiosks in shopping centers. To fulfill this demand, TML installed two Kornit Storm II systems at its production center, largely due to the machine’s ability to deliver consistent high quality, as well as Kornit’s customer support infrastructure.

While TML’s operations were not impacted by the onset of COVID-19 to the same extent as many print businesses in other parts of the world (such as Western Europe and the United States), they took the initiative to create the “Heart2Heart” program. They engaged with a community of Hong Kong designers to create t-shirt designs for 50 countries worldwide, with each printed shirt bearing an “HK Heart2Heart” icon to express solidarity across borders and ethnicities, encourage the global community to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic. All sales proceeds, less production costs, are being used to procure personal protective equipment for local charities and community groups.

As this piece is being written, TML is testing a new production process for fashionable, custom-made protective face masks using the Kornit Storm II systems. These masks will further add to their charitable efforts.

Looking beyond the pandemic response, TML believes their business will continue to grow long-term, and they intend to set up more t-shirt kiosks for the public, in addition to licensing local design brands and pop-up events incorporating custom-made elements to be printed via Kornit technology.