Fifth Column expands short run apparel production

UK garment decorator Fifth Column has expanded its apparel decoration capabilities with the installation of a Kornit Atlas Max Plus system.

Fifth Column specialises in garment decoration, including screen printing, embroidery, digital printing, garment finishing, and print on-demand production. Its customer base spans breweries, music merchandise companies, workwear providers, designer brands, and retail businesses.

The investment marks its transition from traditional screenprinting workflows to advanced digital production capabilities. This expansion enables the company to meet growing demand for short run, full colour production, print on-demand fulfilment, lower volume customised orders, faster sample creation, and scalable digital garment decoration services across the UK.

‘For years, we felt the DTG technology simply wasn’t ready for the production standards we required,’ said Damian Rys of Fifth Column. ‘Years ago, we had smaller DTG systems, but the print durability and reliability simply weren’t good enough for professional production. With Kornit, we finally saw a solution advanced enough to fit our business.’

Fifth Column first connected with Kornit Digital during FESPA 2025 before attending a customer event at HFT71 in Poland, where it experienced the capabilities of the Atlas Max Plus platform first hand.

‘The Atlas Max Plus demonstrated a level of automation, durability, and print performance that significantly exceeded previous generations of DTG technology,’ Rys explained. ‘Durability was always our biggest concern, but Kornit completely changed our perception of what digital production could deliver.’

The company installed its first Atlas Max Plus system in April and became fully operational within weeks.

Fifth Column also cited Kornit’s All-Inclusive Click (AIC) commercial model and onboarding support as important factors in the decision. The AIC model allows the company to better manage production costs while supporting scalable digital production without large upfront capital investments.

Historically, the company maintained minimum order quantities of approximately 250 pieces for multicolour screenprinted jobs due to the operational complexity involved in set up, colour matching, screen preparation, and sampling.

The transition to digital production now allows Fifth Column to profitably support highly customised, low volume multicolour jobs of 50 to 250 pieces that were previously operationally impractical using traditional screenprinting workflows, finally addressing customer demand for these runs. The new production environment also streamlines sample creation, accelerates customer approvals, and increases overall manufacturing flexibility.

‘Fifth Column is a strong example of how screen printers are leveraging digital production to expand flexibility, support shorter production runs, and create more agile customer focused manufacturing environments,’ said Guy Yaniv, president of Kornit Digital Europe. ‘Its adoption of Kornit technology demonstrates how modern garment decorators can successfully combine traditional production expertise with advanced digital capabilities to unlock new growth opportunities.’