Prime Line, Bridgeport, Conn., announced that it is expanding its Jetline facility in Gaffney, S.C., to keep up with increasing demand for its free 24-hour rush service on apparel and drinkware items, and to add additional space for upgrades to silk-screen, embroidery and multicolor drinkware capabilities. The company celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the plant with employees, distributors and members of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce present.
This year, Prime Line added apparel brands Bella+Canvas, Fruit of the Loom, Jerzees and Hanes to its Jetline product line. These new brands complement existing partnerships with Gildan and Next Level Apparel.
We spoke with Jeff Lederer, CEO of Prime Line about the plant expansion and new apparel offerings.
“When Prime purchased Jetline at the beginning of 2016, we had big plans for the line and for the South Carolina facility,” Lederer said. “The employees there are really special people, and it was important that we made them feel like an extended family from Prime in [Connecticut]. Part of that was knowing we wanted to make some capital investments to both improve the facility, expand the imprinting capabilities, and also increase production and warehouse space. This ribbon cutting is the culmination of a year’s worth of planning to ensure that we have a smooth transition with this, because having the highest service levels for our distributor customers at our Prime and Jetline facilities is our primary focus.”
Lederer added that the expanded facility and additional apparel offerings will make it easier for distributors to find solutions under one roof.
“By adding brand options, it gives our distributors a simple choice for where to place their apparel orders, because it creates a simplicity with order placement, reducing the worry about case breakage (of size and colors) because we inventory the products and can ship in 24 hours,” he said. “We added the brands because we found that the distributors want a one-stop shop with a company like Prime and Jet that has impeccable and incredibly reliable service. These additional brands reflect our approach with being close and strategically working with our customers.”
Lederer joked that he hopes the biggest problem the company faces from here on out is that they have too many orders.
“In the end, it’s a no-brainer, because it simplifies the ordering process with apparel, because it challenges the existing paradigm of buying blanks from a wholesaler, sending to a decorator, and then sending to their customer,” he said. “It’s a complete apparel advantage solution.”
For more information on Prime Line, visit www.primeline.com.
