Posted on: 2008-05-02 16:19:20

 

GATORWRAPS

 

 

Revving Up Profits with Wraps

 

 

By Melissa Tetreault

Adding a new service to your sign shop is overwhelming. Questions such as—"What is the demand?" "Will we be good at it?" and more importantly, "Is it profitable?" all need to be addressed. Expanding your current business or starting your own is not something to be taken lightly.

Humble Beginnings
More often than not, those interested in vehicle wraps have experience with cars. What they may not have is experience wrapping them.

Rod Voegele, CEO, GatorWraps, started his Las Vegas, NV-based business with no previous wrap experience. With a background in customer service and marketing, Voegele’s car-related experience involved custom paint jobs.

Realizing the potential of vehicle wraps, but lacking the knowledge of how to run a sign shop, raised initial concerns. "However, I quickly learned that vehicle wrapping is just like any other business," he admits. "People want great service and vehicle wraps are about marketing, whether it is marketing your personality through personalizing your vehicle or marketing your company to potential customers." Now, 95 percent of GatorWraps’ business consists of vehicle wraps.

Growing with Knowledge
Many experienced shops add vehicle wraps to their service list and dedicate much of their time and team to learning the ins and outs of wrap workflow. Sign shops contemplating vehicle wraps should consider hiring professional installers to help produce output. If that isn’t in the budget, many training classes are offered by media and printer manufacturers across the country.

Voegele’s seven-man team took a class at FELLERS, Inc. headquarters in Tulsa, OK. The training class started with the basics and ended with advanced installation techniques. Both in the classroom and hands on, the class is taught by several experienced FELLERS employees.

Getting the Word Out
When consumers see a wrapped vehicle drive by, the product advertised may not be the only thing that intrigues them. Vehicle wraps function as moving advertisements for the customer and the sign shop.

Originally, GatorWraps’ sales derived from potential clients spotting wrapped vehicles in AZ, CA, and Southern NV. Eventually, offers flowed in thanks to word of mouth and referrals. These successes trickled down into their other services, including trade show graphics, signs, and banners.

The Pros...

GatorWraps’ Voegele believes vehicle wraps have the potential to be just as profitable as any other project, when done correctly. "You have to focus on exceeding the customer’s expectation from design to install. As with any job, having to redo the work eats up all the profit, and kills your reputation," he explains.

... and the Cons
Time and money is something everyone wants more of, but if not given enough attention, these can be two of the biggest difficulties encountered in vehicle wrapping. "Timing is everything in this business. You have to coordinate the design, print, and install very carefully to minimize the customer’s time away from their own business, and the time away from their vehicle. In many cases, people are making a living with their vehicles and can’t afford to be without them," says Voegele.

Connecting Land and Sea
GatorWraps formed many partnerships over the years, one of which is with Monaco, a division of Monaco Coach Corporation, one of the largest recreational vehicle manufacturers. They offer a wrap package in conjunction with the RV manufacturer.

In Fall 2007, a GatorWraps customer wanted both their Monaco RV and Ranger bass boat wrapped. There are a lot of challenges to wrapping a RV and a boat individually, these challenges more than double when it comes to wrapping them simultaneously. GatorWraps uses a Mutoh ValueJet to print their RV and boat wraps.

When wrapping a trailer and boat together, the graphics should flow accordingly. Mike Faulkner, VP, GatorWraps, explains, "You need to make sure you hook the boat up to the back of the RV so you can see if the graphics match up. You have to think about the height of the boat and the height of the RV."

A solid wrap strategy is also needed because boats can’t be wrapped below the waterline. "We design at an angle to create boat graphics," shares Faulkner. "A boat is slightly taller in the back, so when you design, you need the back to be a little bit taller than the front, meaning from front to back the graphic has to gradually get bigger."

One major boat wrap consideration is water damage. The front of the graphic needs to overlay the back. If the opposite occurs, when the boat is running at high speed the water will beat on the edge, causing it to peel back. When the front overlays the back, the water goes right over it, causing no problems. GatorWraps uses Avery’s Easy Apply RS vinyl on their boat wraps. Faulkner claims clients take his boats wrapped in Avery RS out every week with no problems.

RVs also have their wrapping challenges, which can be avoided. Most RVs have caulking around the sides of windows and vinyl does not adhere to caulking. When a wrap is installed over caulking, it creates a big bubble. Then you have to take a razor blade and cut around the whole thing, which is time consuming. If a customer is planning to wrap their RV, RVs without caulking are available. After the wrap is complete, experts come in and re-seal or re-caulk over the wrap.

After offering RV wraps, boat wrapping was the next logical step for GatorWraps. Explains Faulkner, "Everyone wants to customize everything. That’s the reason why this business works. For professional fisherman, they get all these sponsors and are paid to have graphics on their boats. Instead of painting it, the alternative is the wrap, and when you change sponsors you can easily change the wrap."

 

Avery Graphics
Easy Apply RS technology vehicle wrap and digital overlaminate products are featured at booth 1214. The EZ RS product line includes two cast films with satin or gloss finish and a calendered film with matte finish—all optimized for digital printing—in addition to an opaque wrapping film in six colors.

Avery Graphics digital overlaminates come in a wide range of finishes and sizes to meet a variety of application needs. DOL 1030, the newest, a 1.3 mil, ultra-conformable, cast overlaminate with gloss finish and four-year durability is perfect for vehicle and truck wraps. DOL 1000—gloss finish and 1100—matte finish are 2.1 mil, conformable, cast overlaminates with a five-year durability.

FELLERS, Inc.
Highlighted at booth 2580 is FELLERS, Inc.’s The Bad Wrap software, which allows designers to save hours of preparation on vehicle wraps by using real photographic templates of the most commonly wrapped vehicles.

The Bad Wrap system has over 300 templates using actual vehicle photographs, not line drawings. Each vehicle is hand measured and accurately scaled by vehicle wrap designers to be accurate within 1/4-inch. All templates include actual measurements in PDF documents for quick reference.

The Bad Wrap design software allows a typical sign shop to pay for its cost in about three wraps with the amount of time saved. The easy-to-use program is the only design system that allows you to drag and drop graphic elements right onto the template for design in Adobe PhotoShop. In fact, an entry-level graphic designer with basic PhotoShop skills can design a full wrap in about an hour.

Excess materials are saved with the ability to preview the layout before printing. Bad Wrap templates are three-dimensional, allowing designers to give their customers a realistic proof and make necessary changes on the spot. The Bad Wrap software system is distributed exclusively through FELLERS.

 

Profitable sign shops share vehicle wrapping experiences.