Color and more, made in R.I.

VERY IMPORTANT WORK: General manager of A Perfect Print Elisa Scittarelli, pictured above, says she gets a “kick out of” seeing A Perfect Print’s distinctive work in high-profile settings. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
VERY IMPORTANT WORK: General manager of A Perfect Print Elisa Scittarelli, pictured above, says she gets a “kick out of” seeing A Perfect Print’s distinctive work in high-profile settings. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

People go to great lengths to secure special access to the world’s biggest events and wear their VIP passes like badges of honor, often saving them years later as souvenirs.
Colorful credentials are everywhere at concerts, championship games and conferences, usually hanging from equally colorful lanyards draped around the necks of attendees.
At A Perfect Print LLC of Providence, the demand for distinctive promotional products, such as lanyards, has helped fuel rapid growth over the past three years and doesn’t show signs of stopping.
In addition to lanyards, A Perfect Print puts the color, graphics and words on a wide range of narrow fabric products, such as belts, dog collars, leashes, shoe laces, suspenders, guitar straps and headbands.
From its factory near the Cranston line in the Huntington Industrial Park, the company prints images – through dye sublimation heat transfer – on materials from nylon to elastics and webbing to satin ribbon.
“The one thing I get a kick out of is when you custom design something that’s a particularly colorful and quality piece of work and then you see its being worn all over and on television,” said A Perfect Print General Manager Elisa Scittarelli.
High-profile events where A Perfect Print lanyards have appeared include President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, Ozzfest concerts and National Football League games.
In many cases, only company employees know exactly where their work is appearing. Because they print products for suppliers, they often have to keep their role anonymous. For example, Scittarelli couldn’t say which NFL teams and Hollywood movie premiers A Perfect Print has made lanyards for.
A 20-year veteran of the textile industry, Scittarelli decided there was a market opportunity in decorating and improving narrow-fabric materials produced by other mills.
Although the textile industry in Rhode Island and the South Coast of Massachusetts isn’t what it once was, there are still about eight textile manufacturers in the region, including William Jette & Sons Inc. in Providence, where Scittarelli spent gained most of her experience in the industry. Scittarelli said having a cluster of textile manufacturers in the area provides a boost, especially in producing entirely American-made items.
“We still have many mills we deal with locally, because we market ‘Made in the USA,’ ” Scittarelli said. “We also have importing capabilities, but there is no reason to import the product if we have mills in Rhode Island that are fabricating it right here.”
As the price of Chinese imports has risen in recent years, Scittarelli said keeping production domestic has become even more attractive.
In addition to printing colors and images to order, A Perfect Print also has its own design shop capable of creating custom and original graphics. In fact, it’s a local competitive advantage, since five of the company’s designers went to Rhode Island School of Design.
For a young company, A Perfect Print has grown rapidly.
As recently as January, when the city celebrated the company’s work for the inauguration, A Perfect Print had 30 employees.
Since then the company has added a second shift and is now up to 50 employees, about three-quarters of them in manufacturing.
Scittarelli said in the next six months A Perfect Print will likely add another 10 to 20 workers and still has plenty of space in its 25,000-square-foot factory, the former home of Sardelli Jewelry. A Narragansett native who spent time growing up in Warwick, Scittarelli now lives in Johnston in an old converted textile mill.
Seeing the mills turned into apartments is bittersweet, she said, but living in one keeps her connected to the region’s long history in textile manufacturing.
As for which live events have left the biggest impression on her personally, Scittarelli said Ozzfest and Cirque du Soleil came to mind.
Going forward, Scittarelli said she is looking to keep expanding A Perfect Print into new products and markets.
In addition to the promotional products industry (which includes lanyards), she said military, sporting goods, especially hunting, have the potential to be big.
“We always want to exceed customer expectations and bring back more U.S.-made products,” Scittarelli said. •

COMPANY PROFILE
A Perfect Print LLC
Owner: Private investors
Type of Business: Narrow fabric printing
Location: 195 Dupont Drive, Providence
Employees: 50
Year Established: 2010
Annual Sales: NA

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