INDUSTRY NEWS www.images-magazine.com 16 images OCTOBER 2026 LOVE IT! LOATHE IT! Working on one-off bespoke orders. Customers telling me they have been referred from another customer. Customers paying on time. Working for 10 years with my husband who completes the printing. Getting to know our customers. What do you love about working in the garment industry? What gets you out of bed in the morning and working late into the night? And what do you loathe? What sets you grinding your teeth and climbing the walls in frustration? Michelle Allan of The Embroidery Shop shares her pet likes and dislikes Michelle has all the thread she needs and the delivery companies are doing their job – it’s a good day! Love it! Customers that supply tops that already have a logo printed and ask us to cover up the existing logo – but their logo is mainly text. Getting asked to rush an order and the customer then does not collect until days later. Delivery companies not delivering next day as instructed. Having a panic attack when I think I might just run out of thread. Customers bringing in AI-generated images and wanting us to print them up. Loathe it! www.theembroideryshop.co.uk Would you like to share what you love and loathe about working in garment decoration? Then we'd like to hear from you. Contact us via social media (@ImagesMagUK) or email (editorial@imagesmagazine.com) using 'Love it' as the subject line. Find our trade events calendar online: www.imagesmag/events-calendar Westcoast Workwear named Southport Business of the Year Westcoast Workwear has been named Southport Business of the Year 2026. The inaugural Southport Business Awards, organised by One Media Solutions, was held on 21 August. “We were encouraged to enter by some of our customers,” said MD Tom Mills. “We always see other companies winning awards but we never really think to enter. We have always just stayed in the background and got on with things quietly. “There were around 150 nominations and we were actually entered for customer service award – it was the judges who chose the nominees for the Business of the Year Award. The judges said we continuously go above and beyond for our customers and make a huge contribution to local charities. “To win was a huge honour, we were up against some really big, well-known companies. It is our first-ever award in 30 years of trading – it’s really nice to now be the ‘awardwinning Westcoast Workwear’.” The free-to-enter awards, which were held in the Ladies Day Marquee at the Southport Flower Show, had 15 categories for local businesses to enter, along with the Business of the Year Award. imagesmag.uk/westcoast-award [L-R] The winning team: general manager Kevin Rea, distribution manager Carly-Jane Hartley, print production operative Ruby Jones, operations and digital manager Katie Ryan, and owner Tom Mills Oeko-Tex responds to new, ‘greenwashing’ rules The global organisation behind the Oeko-Tex standard has strengthened transparency and independence to be ready for stricter rules including a crackdown on “greenwashing”. It announced a reorganisation, with a clearer separation between the setting of the standard and assessment of conformity. A key trigger was the new EU Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (EmpCo, EU 2024/825) which came into effect on 27 September. The EmpCo directive strengthens the protection of consumers against greenwashing, ie misleading environmental claims. It also requires sustainability labels to be based on certification schemes with verification by independent third parties. The directive’s requirements were addressed, and adjustments made, at an early stage by the Oeko-Tex standard, which is used by the garment and textile industry to ensure transparent sustainability in manufacturing. imagesmag.uk/standard-greenwash
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzY5NjY3