Fresh Air celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We chart its road to success – from two brothers and a single manual carousel to a multi-press, multi-million-pound printing company…
1974…Sportsmaster is founded by Danny and Teddy Craze in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. The brothers print for local schools and clubs on a manual carousel.
1979…Sportsmaster moves to bigger premises in Hemel Hempstead. Danny’s son Lee, Fresh Air’s current MD, joins the company aged 15.
1985…Sportsmaster moves to Camden and teams up with Tony T-Shirts, owned by William Wakefield. Together they form Fresh Air, purchase the company’s first six-colour auto and print for Stevie Wonder – Fresh Air’s first-ever tour. That same year, Fresh Air takes its tour work to a new level, printing more than 400,000 T-shirts for Live Aid on a single automatic press.
1986…Fresh Air moves to a 5,000sqft factory in Willesden and buys a second auto. Lee lands a new client: Bravado, a young merchandise company printing for the likes of Status Quo, Abba and Iron Maiden.
Landing the Live Aid job was a pivotal moment for the company
Fresh Air celebrates 50 incredible years of business!
1987…A third auto is bought.
1988…Danny retires and his sons Lee and Spencer take over as partners.
1990…Fresh Air takes on a 10,000 sqft unit in Brent Cross, which is still its home today.
1995…An additional unit of 18,000 sqft is taken on along with two more machines.
2000…Lee and Spencer take their first step into licensing with a pan-European UEFA Euro 2000 licence. Later that year, Fresh Air, still mainly printing for the music industry, merges with Smith & Brooks Group, adding high street retailers such as BHS, Arcadia and C&A to its customer list. Three more autos are purchased.
2002…Spencer leaves the business to become a professional balloon pilot.
2005…The Smith & Brooks Group, including Fresh Air, is sold to Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.
In 1990, Fresh Air took on a 10,000 sqft unit in Brent Cross, which is still its home today
Today, it is a multi-million-pound family-run business
2006…Lee buys back Fresh Air. Fresh Air invests in more machinery, pre-press screen equipment and packing equipment and becomes an accredited facility and leader in both music merch industry and high-street retail.
2010…Fresh Air becomes one of the earliest adopters of direct-to-garment (DTG) printing. It establishes Brands In, a print-on-demand division that now counts its turnover in tens of millions of pounds each year.
2020…Covid shuts down live events and forces Fresh Air to close for 12 weeks.
2021…Business slowly starts coming back. The future looks bright with some exciting new opportunities.
2024…Fresh Air, now more successful than ever, celebrates 50 incredible years of business!
Lee Craze looks back
Tell us about…
■ Your first day at Fresh Air I will always remember I printed 100 T-shirts on a hand carousel for Watford football club and used the wrong colour ink – I can still hear the ringing in my ear from my boss Danny Craze (aka my dad) shouting.
■ The most important change you introduced to the company Creating relationships with key people within the music merch industry. It’s crazy how many T-shirts are sold across the world at concerts.
■ Your most memorable job We printed over 400,000 T-shirts for Live Aid in 1985, one of the most famous concerts in history, on one machine that ran for 24 hours a day for weeks on end. We couldn’t believe our luck: we went from printing for local schools and clubs to Live Aid, which I was lucky enough to attend myself.
■ Your biggest challenge Covid. The event industry completely shut down overnight and we lost all our business. I was extremely worried for my business and my staff, but now we are back bigger and better than ever! I count my blessings that we recovered from Covid.
■ The most important business lesson you’ve learnt Be extremely careful when giving new and existing customers credit as bad debt is the hardest thing to manage and has such a negative impact on cashflow.
■ The best piece of advice you’ve had From Lez Cutmore, ex-managing director of Fruit of the Loom: “In this industry, your staff and team are the most important asset you can have. Without a good team, you don’t have a business.”
■ What, if you could do it all again, you would do differently I would do it the same including the bad bits and the mistakes because that’s how you learn and grow.
■ The secret to building a multi-million-pound T-shirt printing company I think it’s the same as with any industry – it’s critical to understand all the numbers.
