Custom clothing company from the Sault gets a new ultramodern piece of equipment with help from the province

Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano was on hand for the funding announce and to see SK Group's new direct to garment printer in action. (Cory Nordstrom/CTV News Northern Ontario)

A Sault Ste. Marie based custom printing and embroidery business was able to buy a half-million dollar piece of equipment thanks to an investment from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).

SK Group is showing off their new direct-to-garment (DTG) machine, a Kornit Storm HD6.

Company officials called the machine "the future of garment printing."

The province provided more than $112,000 for the purchase of the new machine.

Sherry Berlinghoff is the president of SK Group and said the investment was huge for bringing in the new machine.

“NOHFC’s help in us acquiring this machine has been phenomenal. Without it, it would have taken us a lot longer to get to this spot,” said Berlinghoff

“With the funding it’s really pushed us to be able to get this moving for the north way quicker than we would have been able to do.”

The new DTG machine allows customers to submit an image online and within a minute, the device can have the intricate design on a shirt.

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It also doesn't require the charge for separate colours, like traditional garment printing.

Sault-area MPP Ross Romano was on hand for the announcement, on behalf of Greg Rickford, the Minister responsible for NOHFC.

He said it was amazing to see the new machine at work first hand.

“There’s only 45 of these across the entire country which I think is pretty cool as well,” said Romano.

“This piece of technology allows them to create a greater number of products, really customizing what people are looking for in the marketplace.”

Ross Romano announced $112k in funding for SK Group in the Sault on Jan. 28/23. (Supplied)The new printer is also eco-friendly and by making specialized orders quicker, it frees up the older printers for bulk orders, which they excel at.

Berlinghoff also told CTV News that the company was able to hire five additional staff because of the machine.

With the possibility of expansion even more likely now, she said that number could increase.