Connect with us

ROQ International hosted a three-day user experience for customers, partners, and staff May 16-18 in Portugal. The event, held previously in 2019, included a facility tour at ROQ International in Oliveira (São Mateus), Portugal, networking between customers and staff members, educational sessions by The Creative Situation and MadeLab, product demos, a Q&A with Josh Merrell of Liquid Graphics, and local experiences such as a castle tour and Douro River cruise.

Read a full recap of the event here.

Photo Credit: ROQ

Fifty-plus ROQ.US customers, partners, and staff attended the three-day ROQ Adventure Summit in Portugal.

Fernando Pinto, ROQ International’s CEO, shares the history of ROQ with the group. Two brothers started the business 38 years ago in a one-car garage. The company has been in the facility for 32 years.

ROQ International is vertically integrated. “The company focuses its activity on the conception, development, manufacturing, and sales of ROQ machines,” says Fernando Pinto, CEO.

Members of the Print Girl Mafia, Alyson Collins, Alexa Cary, and Nikki Bowen, pose with the ROQ mascot. Stay tuned for Episode 15 of Screen Saver Season Two to learn more about the female-led screen printing group.

Glen and Ashley Coy, Windmill City Screen Printing, prepare for the facility tour with protective glasses. Attendees were given safety goggles, steel toe cap inserts, and ROQ visitor vests for extra caution when walking through the facility.

Editor-in-Chief Adrienne Palmer joins Josh and Kim Merrell of Liquid Graphics, Garrett Mercier of Eminence Print Co., Taylor Dickerson of Studio Chroma, Don Hartford of Reece Supply, Alexa and Tyler Cary of In-House Prints, and Peter Fertiguena of Topdeck Promo, for a tour of ROQ International.

The ROQ International facility is 47,000 square meters with 700 employees.

Fernando Pinto, CEO, explains ROQ’s business model, which is based on five core values that embody ROQ’s culture, people, and holistic process thinking.

• The development of their people
• Listen carefully to the voice of their customers
• Apply Kaizen methodologies at all levels of the hierarchy and in their daily lives
• Constantly innovate
• Compete to create value

Almost all ROQ equipment parts, including metal work, circuit boards, air lines, and more, are made in the Oliveira (São Mateus) factory.

ROQ produces screen and digital printing machines, dryers, and folding and packing solutions, and exports to more than 80 countries on all continents.

Customers, including Dianne Galindo and Jessica Raben of Gredale and Armen Dellalian of All Purpose Branding, take videos of the ROQ Hybrid, a fusion between screen printing and digital printing.

Frank Hobson, Logan Ruddick, and Bryce Davidson of FraterniTees and SororiTees, watch the ROQ Fold Automatic T-Shirt Folding Machine. Listen to Episode 14 of the Screen Saver Season Two podcast with Logan to learn more about their T-Shirt printing business.

Brett Bowden, Printed Threads, shares why he turned his design department into a separate company: The Creative Situation. “The design is what sells the T-shirt,” says Paul Simon, The Creative Situation. “A design that’s worth $1000 should not be sold for $50.” Learn Paul’s eight-step design process here.

Brian Lessard and Tom Davenport, MadeLab, give instructions for an eight-step ink process for printing special effects. Pro tip from Brian? “Always have white puff ink on hand.”

The final product from the eight-step process via MadeLab.

• 9 C Cool Grey – 156 mesh
• Soft Density Green – 86 mesh
• Flash
• Soft Density Green – 86 mesh
• Flash
• 2424 C Dark Green 305 mesh
• Soft Black (Clear S.H.A.P.E. and 50 percent Black) – 305 mesh
• 1 C Cool Grey Puff (30 percent Plastipuff) -110 mesh

The ROQ machines are built in the Portugal facility, wrapped, and ready to ship by boat to Florida. The equipment is then loaded on trucks and delivered to US shops. Building the printers from scratch is a four-month process.

Local culture and history were intertwined into the event via guided tours. ROQ Adventure Summit guests visited the 10th-century Castle of Guimarães, which is the principal medieval castle in the municipality Guimarães.

Ross Hunter, ROQ.US, interviews Josh Merrell, Liquid Graphics, during a happy hour Q&A at Hotel de Guimarães. Josh went from 1 to 15 machines and 60 to 100,000 units a day. “Performance built the company,” he says. Learn more about Liquid Graphics here.

Josh Merrell says do not price yourself off other people’s price lists. “It’s still a battle with customers on price,” he says. Liquid Graphics doesn’t publish their price list. “We stopped listening to the negotiations and are confident in our business prices and services. I price out customers if I see it’s going down the wrong road and bringing negativity to our shop and employees. If they’re looking to shop a price, they’re not the right customer for you.”

Guests visited Porto, Portugal, on the final day of the event for a guided boat tour on the Douro River and a cellar tour, wine tasting, and Fado show at Caves Cálem.

Brett, Sarah, and August Bowden, Printed Threads, and Josh and Kim Merrell, Liquid Graphics, cheers to a successful second ROQ Adventure Summit outside one of the many World of Wine Porto restaurants. Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal.

21 Photos from the ROQ Adventure Summit

21 Photos from the ROQ Adventure Summit

ROQ International hosted a three-day user experience for customers, partners, and staff May 16-18 in Portugal. The event, held previously in 2019, included a facility tour at ROQ International in Oliveira (São Mateus), Portugal, networking between customers and staff members, educational sessions by The Creative Situation and MadeLab, product demos, a Q&A with Josh Merrell of Liquid Graphics, and local experiences such as a castle tour and Douro River cruise.

Read a full recap of the event here.

Photo Credit: ROQ