Octane Ink opens in Heritage Parkway location

After more than two years of searching for a new location, Octane Ink found the perfect spot along Heritage Parkway.

Co-owner Jon Powell and his partners started looking at building their own building about two and a half years ago. They were outgrowing their rented spaces in the industrial park on the east side of town.

They had designed a building to fit on a space on North Main, but that developer decided he wanted to keep the land and put up his own units. They looked at some smaller lots south on Main and across from Subway, but none of those locations were going to give them more space.

“This is perfect. We’re in the location we wanted to be,” Powell said.

It took awhile for the partners to decide to invest in building and owning their own building. It came down to not having enough space to work efficiently and no organization because of the limited space. They secured their financing through a Small Business Association loan and through Reliabank.

“We’re happy to be in town. We love this,” he said.

Construction began last fall and they were able to move in in April. The timing of the move was good and helped a little by the pandemic.

“It also allowed us time to move and not be so backed up with orders. In theory, not saying it was a good thing, but it was a little beneficial that it happened at an okay time where we could slow down a little bit to where we could move and then start ramping back up,” Powell said.

The virus cut back on orders for events happening across the country. Octane Ink does a lot of products, like t-shirts, banners and vehicle wraps for various events, such as racing, around the country. With those events being canceled, local business made up some of that work. Now, dirt track racing has started back up, so they are busy with vehicle wraps and t-shirts.

Their new building allows all of their employees to be in one building rather than the two they were renting before. They were also able to hire an administrative assistant, a position they did not have room for previously.

“The two buildings worked fine for us. Obviously, space was our biggest issue. We were so cramped and out of space. Now that we’re here and everybody’s in one building everything’s much quicker, more streamlined. We’re not dealing with the two locations and back and forth. This building is perfect for us,” he said.

They now have room for offices upstairs, a break room and a place to store their inventory. In the old facility, it was hard to track their inventory since everything was so tight. Now they have a whole room to be organized.

Octane Ink has a dedicated space for embroidery, another for screen printing and another for vehicle wraps. They were also able to update some of their equipment.

They have added a showroom, something that was lacking in the old facility. In the showroom, customers can purchase Octane Ink gear, 605 Clothing, CornField-Mafia apparel and Tea Area Titan gear.

Powell said school fans did not have a place to go pick up some apparel. They have always had to order online in the past either through the school or through them. Now they can stop in.

“We knew coming to this building with our showroom that we could just start offering that. We’ll have Titan-wear all the time in our store,” he said