Pulse — 2026-10-26.

The lead

YES Group, the UK supplier of embroidery, DTF and DTG equipment whose partners included SWF, Ricoma and DTF Station, entered voluntary liquidation on 15 October, a year after its 30th anniversary. Customers heard by mailer. The mailer says YES can no longer provide servicing, technical assistance or customer support, and that all its employees have left. For SWF embroidery machine owners, it says talks have started on future servicing, parts and warranty, and asks them to watch their inbox.

If your machines came through YES, YES itself can no longer help you. This week: list every machine with its serial number and what you have on order or paid for. Ask SWF, or the maker of each machine, who will service it now. Count your wear parts and consumables against the weeks it would take to source them elsewhere. Send anything you are owed to the liquidator in writing.

Printwear & Promotion: Shock announcement as YES Group enters liquidation · Print Monthly: YES Group enters liquidation

Signals

Bertelsmann builds a POD book plant. The group is opening a print-on-demand book facility at the Mohn Media site in Gütersloh in April 2027, with an initial capacity of 1.5 million books a year, Print Business reports. It combines GGP Media, Campaign, Penguin Random House Germany and the distributor WA, and will print for other publishers too. The plan runs a continuous-feed inkjet press into automated finishing down to a run of one, on a 520 mm web, perfect-bound mono books first. No press supplier has been named. The target is backlist titles that would otherwise go out of print.

Print Business: Bertelsmann groups operations for print-on-demand book production

STAHLS’ signs a five-year deal with the University Co-op in Austin. The Co-op gets Hotronix heat presses, Fan Edition software and sales kiosks, Fulfill Engine automation, blanks and decoration products, so it can sell personalised and event-specific licensed product without relying only on pre-built stock. It ran during the ESPN College GameDay weekend, and the Co-op reported record sales on both days. That is STAHLS’ own press release, carried by Screen Printing, and it gives no sales figure. For decorators pitching campus or event retail, it is a reference model: decorate in the store, on the day.

Screen Printing: STAHLS’ and University of Texas Co-op sign five-year POD licensing deal

M&R brought DTF automation to Dallas. Returning to Impressions Expo after a break, M&R planned live demonstrations of its Quatro industrial DTF printer and the Orbiter, which loads, transfers and peels DTF automatically. The source is the organiser’s own magazine, written before the show, and it gives no speeds or prices. On a DTF floor, loading, pressing and peeling are the steps that take an operator’s hands, so the Orbiter is the one to ask about. Ask M&R for cycle times on your own garments.

Impressions: New and returning exhibitors at Impressions Expo Dallas 2026

ePac adds a Fujifilm Jet Press FP790. Fujifilm and ePac Flexible Packaging have a global partnership built on the FP790 inkjet press. The first installation goes into ePac’s new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, with more presses across its network in later phases and no dates given. ePac says the press lets it take on longer runs. For POD sellers who ship in printed pouches from ePac, ask how the longer-run capacity affects your own runs before you plan around it.

Large Format Review: Fujifilm and ePac expand digital packaging

Verdict of the week

Printful’s own blog says that large DTFlex prints covering much of a garment “feel plasticky and won’t be breathable”. We rate that ◐ Partly true. The only independent source, Transfer Kingdom, says very large solid DTF designs “can feel less breathable”, which is weaker than the claim, says nothing about a plasticky feel and covers DTF in general rather than DTFlex. Printful’s help center calling breathability “relatively low” shows only that the claimant said it, not that it holds.

Source: Transfer Kingdom · Source: Printful blog · Source: Printful Help Center · Register: NozzleCheck fact-check · Appearance: Printful blog

Corrections

• We rated “Kornit’s NeoPigment inks, as used by Printful, are non-toxic and adhere to OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 and the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).” Partly true and revised it to False on 2026-10-21. Kornit’s own safety data sheet for NeoPigment Eco-Rapid White ink (SDS 60-SDSU-0112, revision 4.2, 9 April 2024) classifies it Acute Tox. Register
• We rated “Hardware breakdowns on Epson SureColor F2100 printers requiring damper assembly replacements and localized repair support” Partly true and revised it to False on 2026-10-21. We rated this Partly true while our own reasoning refuted every part of it. Register
• We rated “TPU hot-melt DTF adhesive powder is marketed as “non-toxic, odorless, eco-friendly, and non-irritating to human skin” and “harmless to the human body and the environment.”” False and revised it to Partly true on 2026-10-24. We rated the marketing false on one other seller’s warning, for a different product, and said that warning was backed by a safety data sheet. Register
• We rated “Under the US Copyright Office’s 2023 registration guidance, material generated entirely by an AI system from a text prompt is not the product of human authorship and cannot be registered, while a human’s own selection or arrangement of that material can be.” Figure unverified and revised it to Confirmed on 2026-10-21. Read in full, the 16 March 2023 statement of policy (88 FR 16190) settles both halves; the first check read a copy cut off in Section II. Register
• We rated “A seller who uploads a prompt-only AI image to Printful can truthfully warrant, as Printful’s print file content policy requires, that they own the rights to it.” False and revised it to Partly true on 2026-10-21. We rated this False on the wrong reading. Register