Designer Wallpaper Company Milton & King Bucks Industry Norms With On

FromD CEOSeptember

When Richard Capp and his brother Bryce tried to print wallpaper for one of their ad agency’s clients in 2009, they couldn’t find the ink they needed. “Nobody was printing digital wallpaper, and this type of printer latex ink didn’t even exist,” Richard says. The brothers spent years figuring out which materials would work best while perfecting the printing process on a wide-format canvas printer.

Production costs were high, but opportunity called, demand increased, and the two left advertising to launch luxury wallpaper producer Milton & King in 2012 in Brisbane, Australia. Eleven years later, the company designs and produces three to four collections of designer wallpaper a year and established a U.S. headquarters in the Design District this past January. Its prints have been picked up by independent retailers and featured on HGTV.

The company’s digital printing technique means Milton & King uses only on-demand production—designs are printed to order, so there is no backstock in warehouses. The process also doesn’t require traditional large cylinders, drums, or factory machinery. “We’re not mass producing one product and jamming it down someone’s throat with a big marketing campaign to get it out of stock. We can produce one roll for one buyer,” Richard says. “This enables us to have a really big spread of designs and if we sell it, we hit print.”

Before moving to the Design District, Milton & King printers ran from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. to keep up with demand worldwide, as sales in the United Kingdom and the U.S. began taking off almost immediately after the company launched. Now, its Dallas showroom handles all U.S. orders, taking on 70 percent of the company’s workload. It also produces the brand’s vinyl wallpapers, which are largely marketed to commercial clients. Bryce still runs the printing operation in Australia and serves as the company’s creative director, partnering with 60 artists to produce custom designs.

Looking ahead, Richard says he is excited to develop additional products and engage in more collaborations. “We’ve been really limited to what we produced because of where we were in Australia,” he says. “We’ve got this great product that we’re putting out there—something we can be proud of—we’ve just got to keep doing it.”