June 8, 2021 Reanne Duffy

Millimetre-tight application tolerances? 11 metre spread? What are we waiting for!

We all love a great success story. Here’s one. XBite put down its roots as an online retailer way back in 2004 when the internet was something of a frontier. That would make its founders pioneers. About £1000 was invested in getting the company started and hopes were high.

About three years later, the hard work and belief began to pay off. The company moved into its own premises and developed its own enterprise resource planning system to cope with its growing business. Come 2012 and turnover had reached £23 million. Progress continued and allowed the company to invest in a new HQ sat on four acres of its own land in 2015 and build out its proprietary IT system too. 

2020 closed with sales of £42 million and further warehouse expansion putting 185K square feet of state-of-the-art warehouse and office space at the company’s disposal. 

Delivering such growth isn't going to happen without a sense of occasion and mission surrounding everyone who is part of the team. In XBite’s case, its philosophy and accomplishments are rendered tangibly in a stunning map like info graphic mural produced and installed by Sheffield-based Egg on Legs Design.

The mural is a biggie, because it has a big story to tell. It measures 11 metres by 3 and comprises a number of drops printed on Metamark MD5A-B. The design elements which feature grant both the compositing and installation phases of the project tolerances tending to zero. In other words, there is nowhere to hide mistakes. The drops absolutely have to align, top to bottom.

They do.

It's a big thumbs up for Egg On Legs’ application skills - the applied graphic works brilliantly. Metamark can take a brownie points or two as well for the dimensional stability of its decor materials. There is no substrate colour show-through thanks to the coloured inclusion in the material’s adhesive.

While the map is doing its work in the XBite office, a second mural measuring but 1m shorter than the map is lifting the ambience in XBite’s canteen. It is another Egg On Legs production, a forest scene this time, once again rendered on Metamark MD5A-B with its matching, satin laminate. Scale alone gives the mural its impact. Application quality shines out of every square inch.

Both of the murals are installed on walls in new parts of the recently expanded headquarters. Egg On Legs made absolutely sure that the pristine surfaces didn't just look good, but presented a good ground for adhesive bonding. Both walls were coated with Metamark Silver Bullet. This liquid preparation is applied using a roller and ensures that pressure sensitive adhesive meets with a compatible application surface.

Egg On Legs’ work is very widely distributed in and around Sheffield and the company has built itself something of a reputation for its work particularly in the hairdressing sector. Its latest works for XBite mean that ‘mural production and installation experts’ belong on its growing list of credentials. It's a stunning job, for a very exciting client, and both companies show what's possible with a bit of pioneering and enterprise.