Beautymaker Nick

‘Just keep going and don’t be afraid’

I no longer need to be here at 7:30 am. I don’t do that anymore, either.
I come in between ten and eleven for a cup of coffee, read the newspaper and a chat.

I started with my father. My dad was into stickers. That was also screen printing, but flat. We did billboards for trade fairs, among other things. That meant working 24-hour days for three days. The other two days you spent sweeping up.

I thought we needed to find something with some continuity. Then I learned about round screen printing. So I bought a little machine. It stood at home in our living room for a month. And in 1975 we began round screen printing.

I think we are the biggest in Europe now. We don’t just do screen printing. We also do a little bit of pad printing, foil printing, and we will soon have a machine that can do metallising. That will make us even more complete.

Mike joined in 1995. He has learned a lot from me. He doesn’t miss anything, and even though he has no technical training, he is very technical. He also fixes and solves a lot of things. I think that’s great.

There came a point when I said, you can’t have two captains on a ship. So you have to take a step back. I did, too. And that went well.

I really am happy. If you asked me whether, if I could do it again, would I do it differently? Well, no. Despite having fallen down and got up again a few times. That’s all part of it.

NICK DELISSEN – FOUNDER OF TENAX