Pioneering Mexican cuisine in New Zealand, Mexicali Fresh pride themselves on their fresh approach of attaining their ingredients and the preparation of their meals. The Mexican influenced Californian food restaurant has established 18 franchises throughout New Zealand since its establishment in the early 1970’s in San Francisco. The latest addition to this chain can be found in Henderson, Auckland, of which Shade7 had the opportunity to be a part of.
Mexicali Fresh Henderson wanted to create a dry and sheltered dining area where customers could eat fresh food under the warmth of their outdoor heaters, without having to worry about getting wet. With an outdoor space approximately 36.75m² which was filled with outdoor tables and chairs, Mexicali came to Shade7 seeking their sturdy and appealing Tempest commercial outdoor umbrella.
Mexicali Fresh was also looking to further promote their brand as the umbrellas would have been situated just off of the main road. With this to consider, Shade7 and Mexicali Fresh came to a solution where Shade7 would digitally print their chosen design and logo onto a PVC material. With the requested design covering majority of the canopy, the welded material needed to be laid out and fed through one machine where it would then project an acrylic based ink onto the fabric. It then need to be fused on top of the material carefully using a strong UV light to ensure that the durability was not compromised in the process. Due to the complexity of the design the Shade7 team did not know if they could meet the deadline of the opening day, which was in 13 days.
With the average turnover for printed canopies being 21 working days and the request being made on the 28th of July and the opening day being the 10th of August, all teams from manufacturing and printing, to admin and installation worked over time to get these umbrellas out of the door and up in time.
To cover their outdoor area, Mexicali Fresh Henderson put in an order for three 3.5m square Tempest umbrellas to sufficiently cover the area. The Tempests were to be installed in concrete greater than the recommended thickness of 100mm using six M10 galvanised Dyna-bolts to ensure the umbrellas were safe and strong. When installing the umbrellas the Shade7 team found a fence that stood approximately 1.7m tall near the installation area. The Tempests base plates had to be installed at an appropriate distance to ensure that the umbrella could open without coming into contact with the fence. With the 3.5m Square arms resting at 1.6m the arms just missed the fence opening up to show off their colours and printing. By 5pm the umbrellas were erected and sheltering the area ready to accommodate customers for dinner.
“It was great. There were a few issues at the start to get it off the ground with our complicated artwork, but once it was underway, they were done in half the time expected, on budget and the install team was awesome. So thank you guys. Stoked with them.” Dev the dude, Mexicali Fresh.
Shade7 offer commercial umbrella solutions and can specifically carry out customised printing on a variety of umbrella styles. Contact the team at Shade7 to discuss your outdoor requirements.
