TEXTILES.ORG
By Jill C. Lafferty
How does an Olympic athlete top winning a gold medal? You might ask a similar question of Fusion Imaging Inc., Kaysville, Utah. After providing fabric graphics for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the torch relay for the 2006 Summer Olympics in Athens, how does the company continue to set new goals?
In Fusion’s case, the answer would be: Buy and merge with another imaging company and grow by seven times. “Our goals for the next five to ten years are the same as they are today,” Wayne Boydstun, chief operating officer, says. “Provide the best possible service and quality to our customers, and the rest will take care of itself.”
Fusion began the fabric portion of its business printing vehicle and bus wraps, and then expanded into grand-format printing, which led to the Cityscape program for the 2002 Games. “Fourteen buildings were adorned with a mesh material that was illuminated during the night,” Boydstun says. “The background of the city was the most important aspect to the look of how the world saw Utah during these games.”
About 35 percent of Fusion’s business involves fabric, and Boydstun expects that figure to rise to 45 to 50 percent in a year. And while the company is proud of high-visibility projects like the Boston Marathon for Nike and The LeBron James Wall in Cleveland, it’s equally proud of work for smaller clients—projects that allow those customers to compete as if they are a huge company, Boydstun says.
In 2005 the company, known then as ProGrafix International Inc., purchased Impact Imaging and changed its name to Fusion Imaging. Fusion currently has 82 employees, mostly located in Kaysville, with a sales team scattered around the United States. Fusion is also a woman-owned business run by Boydstun’s wife, Kathy, who serves as president.
Fusion provided the graphics program for the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006, which raised more than $7 billion for humanitarian needs around the world. “This project was one hotel, four floors, which included custom-fabricated fabric-covered walls, self-adhesive wallpaper, and exterior banners,” he says. “Our team had 24 hours to install this project and then three days later had 12 hours to take it down. This is what we do, execute, and provide.”