New Equipment. New Opportunities. Here's Where Section 179 Fits In.
As the end of the year approaches, businesses across the apparel, wide format, and beverage industries are asking many of the same questions.
Where can we become more efficient? What capabilities should we bring in-house? What new services could generate additional revenue? And what equipment will help us get there?
If an equipment investment is already part of your growth plan, there may be another reason to make that move before the year ends: Section 179.
For 2026, the maximum Section 179 deduction is $2.56 million. In simple terms, Section 179 may allow eligible businesses to deduct the cost of qualifying equipment in the year it is placed into service rather than recovering that cost gradually over a number of years.
That can make year-end an especially important time to evaluate equipment your business already needs.
At Millcraft, we aren't tax professionals, and every business's situation is different. Your accountant or tax advisor can help determine whether Section 179 applies to your specific purchase.
What we can help you determine is what the right equipment could do for your business.
Don't Buy Equipment Just for a Deduction
Section 179 can make an equipment investment more attractive, but the tax deduction shouldn't be the reason you purchase equipment.
The better question is:
What could your business do next year that it can't do today?
Maybe you're outsourcing work that could be more profitable if produced internally. Maybe existing equipment has become a bottleneck. Maybe customers are asking for products you can't currently produce. Or maybe labor, turnaround time, and production consistency are making it increasingly difficult to grow.
Those are the opportunities worth examining.
And across apparel, wide format, and beverage, the right equipment can change far more than production capacity.
Apparel: Create More Without Sending More Out
Customization continues to be a major opportunity for businesses serving schools, companies, events, sports organizations, hospitality brands, creators, and countless other markets.
For an apparel decorator, the right equipment can mean accepting jobs you previously had to turn away or outsource. For a commercial printer, sign shop, or promotional products business, apparel can create an entirely new category to sell to customers you already have.
Direct-to-garment (DTG) equipment can be an excellent option for high-quality customized garments, short runs, personalized products, and on-demand production.
Direct-to-film (DTF) expands the possibilities even further by allowing decorators to create transfers that can be applied across a wide variety of garments and materials.
Heat presses, pretreatment equipment, finishing solutions, and other workflow improvements can also eliminate production bottlenecks and help businesses handle more work without simply adding more manual processes.
An investment in apparel equipment could help your business:
- Bring previously outsourced production in-house
- Offer faster turnaround times
- Produce shorter and more customized runs profitably
- Expand into new garments, products, and applications
- Add branded merchandise to an existing print or graphics business
- Increase production capacity without sacrificing consistency
The opportunity isn't simply to print more shirts.
It's to become capable of saying yes to more of what your customers are already asking for.
Wide Format: Turn More Surfaces Into Opportunities
Wide format is one of the easiest ways for an established print business to dramatically expand what it can offer.
Banners and signs may be the first applications that come to mind, but today's wide format equipment can open the door to everything from window and wall graphics to decals, floor graphics, point-of-purchase displays, event graphics, vehicle applications, rigid signage, decorative panels, and specialty products.
Depending on your market, that could mean investing in roll-to-roll printing, UV flatbed technology, cutting equipment, laminating, finishing equipment, or a combination of technologies that creates a more complete production workflow.
For businesses currently outsourcing wide format work, bringing production in-house can provide greater control over turnaround, quality, scheduling, and margins.
For businesses already producing wide format, newer equipment may help eliminate a production bottleneck, increase output, expand the substrates you can print on, or make applications possible that your current technology simply can't handle.
Millcraft's wide format portfolio includes printing equipment as well as substrates, inks, finishing solutions, installation support, and technical expertise to help businesses build the entire workflow—not simply purchase a printer.
And that's an important distinction.
A printer doesn't create a new revenue stream by itself.
A well-planned production capability does.
Beverage: Invest in What Happens After the Beverage Is Made
For breweries, wineries, distilleries, and other beverage producers, growth isn't only about producing more product.
What happens after production matters just as much.
As volume increases, processes that once worked perfectly well can quickly become bottlenecks. Filling, canning, labeling, packing, case preparation, and other repetitive production steps can consume time and labor that could be used elsewhere in the operation.
That's where equipment investments can have an enormous impact.
Automated and semi-automated canning equipment, labeling systems, carton erectors, packaging equipment, and other production solutions can help businesses improve throughput, reduce repetitive manual work, and create more consistent processes as they grow.
Millcraft supports beverage producers with solutions ranging from production equipment to cans, labels, carriers, case trays, packaging materials, sanitation products, and transportation solutions.
But there's another opportunity beverage companies sometimes overlook.
Your beverage isn't the only thing customers can buy from your brand.
A strong brewery, winery, or distillery brand can extend well beyond the can or bottle.
DTG and DTF equipment can give beverage companies the ability to produce branded shirts, staff apparel, event merchandise, and promotional products. Wide format equipment can support taproom signage, event graphics, window graphics, displays, menus, promotional signage, and other visual elements that help bring the brand to life.
Instead of treating beverage equipment, merchandise, and graphics as completely separate investments, there may be an opportunity to look at the entire customer experience.
A customer might discover you through a sign, purchase your beverage, leave wearing your shirt, and recognize your brand again later on a retail shelf.
That's a much bigger opportunity than simply increasing production capacity.
One Investment Can Open More Than One Door
One of the things we see across the industries Millcraft serves is how quickly the lines between markets are disappearing.
An apparel decorator can add wide format.
A sign shop can add apparel.
A commercial printer can move into signage and garment decoration.
A brewery can produce its own merchandise.
A beverage producer can improve its packaging operation while also expanding the way its brand appears in the taproom, at events, and in retail.
Your next equipment purchase doesn't necessarily have to solve only one problem.
It might create an entirely new capability.
The Important Part: Don't Wait Until December 31
If Section 179 is part of the equation, timing matters.
Generally, qualifying equipment must be placed in service during the applicable tax year to be considered for that year's deduction. In other words, simply deciding to purchase equipment at the end of December may not be enough—the equipment needs to be ready and available for its intended business use.
That's why October and November are much better times to begin the conversation than the final days of December.
Equipment availability, shipping, installation, training, electrical requirements, facility preparation, and other factors can all affect how quickly a new system becomes operational.
Planning ahead gives you time to make the right investment instead of simply making a fast one.
Start With What You Want Your Business to Do Next
Section 179 can provide an additional reason to consider an equipment investment before year-end.
But the real value of that equipment comes on January 1—and every day after that.
What could you bring in-house?
What could you produce faster?
What are your customers requesting that you can't currently provide?
Where is production slowing you down?
What new market could you enter with the right capability?
Those are the questions we want to help answer.
Whether you're considering new apparel technology, expanding your wide format capabilities, improving your beverage production and packaging operation, or exploring an entirely new revenue stream, Millcraft can help you evaluate the equipment and workflow that make sense for where your business wants to go.
Your next opportunity may already be sitting in front of you. Let's find the equipment that helps you capture it.
Ready to explore what's possible? Just ask.
Millcraft does not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. Section 179 eligibility and tax treatment depend on each business's individual circumstances. Consult your qualified tax professional to determine how Section 179 may apply to your business.