How is the sign industry doing in your area ?

[nsw systems]

Hello all fellow signers

Just wanted to see how your sign buiness is doing in your area..

It is tuff to gauge form where we are sitting, we are a wholesale mfg and get request for bids everyday plus we service other industry's other than our own, so we always have a intrest in the products we produce.

we vacuum form so that spins off from illuminated faces to sky lites for buildings

we cnc so that goes from letters and logos to alum parts for the building trades

we do sheet metal products for our industry plus the roofing and HVAC firms.

we mfg LED acrylic lit panels for the counter top firms we get more request for them than the sign industry.

we fabricate acrylic letters and logos for our industry but on the flip side we mfg displays for the POP guys.

and so on

just want to see how we are doing or if we are missing something

we have seen a decline in the sign mfg side but that is mostly due to the state of the economy at this time.

The other question I have is what are you looking for in a wholesale mfg company?

quality

speed

price

or other?

Just looking for your thoughts.

Thanks again.

Mike

[saneon]

Things are pretty sluggish in the sign market down here in central Florida. Most of the legit sign shops that I see are in "hunker down and wait it out mode". Of course I still see the "cockroach" fly by night outfits that work for beer still chugging along.

I am a native of Columbus Mike. What part of the state is Blain in ?

[nsw systems]

Things are pretty sluggish in the sign market down here in central Florida. Most of the legit sign shops that I see are in "hunker down and wait it out mode". Of course I still see the "cockroach" fly by night outfits that work for beer still chugging along.

I am a native of Columbus Mike. What part of the state is Blain in ?

Hello

I am in the state of OHIO close to West Virgina right on Interstate 70 they call it the Northern Panhandle or the rust belt at one time there was alot of heavy industry Steel,Alum plants Coal industry, Power plants, but that went by the wayside.

I was down there in October for Universal Fright Night in Orlando and yes you are right did not see much construction or I should say New Construction going on and the signage was eather half out or just not working at all, It looked like a service co. dream.. but the entire time I was there I only saw one service company fixing something. stoped at one place that was selling trinkits and said how come your sign is not working and he said that he could not afford the service call yet, and it was just a bad neon unit. so when it got back to the hotel I looked in the phone book and there were a lot of sign co. you would figure that someone would just fix the sign to make some type of income,

Just my thoughts.

In a tuff economy like that I would work on some type of cash deal, they have the money but not willing to part with it, offer a discount for cash. not much maybe 3-5% and you might see a change or increase you cash flow

Good luck and thanks for the responce

Mike

NSW Systems LLC.

nswsystems@gmail.com

Edited June 7, 2011 by nsw systems

[Source4Signs]

In St Louis the sign business is not near as good as it was say a couple years ago. Mainly you are seeing allot of repairs on neon signs instead of upgrading. We see people opening up quite frequently with out any money at all for a sign in their budget. A few years a go the landlords would not allow this. The tenants were penalized if they opened with out a sign. Now the landlords are just happy to let any one in and they are letting the tenants slide on the whole have to have a sign to open. Also, the tight rules as far the type of sign, neon, channel letters, on a raceway etc... are also not what they were. I am seeing more cabinet signs and non lit signs to cut cost for tenants and the landlords are allowing these.

Neon Signs St Louis

Edited June 13, 2011 by Source4Signs

[nsw systems]

In St Louis the sign business is not near as good as it was say a couple years ago. Mainly you are seeing allot of repairs on neon signs instead of upgrading. We see people opening up quite frequently with out any money at all for a sign in their budget. A few years a go the landlords would not allow this. The tenants were penalized if they opened with out a sign. Now the landlords are just happy to let any one in and they are letting the tenants slide on the whole have to have a sign to open. Also, the tight rules as far the type of sign, neon, channel letters, on a raceway etc... are also not what they were. I am seeing more cabinet signs and non lit signs to cut cost for tenants and the landlords are allowing these.

Neon Signs St Louis

Hello Kris

I see that as well in our area.

We mfg wholesale for the local sign co. and I have see a major drop or change in what they are buying. now localy I cover three states they are real close to each other OH,WV,and PA they call it the tri-state area, and you are right where channel letters were the norm now small cabinets are allowed or non-illuminated letters. most of the companies live off of service or installs and even that has taken a hit. I the past we would do 10-20 neon repairs in a month pending per co. but now you are lucky to see 3-5 per month per co. signs are out but the end user just dose not or can not afford to fix the sign and new construction is just not there..

I realy just posted too see if it was just me or just in spots around the country. I would like to hear from some Co. around Texas i understand that the state is Business friendly and they the state is trying to promote business, Is this true.

Thanks

Mike

NSW Systems LLC.

[eugene@signmakershc.com]

Guy's

I'm in central Kentucky and its deader than 4 o'clock here. 2008 was down, 2009 was awful, then had my best year ever in 2010. But 2011 is looking like a repeat of 2009 right now. Sales are off over 30%, phones aren't ringing. I'm a full service shop, we have a vinyl shop and we do outdoor electric. Usually if one shop is slow the other is busy and its not quite so hard to take. For the last three weeks there is nothing going on, I'm in the red for the year. We aren't even turning payroll right now (there are 6 of us). Luckily, I'm debt free both personally and professionally, so I can wait it out. But it's still a little scary, even after being in this business for 13 years. Can't win any bids, my competitors are giving it away. I won't do a job for break even. Had a potential customer email me today on a estimate I did for her, said my competitor's bid was less than half my bid. The total bid was $1300 and change, and of that $150.00 was for permit, $187.50 for labor to change the face, the rest for white flat polycarb face with 4 colors of translucent vinyl (4' x 12'). If I did it for my competitors price I would have had to pay her $200 to the job for her. Know they can't be using quality materials or they would have the same costs as me. I won't drop my quality to sell the shit they do. I'd rather go out of business than sell junk. Of course alot of today's customers don't care about anything but the cost, quality doesn't matter, most won't be in business a year from now anyway. I guess all we can hope for is that the economy turns around soon. Doubt that it will happen quickly, not with the clowns we have in Washington running the show.

[nsw systems]

Guy's

I'm in central Kentucky and its deader than 4 o'clock here. 2008 was down, 2009 was awful, then had my best year ever in 2010. But 2011 is looking like a repeat of 2009 right now. Sales are off over 30%, phones aren't ringing. I'm a full service shop, we have a vinyl shop and we do outdoor electric. Usually if one shop is slow the other is busy and its not quite so hard to take. For the last three weeks there is nothing going on, I'm in the red for the year. We aren't even turning payroll right now (there are 6 of us). Luckily, I'm debt free both personally and professionally, so I can wait it out. But it's still a little scary, even after being in this business for 13 years. Can't win any bids, my competitors are giving it away. I won't do a job for break even. Had a potential customer email me today on a estimate I did for her, said my competitor's bid was less than half my bid. The total bid was $1300 and change, and of that $150.00 was for permit, $187.50 for labor to change the face, the rest for white flat polycarb face with 4 colors of translucent vinyl (4' x 12'). If I did it for my competitors price I would have had to pay her $200 to the job for her. Know they can't be using quality materials or they would have the same costs as me. I won't drop my quality to sell the shit they do. I'd rather go out of business than sell junk. Of course alot of today's customers don't care about anything but the cost, quality doesn't matter, most won't be in business a year from now anyway. I guess all we can hope for is that the economy turns around soon. Doubt that it will happen quickly, not with the clowns we have in Washington running the show.

Hello Eugene

I realy don't have a good reply for what you are going thru.

I can relate to the sales droping thing.. alot of the sign co. that we use to work for are gone and that is hard to replace and even the larger shops are having a bad time but they won't admit it.

at one time not so long ago we were a good size production shop.. only taking the big jobs passing on the little ones.. had a big ego.. Worked for a long list of major players in this industry, and was sitting on top of the world.

but like you said 2008 came, for us it started in 2007. the bottom droped out banks froze all the credit up,the housing thing, toxic assets, goverment steped in, made the banks take there money to jump start the econmy, banks still did not lend money to the companies that need it. they closed up or filed to protect what they had, in some cases worth more dead than alive.then eventualy sold off, and that left the people they owed money to holding the bag. then the hole process started over again.

the compainies that were owed money from all the service and install started to fail, more layoffs,less income,then eventualy closed up.

sorry to rant, but I lived thru it and all I can say is.

keep your head high, always beleive in your self, and no matter how bad you think you have it someone else is worse off than you are. Just remember.. They can take away all you stuff, but they can not take away the stuff you know. Thats is my quote and that is what I live by today.

keep plugging along

Mike

NSW Systems LLC.

Edited June 15, 2011 by nsw systems