Sign Company Partnerships
There once was a time when sign companies were almost exclusively family run shops, or shops with just a few people fabricating or painting signs, in a garage or small shop space. While these shops still exist, what’s occurred is that some of these have coalesced into larger shops, while others have entered the sign industry and created national companies where, though the use of sub-contracting, they are able to connect their business clients with installers, manufacturers, and more, while managing the project themselves. Some of these companies do not even have shops themselves, or crews or cranes; however, most often it appears these companies have a hybrid model, where they may be dominated by project managers but they also have some expertise or on-the-ground support.
National Companies
Where these national companies find success is by going far beyond the would-be region that their team could reach if they relied solely on their own trucks, and instead they focus on manufacturing signs for national clients such as hotel chains, restaurant franchises, car brands, and more. They can then become the company to go to for instance for all McDonald’s rebrands, nationally or in a region. To ensure success, they develop partnerships with companies in the region who can handle many of the duties on the ground, including permitting, install, receiving, and if they lack their own manufacturing operation, fabrication of the signs as well.
Regional Partners
As a regional partner for national sign companies, we at Ortwein Sign are a prime example of how companies such as ours can help be an asset for national sign companies. When a national sign company comes to us with a client who needs assistance in our region, we offer our turn-key services to help permit, install, and if needed, manufacture signs. Our expertise and know-how of local and regional sign codes allows us to be valuable assets when permitting signs. Likewise we are a UL shop, which means we follow UL manufacturing standards, which is important to many of our partners and to us.