Home and Away

Already firmly established as one of the UK’s foremost manufacturers of corporate signage, Kent-based Sign 2000 is now setting its sights on the wider European marketplace. Mike Connolly reports on the company’s rapid evolution.

First established in 1988 by the current Managing Director Murray Crompton and Sales Director Neil Scott, Sign 2000 has since evolved to become one of the UK’s leading and most influential corporate signage manufacturers. Currently employing a staff of 60, the company has pursued a shrewd programme of planned expansion, which has resulted in year-on-year growth during the past five financial periods and an impressive client portfolio, which includes many of the most dominant and recognisable brands currently operating within the corporate, financial, retail, hotel and leisure and municipal sectors.

However rather than simply congratulating itself and planning more of the same, Sign 2000 is also setting its sights on Europe, where it is hoping to take full advantage of all the lucrative continental business opportunities it can find.

Pivotal to the success of these European aspirations is its participation as one of the founding member companies in The Sign Alliance, a dynamic new association of strategically positioned European sign manufacturers, with complementary and synergic interests, which is the first such initiative of its kind. Formed to provide a more commercially efficient and environmentally sound manufacturing, installation and after-sales care facility for a shared customer base throughout the entire European community, it currently comprises six companies, based in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Finland and Romania.

The Sign Alliance operates on an information-sharing basis and is controlled by a central monitoring hub to ensure that brand consistency and quality levels are delivered comprehensively throughout all of the relevant countries via complementary project management skills. Sign 2000’s Marketing Director Steve Spackman describes the benefits to customers as ‘significant’, adding: “They provide sign buyers, particularly those engaged in large roll-out programmes, with a centrally managed but locally implemented service to minimise logistical impact and to thus create an environmentally healthy service that reduces carbon footprints.”

The group of companies operating within The Sign Alliance boasts a production staffing level of around 1,000, enjoys a collective turnover in excess of 100,000,000 Euros and offers a total production area of 100,000 square metres. The alliance also provides over 200 years of combined experience in the entire range of necessary sign manufacturing skills. Steve Spackman continues: “The ethos of The Sign Alliance is driven by corporate and social responsibilities towards performance and the environment. Not only is this new co-operative proving to be an organisation that people want to work for, as well as with, it is also providing much needed local employment whilst building long-term client relationships throughout Europe within framework agreements.”

As an ISO 9001-accredited company, Sign 2000, whose comprehensive range of services embraces conceptual design, as well as all subsequent production disciplines and fully co-ordinated project management, operates from a dedicated facility in Kent where it is able to control both the quality of its output and its adherence to awesomely tight deadlines. A prominent member of the British Sign & Graphics Association, it is also a member of the British Safety Council and the British Safe Contractors Scheme and is registered under the IEMA Environmental Acorn Scheme.

It was also one of the first signmakers to adopt the environmental guidelines set out under the UK government’s Acorn Environmental Scheme BS85555 2003, which ensures continuous improvements in performance in all operational services and manufacturing disciplines for both the company and its regular supply chain. Registration under this scheme is further enhanced by the fact that Sign 2000 is currently working towards accreditation to ISO 14001, something which, when it happens in October will confirm that the company’s environmental management programme has achieved the highest possible level of conformity with its stated environmental policy.

Since its inception, it has been Sign 2000’s practice to set up dedicated units within its production facility in order to effectively carry out large-volume corporate signage programmes. Typically, these have included the Post Office and the Morrisons supermarket chain, the latter of which represented the largest single signage commission carried out during 2008 with a value to Sign 2000 of £1.5million. The company has also made a significant investment in new machinery, most notably in the production capability to cut and fold the four metre-long fascia panels, which are such a feature of most corporate signage work.

The nationwide re-branding of the Post Office’s commercial sites, covering a total of 14,300 urban and rural locations, is work that requires a host of disparate manufacturing skills and includes the production of both interior and exterior signage, supported with complementary graphics, window manifestations and point-of-sale units.

A solar-powered directional and information signage scheme was also carried out at London’s Carnaby Street. Awarded to Sign 2000 on a design and build basis, the conceptual designs were provided by one of the capital’s leading design agencies and the scheme involved the use of PV solar energy panels and comprised two principal signage formats: a wall-mounted sign and a freestanding Pod unit.

The wall-mounted signage was constructed with a die-cast aluminium outer frame, with embossed text detail retaining an illuminated centre map location panel, complete with a moulded vandal-resistant clear polycarbonate dome overlay. These signs were internally illuminated and supplied with a red LED current location identifier.

The freestanding units are two metres high and incorporate a satin stainless steel central core with a spun stainless steel base and top panel complete with protective rubber bull nose edging. The face map treatment to the totem signage replicated the wall-mounted signs. However, since this particular signage element was located centrally within a paved concourse it was not possible to provide power via conventional cabling. Consequently, the totem units were fitted with solar panels housed within the upper section to store energy during the day and to provide illumination at night.

In another recent commission for The London Borough of Hounslow, which has the highest percentage of parks and open spaces of any London borough, Sign 2000 had to ensure that all its pastoral areas had clear and unambiguous directional and information signage. Following a highly competitive tender process, facilities management specialist JLIS selected Sign 2000 to design, manufacture and install a scheme that incorporates better guidelines and provides more detailed information, necessitating the replacement of all the existing signage with a new design.

Following approval of the design and using additional input provided by JLIS, Sign 2000 undertook a fair amount of preparatory groundwork prior to the installation of the signs, which included double-posted panel signs with digital prints applied to the sign face and, as a variation, double-posted panel signs with lockable housings, supported by a variety of standard flat statutory signs. This is an ongoing project that will provide residents of Hounslow with a modern, clear and informative signage scheme that is totally in keeping with its leafy surroundings.

To support the services provided specifically to the local authority sector, Sign 2000 has set up a dedicated website. Accessible at www.municipalsigns.co.uk, it features an eclectic mix of the company’s work and provides a fast route to sourcing the most appropriate signage for specific projects.

As to the future, Sign 2000 is planning to relocate to a new and larger facility on the same industrial site in Kent, with its fast and easy accessibility to the M20 motorway and to the Channel Tunnel, particularly important in the light of the company’s new European connections. There will also be further investment in new production equipment, including special-purpose machinery and processes that to enable it to maximise the potential of the exciting new markets that have synergy with the its core business in the sign industry.

For further information, visit www.sign2000.co.uk

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