Smart business owners know the value of well-designed signs. They capture the customer's attention, provide the first impression and communicate the type of business. Sign Gallery 7 offers a wide ...
A 20-shop survey reveals trends in the banner business
By Linda Kitchen, Susan Conner
"If I could do only one thing, I'd produce banners because they're easy to work with," comments Bea Wilson of Sign Here. Working with banners may be easier than surveying the shops that make them, we discovered through this informal banner survey.
We randomly chose 20 shops from respondents to our 1999 survey of banner usage and asked them additional questions about their banner production. In total, we surveyed six commercial, seven vinyl, five commercial/electric and two franchise shops.
The variety of shops questioned gave a fair representation of the various facets of the banner-making industry. Included with the numbers provided here are owners' comments and insights into banner production. We hope that our results spark ideas.
Commercial shops
One of the most common types of shops, the commercial shop, as we define it, handles many sign types except electric signs. Our commercial respondents average 18.5 years in the business and 20 employees per shop. Commercial shops generally take orders of one banner per order.
Commercial respondents also say 16.67% of their $1,136,000 sales volume is banner sales. Commercial shops complete these orders with a relatively large number of employees, averaging 20 employees per shop.
Commercial/electric shops
According to our survey, full-service commercial/electric shops handle a variety of orders from nylon banners to nylon marquees. Respondents have been in business an average of 43.2 years, the oldest in the survey. These shops take orders averaging five banners per order, but can handle bigger order sizes.
Commercial/electric shops produce some of the largest banners, but generally banner orders constitute 5.2% of a $2,585,000 average per year sales volume. This may be diluted by the large number of employees in the commercial/electric shop--an average of 22 people. Interestingly, despite this high number of employees, we did talk to a commercial/electric shop with only one employee.
Vinyl shops
Vinyl shops typically take larger orders compared to franchises or commercial/electric shops, averaging six banners per order. Banners constitute a larger percent of sales volume, 21.8% of a $222,000 average sales volume. A typical vinyl shop averages four employees.
Franchises
The two franchises surveyed handle a wide range of customers, mostly those wanting just one banner. However, one franchise produced banners in an order for 250 banners.
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