2018 Top Shops: Getting the Gold

As exciting as the latest technology developments in the signage industry are, there’s nothing more exciting than the success of the Top Shops that have implemented its use for major gains.

Our Top 38 list is leading the way in innovation and ingenuity – taking signage to new heights. Our #1 Top Shop this year: Vision Graphics in Bolingbrook, Illinois reported a revenue total of $98,000,000.

Rounding out the top 10 in this year’s Top Shops:

• Image Options (2)
• Ferrari Color (3)
• Graphic Innovations (4)
• Color Ink, Inc. (5)
• Yunker Industries (6)
• Vision Graphics (7)
• Source One Digital (8)
• Graphic Trends, Inc. (9)
• NGS Printing (10)

Breaking Down the Numbers

Thirty-nine percent of this year’s Top Shops identify themselves as a Digital Color Shop/Digital Printer. Th e remaining shops are split between: Sign Shop (18%), Commercial Printer (10%), Service Bureau (7%), and Reprographic Shop (2%); 28.9% indicated “Other” (with descriptions ranging from “wholesale printer” and “surface imaging experts” to “full service branding and marketing company”), up from 10% last year.

The oldest wide-format and signage shop on our list is Color Ink, Inc.(#6) founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1929, along with Yunker Industries (#7) in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. FASTSIGNS on Lancaster (#25) is the youngest, founded in Miami, Florida in 2014.

The average in revenue for the Top Shops this year was 7,504,613. Th e total number of shop locations this year is at 56 – approximately 1.4 locations per company on average. 21% of our Top Shops indicated they are going to open additional locations in 2018. Fift y percent of our survey participants reported they produce black and white graphics, while the other 50% reported they produce only color graphics.

Our Top Shops reported 1,787 employees overall. As far as sales percentages per categories go, 20% of all sales were attributed to retail and POP displays. Another 20% were attributed to banners and signs. Fleet and vehicle graphics were the next major total of sales at 14%. Fabric and textile, specialty printing, decor printing, and exhibit and trade show graphics all equaled out at an average of 10% of all sales. While 52% of our Top Shops reported that wide-format media accounts for most of their production, grand-format accounted for 20%, medium-format made up 22%, and small-format accounted for 12%.

Surpassing the Challenges

Technology and soft ware were the two biggest buzzwords on the minds of survey participants. Increasingly, one of the major concerns for Top Shop owners is better integration of web-to-print. Another concern was streamlining the estimating process through invoicing and implementing major investments in print technologies that took place in 2017.

“We realize that ordering online has been increasingly popular, and with the addition of our sister company, Signs.com, we’ve tried to streamline and simplify the process for our customers. We want our business to be able to accommodate a huge variety of customer needs, and we think the addition of Signs.com has really increased our market share,” said Shara Meredith, Director of Marketing at Ferrari Color (#3).

Some shops have even created proprietary soft ware to solve the issue of prepress integration: “We continue to process more jobs with shorter deadlines using our own soft ware that we have custom developed for tracking jobs from start to shipping,” said Randy A. Crow, Owner at Source One Digital (#9).

Kieu Tran, Owner at Graphic Trends (#10), Inc. says the technology which will impact his business the most in the next 12 months is the integration of electronics, specifically LCD screens, LED electronics and other technologies that improve consumer engagement for clients.

Among other noted technologies our Top Shops have on their mind are new developments in latex inks, emerging flatbed technology, and the increasing market availability of digital cutters.

The Road Ahead

In light of the ever-evolving landscape of the industry, many of our Top Shop leaders are remaining flexible as they continue to increase their own competitive advantages. “We strive to take care of our people so they can take care of others. Last year, Ferrari Color worked hard on the business side to decrease costs and increase profitability, allowing us to pay out bonuses to staff.

Our staff, in turn, treats our customers well, and we are happy to have many many return customers over the years,” continued Meredith on the importance of a company culture built on successful customer service and retention.

Increasingly, Top Shop owners are finding opportunities to come alongside their clients as partners, helping them identify efficient solutions that don’t compromise on value. While flexibility is essential, so is a healthy sustained level of innovation.

“In the past few years we have invested in new equipment to accommodate our growth. We want to stay up on recent technology, materials and always look for innovative ways to be competitive in our fi eld, all while giving our customers the quality they have come to expect from Ferrari Color,” Meredith added.

After all, the global printed signage market was valued at USD 45.734 billion in 2017, and is expected to reach a value of USD 46.702 billion by 2023. Total output is expected to reach a whopping 13.6 billion square meters.

The responses provided by the 2018’s Top Shops also reflect an increasing investment in retail and point of purchase displays. With the retail world demanding an immense volume of signage, this is a significant opportunity for customized offerings. Although today’s digitized world ushered in the advent of ecommerce and an increased level of fluency with technology among clients, it hardly means the end of market opportunities.

Outside of the day to day innovation, a commitment to excellence remains the pervasive indicator of success among many of this year’s Top Shops. Time will tell how they continue to adapt to make today’s hyper-digitized world work for tomorrow’s demands.