How big is the sign industry?

Something seasonal for you. The letter ‘x’ in Xmas is actually the Greek letter ‘chi’ which is also the Greek abbreviation of the word Christ. ‘Mas’ is Latin for male, but in Greek, ‘gia mas’ means ‘cheers’. But I do not think they had that in mind, unless the testaments were written in a Greek taverna. Anyway, make of that what you will and take it as a freebie down to the pub yourself.

As we hurtle towards the winter holiday season (I am so PC), the British Sign Awards should now be over with the winners announced and all enjoying the spoils.

Open to any sign-maker, free entry, the chance to network in a very convivial atmosphere, the awards certainly give the industry an end of the year lift and a deserved self-congratulatory pat on the back.



 
At the time of writing, I have absolutely no idea who has entered, let alone been nominated and selected by the independent judges as winners. I personally keep well away from all that, but I have to say that not one company which has been nominated or gone so far as to have won an award, has ever complained that it did their business harm.

On the contrary, used to the right effect, just being nominated let alone winning has had positive results in obtaining new customers and winning fresh orders, as well as boosting their own team’s morale. I have even seen a company promote itself as having ‘entered for the British Sign Awards’. Self-promotion at its finest. So, on that note, I had better return to the soapbox.

I often get asked about the ‘size’ of the sign industry. This is so that business plans can be presented to bank managers or suppliers can target certain markets or launch new products. The problem is that nowadays it is getting harder to define the sign industry as the talents, scope of products, and their uses go much further than ever before.


The challenge therefore is to define what a ‘sign’ is. Is it a post and panel structure at the entrance to a building telling you where the car park is? Or is it the logo of a company on the tailfin of a Boeing 787? Could it be some printed graphics applied to a glass wall, or is it a flag like structure simply saying ‘book early for Christmas’ and fixed to a concrete stand? The answer actually is that all these examples can be and are made by sign companies. That there is the point. They can be made by sign companies.

The second point to consider is: what is a sign company? For example, some t-shirt manufacturers/suppliers can also print signs and some sign-makers can print t-shirts? Even we (the BSGA) do not hold a complete and accurate listing of every business involved in the sign and graphics display industry. I doubt if anyone does.

Third, there is no distinction in the UK tax codes defining what type of businesses there are in the ‘sign industry’, so we cannot even obtain from the authorities a breakdown of declared numbers of companies and their turnovers. Feel free to trawl through Companies House, assuming of course everyone returns at the same time, on time, and you know which companies to look up.

The last report on this subject was conducted 15 years ago by an independent organisation, which did not cover every sign company, and the industry has certainly changed since then.

Do the maths

Yes, the BSGA can, after over 80 years’ experience, say with confidence that company A is a sign company (making t-shirts) and that company B is a t-shirt company (making signs).  But as membership of the BSGA is not compulsory, unless we know of the company in question, it is difficult to put a figure on the number of companies trading and their business models.



 
The only ‘accurate-of-sorts’ figure for the ‘factory gate’ size of the UK sign industry we can reasonably work from is calculated on the basis that in 2010 that there were 22,000 employees in the UK sign industry (figures taken from published National Insurance records).

There are assumptions and the first is that after the last recession, the employee number in 2017 is very likely to be the same as 2010, if not a tad higher. Assuming further that each employee will bring in £50k worth of business to the company (turnover) they work for, it is a simple mathematical exercise of multiplying these two figures to arrive at a conservative total for the industry. Points to note on this calculation are:

• £50k is an average spread across the country—more in London, less in Shetland—based on assuming that if a person was to start their own business, they would need to turnover this figure to pay their suppliers, run their business, and pay themselves a wage. It is a conservative figure with a small ‘c’ and will possibly need revising soon.

• For two people in the same company, the amount is doubled and so on e.g. two people and an admin = 3 x £50,000 = £150,000 turnover p.a. for that business to survive/make a profit. You can of course use your own arbitrary figures for minimum turnover requirements.

So, the maths is 22,000 x £50k = £1.1bn.
 
For the current state of the market, it depends who you talk to as there are some companies absolutely flying ahead with record sales and there are those struggling to find the next order.

Overall, one could argue that the market is fair to middling year-on-year for the last seven years, as there are no big projects coming to fruition nor are retail and financial markets willing to spend, at least until Brexit is sorted—and who knows what will happen afterwards. One could also argue the opposite. It is all about perspective.

Despite that, sign and graphics is a vibrant yet challenging industry with plenty of opportunities, as seen from the entries to this year’s awards. See, I do try to bring it back to the beginning.


Happy holidays and a prosperous New Year.



Public Notice:

• The British Sign Awards are free and open to any sign-maker
• There is no distinction in the UK tax codes defining what type of businesses there are in the ‘sign industry’
• The estimated size of the UK sign industry is £1.1bn
• Sign and graphics is a vibrant yet challenging industry

The British Sign and Graphics Association (BSGA) history dates back more than 70 years when a group of leading sign-makers formed the Master Sign Makers Association (MSMA) with the aim of promoting the sign industry and defending its interests.

For more information on the issues discussed in this article visit www.bsga.co.uk or Tel: 0845 338 3016


Your text here...