Bright sparks light up in tough times
CUSTOM Neon is pushing ahead with its international growth plans as the Newtownbased company experiences record sales despite losing most of the weddings and events market it was founded on to the coronavirus.
The encouraging trend comes on the back of a spike in corporate and business sales as Custom Neon ramped up advertising as the pandemic struck.
Co-founder Jake Munday said sales had rebounded strongly from the initial downturn in March and April, with the upward trend leading to record figures in May and June continuing into July.
“We have grown the business 50 per cent since February,” Mr Munday said.
He said Custom Neon was now selling more than 200 signs a week, with corporate and business signage doubling since the start of the year.
Founded with wife Jess as the Neon Collective in early 2018, the business rebranded as Custom Neon in December of that year as part of a global SEO strategy developed by business partners, Matt and Teresha Aird, who bought into the company at that time.
The successful strategy has seen Custom Neon develop the US as its primary market, followed by the UK and Australia.
“In America, ‘custom neon sign’ is searched 30,000 times a month, and we rank number one for that in America,” Mr Munday said.
The company has a growing team of eight in Australia, five in the US and is currently adding to a small team in the UK, as well as employing contract design staff.
The US team is based in
Kansas but plans to open another US office, put on hold due to the coronavirus, are expected to be reactivated once its UK team is in place.
Despite the encouraging growth, Mr Munday is mindful not to press the accelerator too quickly.
Previous experience with teeth whitening products under the brand Pearly Whites, of which he retains a 50 per cent stake, has taught him to manage growth in line with company values and its ability to deliver.
Pushing too hard now could put pressure on staff, impact their ability to respond quickly to customer inquiries and affect production waiting times.
In an increasingly crowded market, Mr Munday said Custom Neon aspired to being the number one trusted global brand for custom neon signs.
“We are not willing to compromise that to get the growth that we will get if we stay consistent and smart and do it gradually,” he said.
Being impacted by the coronavirus has also had the side-effect of finetuning the business’s priorities as staff returned to full-time hours after the initial downturn.
“What I have learnt through this is to cut out the 80 per cent that doesn’t matter, and focus on the
20 per cent that does matter,” he said.
He said there was also a focus on getting the procedures and the structure of the business in place to enable anticipated growth in the US, the UK and Australia, and serving worldwide markets from those bases.
Other than a short period of longer delivery times, Custom Neon’s overseas suppliers have continued throughout the coronavirus.