SIGNS LOOKING GOOD FOR SIGNAGE EXPERTS
Brian Sander and his son Ryan purchased National Neon in 2007, and have since built it into one of Canada’s premier sign companies.
Its history dates to 1949 when it was founded in Lethbridge. As it prospered, it opened an office in Calgary — employee Terry Dunn is celebrating his 40th anniversary with the company — and the market began to grow here. Over the ensuing years it was sold twice before it caught the attention of the Sander family.
Brian owned several food outlets in non-traditional venues, several of them at the University of Calgary where Ryan helped out while studying for his economics degree. After graduating, Ryan — wanting to get out of the hectic food business — joined real estate firm Royal Lepage, now known as Cushman Wakefield.
A mutual friend told them of an opportunity to buy into the sign company — the numbers looked good and the owner was persuaded to sell outright — and the father and son bought it in partnership.
They had a lot to learn about the business but by that time the Calgary office was doing very well, although they found operating out of the manufacturing plant that was still in Lethbridge an inconvenient problem. One of their first major decisions was to move all of the equipment here and open an easier-to-administer Calgary plant.
They kept a sales office in Lethbridge as well as one in Edmonton, and with chairman Brian looking after operations and CEO Ryan handling sales and estimating, National Neon was able to buy its own 17,000-square-foot office and large fabrication plant able to provide turnkey service for a growing number of clients — primarily in the retail, hospitality, new building and shopping centre development industries.
The employee count in Calgary rose to 40 — 25 in the shop and 15 in sales and administration — skilled in welding, sheet metal, design, engineering, operating print machines, the automotive grade paint booth, project management and installation. Last year they were awarded
Sign Company of the Year by the Canadian Sign Association.
In 2016, Brian and Ryan were made aware of a sign company in Vancouver whose owners were thinking of retiring; but Knight Signs was double the size of the Calgary firm. The owners flew to Calgary to check out National Neon. After being assured the Sanders were capable of maintaining Knight’s high standards and would look after long-term employees, the deal was made.
Ryan says it took some creative thinking to purchase and absorb a company that boasted 80 to 90 employees in a 75,000-squarefoot Delta plant, but the transaction closed in 2017 with Steve Mander staying on as president and COO.
Knight Signs has a reputation for handling huge infrastructure and airport projects — it won the signage contract for the new terminal at the Calgary International Airport. The name Knight Signs has been kept and Ryan says the plan is to merge the companies and expand under one consistent brand. National Neon hasn’t worked with neon for many years; it has a special division called Direct LED that specializes in the use of LED and digital messaging. The company was responsible for the eye-catching City of Calgary digital sign that curves above the 8th Street S.W. railway underpass.
Brian and Ryan are aggressively looking to expand into Ontario, where Knight Signs has already established a firm presence with a small sales and project management team who were recently awarded a major contract to supply signage for Toronto Transit’s Metrolinx. Notes: Every year WINS (Women in Need Society) helps more than 6,000 Calgary women and their families emerge from poverty toward self sufficiency. It has expanded its thrift store enterprise with the opening of a new retail operation, More Store, at 141 7007 54th Street S.E., where clothing for men, women and children can be purchased as is at $1 per item. A committed environmentally conscious organization, WINS helps to re-home, recycle or repurpose clothing at More Store, and other clothing and household items at its five thrift stores.