In the year 1978, Sign-Mart opened its doors in a small office on a not so
major street in the city of Orange located in the County of Orange in
Southern California. If you’re still not sure of our location, let me offer
you some other more familiar landmarks. Disneyland, the happiest place on
earth, is only a 15-minute ride to the west of Sign-Marts Orange location.
Famous Newport Beach is a 20-minute ride. Los Angeles is 30 minutes north
and San Diego is 45 minutes south. Within 1 hour plus or minus 30 minutes
from Sign-Mart, you can be surfing, snow skiing, desert motorcycling or
carousing in Tijuana.
I had never been in the sign business before 1978. Never had a brush in my
hand nor was I able to layout anything except in the sun. I was the sales
staff. My partner at the time was the real life sign painter and he taught
our only employee how to layout, design and brush paint banners. Luckily,
Scott, our young employee, was not only very talented, but a very fast
learner. Scott is now an owner of Sign-Mart and continues to amaze us with
his diverse talents and skills. I have continued to handle sales, marketing
and the financial aspects of Sign-Mart. Between the two of us and the great
employees we have had and continue to have, Sign-Mart has grown into a nice
size small company. We just moved into our third building 1-year ago October
5, 2002. We are still located in the city of Orange. Our latest building is
84,000 sq. ft. …It’s huge… lots of space! I ride a bike all over the
building to save time and keep an eye on things. We now have about 90
employees, 8 delivery trucks, 4000 sq. ft. showroom, thousands of customers
and 80,000 sq. ft. of fabricating equipment, pallet racks filled with raw
materials and inventory. To illustrate what Sign-Mart is all about, I’ve
taken some digital photos of our building…it’s equipment, people and
personality.
All the best!
Gene Sobel
President
