Designing Tomorrow’s Landmarks
Onsite Sign is one of North America’s leading manufacturers and installers of signage solutions. Working out of a 30, 000-squarefoot manufacturing facility equipped with the latest technology – they ship and install customfabricated signs all over the world. Their design capabilities, combined with their extensive knowledge of fabrication and installation, have made their company a leader in interior and exterior signage wherever they operate. Over the years, the company’s extensive capabilities have also resulted in sustained and continuous growth. Since forming in 1993 as a two-person vinyl and sign operation in the garage of founders Corwin and Shantell Fischer, Onsite Sign has expanded to employ roughly 75 people in eight cities across Alberta and Saskatchewan. According to Shantell, that evolution has been powered by their dedication to customers and the depth of their customer service: “As a team, we personally care a lot about what we do, and we go above and beyond what is required for our clients,” she says. “We take care of their whole project from cradle to grave. We help with the design, we apply for the permits, we deal with street closures, we take care of the safety, we take care of the installation, we deal with the recycling from our crating – we consider ourselves to be a one-stop-shop.” Prior to forming Onsite Sign, Corwin Fischer was an electrician by trade and was working towards getting a dual ticket and being an instrumentation technician. He ended up wandering off campus and “stumbling across a little sign shop,” which ended up capturing his imagination. ONSITE SIGN
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“He came home and said that one day he was going to own a sign shop,” Shantell recalls – though Corwin never intended his shop to be little. From the start, his goal was to become one of the largest sign companies in the world. “It’s always been a dream of his to have a big business. He was never destined to work for somebody else. He’s always been destined to work for himself. That was the opportunity he saw to do that.” After forming the company, Corwin, Shantell, and their growing team continued to seize opportunities as they arose. They went from doing lamacoids to dabbling in small graphics. They started doing dibond signs, then crezon signs, then channel letters. Then they added installation capabilities to their service offering – they stared off with one crane truck, now they have 15. Their projects steadily got bigger, and their reach got farther and farther. These days, as previously mentioned, Onsite Sign has “boots on the ground” in eight cities across Alberta and Saskatchewan. They also have the ability to ship anywhere else in North America (where they will typically partner with reputable local contractors to assist with the installation). In all geographies, they work with a variety of clients in a variety of sectors, and their projects vary greatly in terms of size and value: “Anybody that needs a sign, we cater to, big or small,” Shantell says. “We’ve always had the idea that whether it’s a five dollar order or a five million dollar order, we take it and we treat the clients the same way. Work is work.” No matter the size or scope of the project, Shantell reiterates that clients typically choose Onsite Sign ONSITE SIGN
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due to the completeness of their service offering. Not only do they simply manufacture and install the signs – they can also provide surveying, design, and engineering services. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, they are aware of local municipal codes and city ordinances and will not fabricate or install any project until all the necessary permits have been issued, and they typically manage all the paperwork involved in the permitting process. They also offer maintenance agreements with flat monthly rates and no hidden extras – and for companies who don’t have a maintenance agreement with the company, they offer timely sign repair services for competitive prices. They even offer night patrol services to regularly check signs and lighting during the night. As a result of providing such a complete service offering – of being a “one-stop-shop,” as Shantell described it – Onsite Sign has been able to build some extremely longstanding relationships with clients: “I’ve been doing this for about 30 years,”” Shantell says, “and I’ve been dealing with a lot of the same customers for 30 years.” She further credits that customer loyalty to Onsite Sign’s policy of open communication and accountability. “You have to be transparent about everything,” she says. “When you’re dealing with people, it’s often not a matter of what you do; it’s how you do it. We’re human beings, we make mistakes, we don’t control everything – but when something goes wrong, we admit it and we make it right.” Of course, that kind of customer loyalty is also a ONSITE SIGN
credit to the company’s quality – to the fact that things almost always go right and the client is satisfied with the end product. Shantell credits that track record of quality partly to Corwin and herself and how hands-on they are: “We’re in the plant every day,” she says. “I think it makes a huge difference to a business when the owners are present, when they’re on the floor, when they’re partaking in the day-to-day – and that’s what we do. We see everything.” “It’s not just us, though,” she adds. “We’re very proud of our team. Our team members have the same values that we do. We all have the same goals. We all have the same vision. We all take the same pride in what we do. That makes achieving quality easy.” When it comes to those team members, Shantell says the company has also built some longstanding relationships. Many employees have been there for more than 10 years, for example. Their CFO has been there for over 18 years. “We’ve built personal relationships,” Shantell says. “They’ve become not only employees of ours, but our friends and our family. They are a big part of our success.” A lot of the same applies to the company’s steadfast roster of suppliers. According to Shantell, certain suppliers they deal with on a “day-to-day basis,” and they have relationships that go back to the very start of Onsite Sign. “We’ve developed relationships where we have their cell phone numbers and they answer their phones on weekends and evenings,” she says. “Without them, our successes wouldn’t be what they are. We rely on them heavily.” THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
911 signs A frequent joke among Shantell and her team is that they should call the company ‘911 Signs,’ because when clients call them it’s often an emergency. “Signage is often the last thing that someone thinks about when they’re putting up a building,” she says. “So we often get called last minute. When that happens, we do what’s humanly possible to get those signs built and out the door and up on the walls, because it’s important for our clients to have their signage up in time for their openings or their re-openings.” Moving forward, Onsite Sign’s vision is to maintain that urgency and commitment to customer service, even as they grow and expand – and they are growing and expanding, as befitting Corwin’s founding vision to be one of the leading sign companies in the world. “We always want to grow,” Shantell says. “We’re very driven. We want to be bigger. ONSITE SIGN
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We want to be better. We want to be more modern.” In pursuit of that goal, they moved into a new 30,000-square-foot facility in the fall of 2023, and they are already looking to expand that facility by another 10,000 feet or so. They are also now looking at opportunities to expand geographically and start new branch offices – and “if the right opportunity presents itself, we’d be foolish not to take it,” Shantell says. Lastly, Shantell and Corwin have two children now involved in the business – one in the field, and the other on the sales side. Their long-term vision is to eventually pass the company on to them and have Onsite Sign remain in the family for generations to come. 1-888-634-7274 ndgraphics.com ONSITE SIGN
For more on Onsite Sign, their full range of products, their full range of services, and examples of their past projects – and to get in touch with Shantell, Corwin, and the rest of their expert team – visit https://www.on-sitesign.com THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
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