Join the UK's Leading Signs & Graphics Franchise
Whether you're an experienced sign maker ready to scale, an independent signage business looking to rebrand and grow, or a business-savvy individual with no industry experience seeking your next opportunity — Signs Express offers the perfect platform to build a successful, sustainable business. Benefit from Monday to Friday working hours, strong earning potential, and full head office support from the Franchise Support Centre.
Why Join Signs Express?
- UK’s #1 signs and graphics franchise
- Earn up to £750,000+ turnover with 20% EBITDA potential
- Monday–Friday working – enjoy work-life balance
- Operate in your own exclusive territory
- Start from scratch, purchase a resale, try our conversion model (by buying an existing signage business and converting to Signs Express), or rebrand your existing signage business under the Signs Express name
- Full training, mentoring and operational support throughout
- Access to national accounts and collective buying power
- Winner of the BFA & HSBC 2024 Business Transformation Award
Choose the Business Model That Suits You
At Signs Express, we now offer four flexible routes to ownership so you can join us in a way that fits your background, goals and investment level:
- Resales: Purchase an established Signs Express centre with an existing customer base, local brand presence, experienced staff and recurring revenue.
- Start-ups: Launch a brand-new Signs Express centre in a prime, available territory. Perfect for ambitious individuals looking to build something from the ground up, with full training and support.
- Rebrands: Already running an independent signage business? Seamlessly rebrand as a Signs Express centre and gain access to our national marketing, operational support, group buying power and scalable growth model.
- Conversions: A hybrid of all three models, a Signs Express conversion sees us work with you to find an independent signage business for sale (in one of our vacant territories) and then help you to purchase it and convert it to a Signs Express in the process.
Creative, Consultative, Commercial
Our franchisees deliver bespoke signage and visual communication solutions to a wide variety of industries, from retail and construction to education, healthcare and manufacturing. Services include:
- Exterior building signage
- Illuminated and digital signs
- Vehicle graphics and wraps
- Exhibitions and displays
- Window graphics and bespoke wallpaper
- Health and safety signage
- Eco-friendly products and more
Setting You Up for Success
From your very first day, you’ll receive extensive training and hands-on support, including:
- Comprehensive onboarding and technical training
- Access to our custom-built Learning Management System (LMS)
- Business coaching, sales mentoring & operational guidance
- Dedicated Franchise Support Centre assistance in marketing, HR, IT, finance and more
- Local marketing campaigns run on your behalf
- Peer-to-peer best practice sharing across the network
- Growth options via our Hub & Spoke model for territory expansion
What Our Franchisees Say
“Nearly 25 years in, and I still love the industry and business. For a creative person who loves building relationships and meeting new people, being able to combine the two is ideal for me. Understanding our customers visions and bringing them to life gives me a huge buzz and seeing the work our team has produced in and around the city, gives me an enormous sense of pride.”
— Richard Howes, Signs Express (Lincoln)
“We’re excited to continue exploring what’s possible with the backing of such a strong and supportive network.”
— Matt Rutlidge, Signs Express (Central Lancashire)
“The business has been heading in a great direction, and joining the Hub & Spoke model was the perfect next step.”
— Kris Bell, Signs Express (Aylesbury)
“Rarely any two days are the same making each day interesting! As cheesy as it sounds, it’s the job satisfaction and being able to make a difference which motivates me still after 20 years ownership.”
— Ian Charles, Signs Express (Grantham)
Who We’re Looking For
You might be:
- A business savvy, hands-on manager with no industry experience but have the desire, drive and ambition to take a business to the next level
- An experienced sign maker or production lead with ambitions to run your own centre
- An independent signage business owner ready to rebrand and grow with the backing of a national network
- Strong relationship-building & sales skills
- Drive, ambition and creativity
- A consultative approach and customer-first mindset
Investment Information
- Franchise Fee: £8,500 (resale or rebrand) or £25,000 (start-up)
- Total Investment: Varies – we work with third-party funders including HSBC
- Liquid Capital Required: Typically, 30% of total investment
Start Your Signs Express Journey Today
Ready to take your business to the next level — or launch something brand new — with the UK’s leading signage franchise?
Click ‘Enquire Now’ to receive our full Franchise Prospectus and learn how we’ll support you every step of the way.
Current Resale Opportunities include:
- Signs Express (South Central England)
- Signs Express (Dartford)
- Signs Express (Harlow)
Current Locations Available for Start-Ups, Rebrands and Conversions include
- Ashford
- Bournemouth
- Brighton
- Canterbury
- Chester
- Crawley
- Croydon
- Dorking
- Eastbourne
- Edinburgh
- Harrogate
- Stoke
- Tunbridge
- Warrington
- Watford
- Worthing
- Franchise Fee: £8,500
- Minimum Investment: £215,000
- Minimum Liquid Capital: £65,000
- Potential Turnover: £750,000+
- Projected EBITDA: 20%
Another Phenomenal Year at Signs Express
Yes, we’ve had to navigate some curveballs delivered by the economy which are beyond our control, but overall, with the moving parts we can control… it’s been another year of progress, strong results and one to be proud of for sure!
We’ve made huge strides as we advance through and deliver on our five-year strategy. We’ve welcomed new franchisees, said goodbye to others, progressed further into our 'Hub and Spoke’ journey and added two more operations to our company owned portfolio. We’ve seen franchisees renew their franchise agreements, supported others with MBO deals, won awards (and narrowly missed out on others!). We’ve climbed the charts (second year running as ‘Rising Stars’) of the Elite Franchise Top 100 and celebrated our Nottingham franchisee being awarded the accolade of Great British Franchisee. We’ve remained committed to develop our eco-credentials, worked in partnership with suppliers to create bespoke training videos and created a new local marketing programme to support our franchisees lead generation. We’ve attended numerous industry events and exhibitions, hosted network meetings, organised social gatherings, and supported the development of an industry-wide apprenticeship, along with the small task of building and implementing a bespoke Learning Management System…
And so, we stop to take a breath and take the time to think about the fantastic dedication, talent, hard-work and determination we’ve seen across our network and Franchise Support team, without whom none of this could be possible.
Hub and Spoke
As we continue on our Hub and Spoke journey to create expansion opportunities for our franchisees, we were delighted to see Kris Bell, owner of Signs Express (Aylesbury) expand into High Wycombe after just a year in the network, Paul Glover, owner of Signs Express (Nottingham) taking on Derby and Signs Express (Bath and Swindon) extended their reach into Salisbury. Alongside this, two of our company owned centres, Signs Express (Twickenham) and Signs Express (Reading) expanded into their neighbouring territories of Battersea and Farnborough! With key learnings under our belt and this model demonstrating profitable business growth, we’re thrilled to have enquiries for further expansion of our network in 2024.
Local Marketing Programme
Listening to feedback from our franchisees, marketing has been a key topic where additional support has been requested and in January this year, we were excited to launch our Local Marketing Programme. Taking away some of the marketing activity demand from over 50% of our network, our experienced marketeers at the Franchise Support Centre now produce bespoke local marketing social posts, online activity, case studies, website updates and much more on behalf of our franchisees ensuring a consistent and engaging approach to marketing, enabling our franchisees to focus on other key areas of their businesses.
Learning Management System (LMS)
After a period of scoping, planning and building, in Q3 this year we proudly launched our bespoke online Learning Management platform addressing some of the training and development needs of our network. With fifty courses already available out of the two hundred we will be creating; this central platform is available for all Signs Express centres and their teams. Health and Safety, operations, finance and marketing are just a few of the business functions the system will cover, to enable structured learning and a consistent approach, allowing upskilling opportunities and personal development within our network.
System Investment
As part of our five-year strategy, another one of our commitments, is to make a significant investment into our customer and order management platform, which would see us introduce a new cloud-based solution for our entire network that improves internal efficiency and customer experience.
Looking Forward to 2024
And whilst Christmas is just around the corner, our minds here at Signs Express are fully focused on planning for our annual Convention being held on Friday 19 January. As our biggest event of the year, Convention brings together our network of franchisees and their teams along with suppliers from across the industry. With a packed schedule full of demo’s, business updates, networking, industry speakers, franchisee panels, our Signs Express awards and much more, it is set to be a fantastic day ahead of our gala dinner and franchise awards in the evening.
2023 has been another year of great progress and high output as we continue to work through our forward-thinking five-year strategy. With a fantastic network and phenomenal team around us, we can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store. Keep an eye out for updates throughout next year as we continue in our development journey!
Opportunities with Signs Express
At Signs Express we’re always on the lookout for talented, driven individuals to join our award-winning network. Whether you’re about to embark on a new apprenticeship, looking for a new creative opportunity in production, thinking about taking that step-up to become a Production or Sales Manager, or even looking to own your own business in an innovative industry where no two days are the same, we have a range of recruitment opportunities across our 60+ locations.
I would definitely recommend franchising to those who wish to own a business with large potential. It’s been a fantastic way to grow my opportunities whilst knowing I have all the support, guidance and reassurance just a phone call away.
Signs Express’ dedicated support team ensure I look at the facts and figures giving me advice on the next steps to take. It’s important to keep looking at the bigger picture in order to keep on track with the growth I want for the business. I have a very exciting future ahead of me.
