Are you looking for the next step in your career? Is now the time to work for yourself rather than contributing to someone else’s bottom line? Are you looking for a positive work-life balance whilst running your own business?
Our current resales include:
- Signs Express (Exeter)
- Signs Express (Huddersfield)
- Signs Express (Liverpool & Wirral)
- Signs Express (Harlow)
- Signs Express (Macclesfield)
Being your own boss isn’t a career choice, it’s a lifestyle choice… So, turn your career into a lifestyle today with Signs Express:
- Become part of the UK’s largest signs and graphics network
- Creative, high profit industry with 20% EBITDA potential
- Be your own boss and operate in your own territory
- Opportunity to achieve £750,000 turnover and beyond
- Monday – Friday working hours
- Full training and support provided
- Established, respected brand with over 35 years of experience
- Expansion potential
- UK wide network support and UK based Franchise Support Centre
- Innovative industry where no two days are the same
Why Choose Signs Express?
Offering bespoke signage and graphics solutions to customers large and small we offer room for creativity and innovation working with a consultative approach, offering anything from exterior building graphics, illuminated signage, digital signage, vehicle graphics, exhibition and displays, window graphics, bespoke wallpaper, health and safety signage, eco-products and much more.
Established for 35 years, Signs Express is dedicated to delivering our customers' innovative signs and graphics solutions. We interpret our customers visions and advise on the best visual solutions to bring their brands to life. In an ever-growing industry, our forward-thinking strategy combined with our national coverage and local approach allows us to offer our clients the most effective solutions.
Each and every business needs signage or graphics whether it's to attract customers, engage or inspire employees, health and safety notices or to simply inform, we’re here to support our clients bring their brands to life. Due to the variety of industries we service and the huge range we offer, the signage industry can be viewed as recession proof as every situation presents opportunities.
Extensive Training Programme: Setting you up for Success
With a commitment to help you grow your business and achieve your goals, we offer extensive training and support to our franchisees to ensure you are set up for success. Throughout your Signs Express career, we offer:
- Comprehensive onboarding programme for all new franchisees including classroom learning and hands-on training
- Business Coaching and Mentoring
- Ongoing training for existing franchisees and their teams via our custom-built Learning Management Platform
- Live training sessions from our company owned flagship centre in Twickenham
- Business Health Checks ensuring best practice
- Dedicated Franchise Support Centre and centre visits, offering support and training to our network across all disciplines including finance, IT, local and national marketing, operational, recruitment, business planning and sales
- Social media training
- Exit planning and realising your resale value
- Sharing of best practice from fellow franchisees and from our supplier partners
Hear from our Franchisees:
Kris Bell, Signs Express (Aylesbury): Catching up with Kris after 12 months of ownership:
“The last year has been a whirlwind. Being quite a risk averse individual, I usually spend a lot of time weighing things up, however after the busiest 12 months of my career, I’ve definitely had to adapt the way I work, along with my overall business approach and I’ve learnt a lot about myself for sure, along with help and support from the Franchise Support Centre offering guidance and support each step of the way.
I’ve loved every minute of it (despite the challenges) and I’ve met some fantastic individuals in local businesses and built some great relationships with our customers along the way. I’m really pleased with where the business has been heading and the progress we’ve made as a team, so I felt ready for the next step in my Signs Express journey by venturing into the new hub and spoke model.”
Matt Rutlidge, Signs Express (Central Lancashire): Speaking with Matt as he moves into ownership:
“After 14 years with Signs Express and working as Centre Manager for the past four years, I am thrilled to announce that I am now the proud owner of Signs Express (Central Lancashire), serving the local areas of Preston, Blackpool and Blackburn. I’m fortunate enough to have fantastic relationships with the majority of our customers and suppliers already, however I’m excited to spend the coming weeks and months reaching out and speaking with many more local businesses to see how we can work together.
I’m extremely passionate about what I do and with a dedicated, experienced team around me, we’re excited to see where we can take the business and continue to explore and push the boundaries of what we can create for our local communities and beyond.”
Roy Heeley and John McEntee, Signs Express (Liverpool & Wirral): Discuss what they enjoy most about working in the signage industry:
“Having started the business from scratch many years ago, we are still learning 20 years later! We thrive when working in a creative environment offering a varied and diverse approach to our customers means every day is different. We’re both sociable individuals and enjoy getting out and about meeting new customers. Building relationships is key to the success of the business, leading to repeat business, a solid reputation and word of mouth recommendations. Many of our good friends started off as customers and it’s great that they’ve been on the journey with us.
Work life balance is also essential, our Monday-Friday working days have allowed us to spend time with our friends and family whilst enjoying the benefits of running our own business. Undoubtedly the support from our fellow franchisees along with support from the franchise support centre has been integral to our success.”
Who are we looking for?
Full support and training is provided throughout your Signs Express career, therefore no industry experience is required.
We are looking for two types of franchisees:
- Business savvy, hands-on managers with no industry experience but have the desire, drive and ambition to take a business to the next level.
- Career driven sign makers and production managers that are experienced in the industry with ambitions to own and grow their own business with our support.
Our ideal franchisee will be extremely personable with the ability to build relationships, act consultatively to help build solutions, they will be driven, ambitious, a good all-rounder, creative and not afraid of hard work.
‘A Day in the Life of a Franchisee’
As a centre owner no two days will be the same, you’ll be the key relationship manager for your customers, you’ll be the face of the business, the driving force for innovation, you’ll work in a consultative manner and be the voice of authority in your field, offering bespoke solutions to your customers, all delivered with outstanding customer care.
Investment and Funding:
- Franchise Fee of £8,500 for a resale purchase or £25,000 for a start-up opportunity
- Investment levels vary for our resale opportunities depending on the size of the business. Current opportunities range from £99,950 to £250,000.
- A total investment of £215,000 is required for a start-up opportunity.
- At Signs Express we can support you with funding via our 3rd party financial partners such as HSBC.
- Typically, 30% of the asking price is required in liquid capital, however we will work with you to look at different funding approaches if required.
Please get in touch today to find out more!
- Franchise Fee: £25,000
- Minimum Investment: £215,000
- Minimum Liquid Capital: £65,000
Play to Win: Signs Express Convention 2023
Held at the iconic St George’s Park in Burton-Upon-Trent on Friday 27th January, with our theme of “Play to Win” we welcomed franchisees and senior team members from across the Signs Express network along with a number of suppliers and of course the Franchise Support Centre team were there to network and keep the day running smoothly (and on time!).
Kicking off with our plenary session, led by Managing Director Jonathan Bean and Network Development Director Aaron Davis, we proudly presented network achievements and the impressive strides we’ve made as we work through our five-year strategy, allowing us to celebrate the outstanding successes and progress made in 2022. A clear message that teams that play together, win together…
Along with networking and supplier exhibitions, the day also saw interactive demonstrations from our suppliers including: new digital displays by Allsee Technologies, laser capabilities by Trotec and printing, laminating and cutting essentials from SEDO and Epson leaving our franchisees with new possibilities to consider. Plus, our suppliers were on hand to form the panel for our themed Q&A which this year was focussed on the hugely important topic of environmental sustainability within the signage industry creating a great discussion and debate.
Wrapping up the daytime session of our event, we moved onto our much-coveted Sign Awards. With an abundance of talent and impressive projects throughout the year we were spoilt for choice, however the winners are:
- Signs Express (Huddersfield) for Dewsbury Library: Best Exterior Sign
- Signs Express (Central Lancashire) for The Brig Lodge: Best Interior Sign
- Signs Express (Milton Keynes) for Unibrew: Best Vehicle Graphics
- Signs Express (Stoke) for CBeebies: Best Sign Project Sponsored by SignElite
- Signs Express (Southampton) for Celebrity Beyond: Most Striking Design Sponsored by Metamark
- Signs Express (Grimsby): Supplier of the Year
A huge congratulations to our winners and finalists for 2022!
A quick change into our finest outfits and we kicked off our Gala evening with drinks kindly sponsored by Metamark, a quick photo opportunity for the franchisees and their teams and onto a delicious meal with the perfect chance to unwind and socialise with our Signs Express colleagues and friends.
Fast forward three courses and we were ready to announce the last of our awards, our all important Signs Express Franchise Awards. Again, with an amazing network of talent, it’s a hard one to judge, but we’re delighted to announce our 2022 winners as:
- Kris Bell from Signs Express (Aylesbury): Newcomer of the Year
- Matt Bevis from Signs Express (Grimsby): Network Champion of the Year
- Tori Kendrick from Signs Express (Birmingham): Employee of the Year
- Lee Reynolds from Signs Express (Lancaster): Franchisee of the Year
And that was it! A few more drinks at the bar to celebrate and our 2023 Convention is over for another year. A big thank you to all of our franchisees and suppliers for making it such a fantastic event, we look forward to making it even bigger and better for 2024.
Join our award-winning network…
Signs Express is the UK’s largest signs and graphics business, offering a bespoke, creative and consultative approach to signage from a network of over 60 centres. With over 30 years’ experience and a passion for customer service we are at the forefront of the signage industry, offering an innovative approach with a forward-thinking strategy.
With franchise opportunities to join our award-winning network via established resale opportunities and prime-location start up opportunities, we offer you the chance to become your own boss and secure your financial future. If this is a business opportunity that appeals to you and you would like the chance to attend our 2024 Convention, why not get in touch?
You can also find out more by attending one of our new Interactive Discovery Days, held at our flagship Signs Express (Twickenham) centre. These fantastic events allow you to understand how our business works, what you can hope to achieve, experience a ‘day in the life of Signs Express’ and get involved with demonstrations and a tour of the centre.
For more information, please contact Head of Franchise Recruitment Emma Wakefield who will be happy to help.
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.
Signs Express Master Franchise Opportunity
