Seeing signs everywhere
Lakeville business Safety Signs specializes in keeping motorists, pedestrians safe
by Aaron Vehling
Dakota County Tribune
Sue and Jay Blanchard own and operate Safety Signs in Lakeville, responsible for signage all over the state. The company expects to grow this year and has been able to forgo layoffs. - Photo by Aaron Vehling
Say you are driving quickly down Interstate 94 somewhere in St. Paul – perhaps you are even speeding a bit. The wind blows in your hair and your stereo is blaring one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s better upbeat hits.
As traffic slows a bit, you start seeing signs. But these aren’t akin to those of the namesake of our state’s capital city. Instead, what abounds are those blaze orange diamonds warning you of impending road closures, lane closures or bumps in the road.
While you may lament the sudden traffic jam, deep down both you and the construction workers are glad that those signs were there.
But where do those signs actually come from?
“People think they come from the state or the city,” said Sue Blanchard, who along with her husband, Jay, owns Safety Signs in Lakeville, the state’s leading provider of road signage.
Safety Signs produces for and rents out signs to several construction companies, such as Lunda and MacNamara’s, and works closely with government entities such as the Met Council, the Metropolitan Airports Commission and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
In addition to the standard construction signs, Safety Signs also provides what are called “intelligent displays” that are used to help suburban riders determine if it is better to drive to work or leave the car at the park-and-ride.
On top of that, the company maintains the stripes on new ramps at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Safety Signs has plenty of pre-made signage on-site to deliver to job sites as needed, but the company also creates custom signs when it is necessary.
Drive around the metro area – or the state even – and take a quick glance at the backs of signs. You will see the Safety Signs logo frequently, including at large-scale, long-term projects such as the Highway 169 and Devil’s Triangle interchange in Brooklyn Park.
One room to
five locations
Jay’s parents, Nancy and Jim, along with Jay and Sue, started the company in 1993 with a $17,000 loan from Nancy and Jim. Nancy was president, Jay was vice president and Sue was secretary-treasurer. Jim offered his help when needed.
All had experience in some form of business, whether it was sealcoating or accounting. They saw the potential for a higher-growth, higher-income business in signage, Jay said, because of a lack of competition.
Safety Signs’ home office has always been in its current location, though at the time it occupied but one room in that edifice along I-35 on Kenrick Avenue.
“We were bare bones,” Jay said. “PCs were the biggest purchase aside from signs.”
Raising kids and running a nascent family business can be tough, the couple said.
“Our kids spent their first years playing in laundry baskets on the floor (of the office),” Jay said.
In 2001, Sue added president to her role when Nancy retired.
As the demand for signage increased, the Blanchards opened rental sites in Blaine, Duluth, Mankato and Rochester. Most of the contracts are administered out of the Lakeville office, Jay said, but these sites serve to limit the delivery time required to get materials to a construction site.
Short delivery is pivotal in a business with a brief turnaround time.
“We usually have two hours to deliver (signs),” Jay said.
Safety Signs is currently involved in 1,300 projects across the state.
The Great Recession
In addition to the striping, the orange construction signs and the traffic cones, a good chunk of Safety Signs’ business during the boom times of the aughts was commercial and residential. The company was responsible for not only construction signs but also street name and speed limit signs and related visual guidance.
But as the recession worsened, the economic situation took out some of their clients.
“It was hard to watch that happen to our customers,” Sue said.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 brought Safety Signs some new work to balance out the loss of residential and commercial developers, but the Blanchards said that it is certainly no panacea.
“The jobs are higher volume, lower margin and far more stringent,” Jay said. “There’s way more risk with less reward.”
That said, he added, “We thank God we have work. The employees are very thankful to have jobs.”
Safety Signs employs full time about 30 positions, with close to 60 people when the company hires temps for the construction season. While the company has had to hire fewer seasonal temps as of late, Sue said she has not laid off anyone.
Sue attributes this to the couple’s fiscal conservatism.
“We’re afraid of debt,” Jay said. “That’s made us take a conservative approach to growing the business.”
Jay sums it up as such: It is not just that Safety Signs is a family business. Its employees are like family.
“They deserve to be here during the tough times,” he said, explaining why he and Sue have striven to avoid layoffs. “They’re working their butts off.”
Perhaps the driving force behind this sentiment is the tangible grasp the Blanchards have on their role as business owners, understanding there are families who depend on them for an income.
“I can’t imagine how awful it would be to have to downsize people we’ve worked with for years,” Sue said.
Jay agreed, emphasizing the community within the company.
“We know each other’s families,” he said.
Growth is on the horizon. Jay said Safety Signs will be adding employees this year, as well as trucks and equipment. The company added a full-time estimator last year to aid in assessing jobs.
Much of this growth is fueled by an aggressive approach toward winning contracts.
“Work is harder to get, so we are going after more (contracts),” Jay said.
At the end of the day, the Blanchards said they feel good about their work.
“We’re saving people’s lives,” Jay said. “I feel proud of what we do.”
Aaron Vehling is at
aaron.vehling@ecm-inc.com.
