Sunday, 12 Jul 2015 07:16 GMT

Haylee Benton

Jo Golding talks to Haylee Benton, operations director of Trade Signs, about getting to grips with a fast-paced industry, seeing your work on television, and high quality service

Seeing your name up in lights

What is your history with Trade Signs?

I have worked at Trade Signs for almost eight years. I am orig-inally from New Zealand with an insurance consulting background. I have always had a love of business, marketing, and operations. I went travelling to Europe and fell into a role with Trade Signs building their website and marketing the company. Trade Signs has grown substantially—when I started with the company, we had seven staff and now we have 50. I love the fast-paced environment and be-spoke nature of what we do. I am very proud of the company and what it has achieved so far.

What have been the biggest changes in the demand for different types of signage?

For us we have noticed over the years that a lot of our clients have evolved from being all about price and quick lead times, to now being mostly about the service and quality. During the recession there was a lot of demand for cheap flat cuts and aluminium composite trays and it has now evolved to us producing a huge amount of built ups and fabricated products as well. There is a lot more demand for bespoke structures and different types of materials. As a company we thrive on making things that we have not made before.

For us we have noticed over the years that a lot of our clients have evolved from being all about price and quick lead times, to now being mostly about the service and quality ”


What makes Trade Signs stand out from its competitors?

Our culture. Our clients are loyal and want to work with us. We have a very high staff retention rate because of the way we engage with our staff, which creates a care and passion in their work. Trade Signs is one team with many different departments. We work hard to bridge the gap between the office and factory to ensure that communication and workflow is excellent. We know the importance of systems to ensure we are structured and organised when it comes to our production processes, whilst giving our clients the vital information they need throughout. We give our staff and customers complete transparency and honesty, making our service levels and client care very hard to beat.


Benton says demand has now turned to a large amount of built ups, such as this built up letter wooden sign tray, and fabricated products



You won the BSGA Sign Construction of the Year award in 2014. What does it mean to be acknowledged in the industry?

We were extremely pleased to win this award, as well as being nominated for three others. For a trade manufacturer, it is amazing to have the opportunity to be rewarded for the hard work and commitment we have put into managing and manufacturing large scale projects. We have never had the chance to showcase the projects we have been involved with before. I think a lot of our clients do not realise that we are not just a manufacturer, we can project manage an order from start to finish, from design through to installation. This award has helped us to secure a lot more projects along with introducing us to new clients.

I think a lot of our clients do not realise that we are not just a manufacturer, we can project manage an order from start to finish, from design through to installation”



What is the ethos or the core values of the company?

We feel very strongly about delivering a high quality service to all of our clients and we tailor it to their needs. This means that we are honest and transparent about every-thing we do and throughout the manufacturing process. If things go wrong (as they do on the odd occasion in bespoke manufacture) we take responsibility to put things right and find a solution quickly. Consistency in service and communication really is every-thing to ensure we retain loyal clients.


(Above & below) Trade Signs can create a wide range of signage including built up letters, flat cut letters, illuminated signage, fabricated signage, and sign trays



What projects are your most memorable?

I personally enjoy it when we see our work on television. In our company we are all guilty of ‘pressing pause and taking a photo of the TV’. I loved the Coronation Street signage we did, it was brilliant to see on ITV when they did a special programme on the move of the studios. We made some large built up letters for the X-Factor and were mentioned on the credits. We produced high quality Formula 1 Red Bull signage for Sebastian Vettels garage that they have taken around the world. The trays we manufactured were specially sprayed by Red Bull’s F1 plant and had an amazing paint finish, we then added LED light sheets for a high quality product. It makes us all proud to see the end result of what we have manufactured.





2014 saw an excellent trading year and new members of staff, but what will 2015 bring?

Every year is better and better for us—we are always looking to improve and achieve more. We have grown very quickly over the last few years and are now creating a strategy to keep our growth controlled so we continue to give the best service. For 2015 it is all about improving and implementing ideas to ensure we have the right structure to push for even more growth in 2016.




Key Stats

  • Benton has worked at Trade Signs for almost 8 years
  • Won the BSGA Sign Construction of the Year award in 2014
  • Currently have a team of 50 
  • Plan to implement new ideas in 2015

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