Mike Vickers, president of Star Signs & Graphics, makes a living out of reading signs. And he sees a good one when it comes to the economy.

“Economists say our industry is usually one of the first businesses to come back from a recession,” Vickers said. “If that’s true, I’ve got good news for everybody. The recession is coming to an end because we’re really busy.”

It couldn’t come at a better time for the 23-year-old Lawrence company. The firm in mid-November moved from its production facility at 801 E. 23rd St. into 801 E. Ninth St., the former distribution center and offices of Classic Eagle Distributing, which moved to a new facility in the Riverside Industrial Park off North Iowa Street.

The move nearly tripled the company’s workspace from 16,000 square feet between three buildings to 43,000 square feet of continuous space.

Vickers said the new facility should allow the company to more efficiently tackle multimillion-dollar sign contracts like the work it did at the Kansas Speedway.

“Basically our demand had just exceeded production capacity, and it had been that way for several years,” Vickers said.

The extra space already is paying off for the company. Since moving in less than a month ago, the company has hired four new employees, bringing its total to 50, and added approximately $500,000 in new sign-making equipment.

No more fear

“We have never been this busy in December,” Vickers said. “We have plenty of work to keep us busy all winter long. Usually our first quarter kind of stinks, but now that dreaded quarter is actually looking good.”

Vickers said that was a turnaround from what the company was facing at the beginning of this year. The firm, which in 2001 had sales of $4.9 million, had been growing consistently at a rate of 14 percent a year. For 2002, the company was projecting a growth rate of 7 percent. Vickers said the company might post sales totals 15 percent to 20 percent below 2001’s mark.

“This year will be flat at best,” Vickers said. “The first half of this year I would characterize as scary because it was just such an abrupt change from the way it had been for so long.”

A move by Star Signs & Graphics into a 43,000 square foot East Lawrence production facility should allow the company to better handle multimillion dollar sign contracts, like the one for the Kansas Speedway. Joe Wilson, a Star Signs employee, works on a sign that will advertise the retail and entertainment district surrounding the speedway.

Vickers said the company went from winning jobs that it intentionally bid high because it had more work than it could handle to being thrown into an ultracompetitive marketplace.

He said the company traditionally received 25 percent to 30 percent of the projects they bid each month, but this year the average dropped to 10 percent to 15 percent even though their prices held steady.

“We had a lot of customers who canceled projects or postponed them because they were scared,” Vickers said. “The good news is that I don’t see the fear that I did. We’re now bidding $2 million to $3 million worth of jobs a month.”

A national business

Whether the turnaround in Star’s business is an indicator of a recovery in the Lawrence economy is questionable. That’s because the majority of Star’s work is done outside the Lawrence area.

Vickers estimated that 80 percent to 85 percent of the company’s work comes from projects outside Lawrence. That’s a change from the early ’90s when the company used to do at least 70 percent of its work in the Lawrence area.

Now the company focuses on trying to build a niche as one of only about 20 companies in the country that can tackle mega sign projects such as those for stadiums, shopping malls, and national chain retailers and restaurants.

“It has been a good move for us because not too many people can do this work,” Vickers said. “It has gotten to the point that we’ve built up a reputation where we don’t even have to bid for some jobs. The developers come to us in the beginning because they want us involved.”

The company started building that national reputation in the early 1980s when it bought a Kansas City-area sign company that had the national contract for the Houlihan’s Restaurant chain. Star kept the contract and word began to spread of its work. About three years later, the company landed the account for The Buckle, a national clothing retailer. Both Houlihan’s and The Buckle remain Star clients.

Then the company was able to successfully tap into the growing sign market for sports stadiums, in part, because the company had built a good reputation with several Kansas City architecture firms that had become the dominant designers in the sports arena business.

Mike Vickers, president of Star Signs & Graphics, says he sees signs in his business that the economy is beginning to improve. The company in the last month has hired four new employees.

The company has done work for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas University’s football stadium, the University of Missouri football stadium, the Tacoma Dome in Washington, and the Palace at Auburn Hills, the home of the Detroit Pistons.

Currently, Star is bidding work for the signage at the Washington Redskins Stadium and is continuing to work on new signs for the Kansas Speedway. Star won a $2 million contract to do all the signage for the speedway when it was built two years ago. Now the company has won work for the signs promoting the entertainment and retail area surrounding the track.

“For that project, we’re making probably two of the biggest signs that have ever been made in this region,” Vickers said.

Weirder the better

Vickers estimated the new facility would increase the company’s production capacity by 20 percent to 30 percent, which should make it easier for the company to tackle large and complex projects like those for the speedway.

“The plan is we’ll be able to handle big projects more easily and ultimately make more money on each project because we won’t have to subcontract out the work because of a lack of space,” Vickers said.

The company began looking for a larger facility about four years ago, Vickers said, because it became obvious the industry was heading in a direction that would require a more sophisticated production facility.

For instance, he said, the company is bidding a sign project for a St. Louis shopping mall that includes a 24-foot globe and several 30- to 40-foot signs in the shape of flowers.

“A lot of the projects we do are really as much about sculpture and art than about signage,” Vickers said. “The weirder the better, seems to be the trend.”

Increased production space at Star Signs & Graphics new corporate headquarters at 801 E. Ninth St. is expected to help the company win new sign projects.

The complex shapes and designs require a host of skilled workers :quot; ranging from welders to glass blowers :quot; which has caused the company to take its recruiting efforts to a more national scope. Of the four people the company recently hired, one was from Utah and one was from California, Vickers said.

Vickers said the need to recruit on a national basis was one of the reasons he decided to keep the company in Lawrence, even though it received several offers from other communities in the area.

He said the company did seriously consider offers from both Ottawa and Garnett because they offered large buildings for a fraction of the cost available in Lawrence.

“We had to look at them because we could move in there for 50 cents on the dollar compared to Douglas County,” Vickers said. “But I got to thinking that when I try to recruit somebody from California or Utah to come to work for us, Lawrence is a lot better draw.”

Vickers said the company did plan to do some more hiring in the future. He said he expected the company to grow from 50 employees to about 60 in the next five years.

The new employees may have to come sooner rather than later. Walking around his new production area, Vickers points out work on signs for Houlihan’s, the Kansas Speedway, Independence Power and Light, AMC Theaters, and then he sees an unfinished sign sitting untouched in the corner.

It is for the front of his new building and will replace the temporary vinyl sign.

“At least it shows we’re busy,” Vickers said.