Hightech Signs, Victorville, CA
Keeps Growing, One Productive Step at a Time

We sat down recently with Toucan customer Dick Freeborg, Owner of Hightech Signs, Victorville, CA., to discuss his business and how it has evolved over the past twelve years.

To put things into perspective we first talked about where they are as a company today. Hightech Signs is a full-service sign shop providing design, output, assembly and installation for every kind of signage you can imagine. Third party companies are only involved for electric signs, routing and sandblasting. Employing nine professionals, the company is preparing to break ground on a new 9,000 s/f facility to better support their ever-growing business. So how did they get here? One productive step at a time:

Step 1
"We started out as a cut vinyl shop in Victorville (which is in the high desert approximately one hour outside Los Angeles), which at the time had a population of 180,000 people. We were doing basic vehicle graphics and some real estate signs for many small brokers in the area. This was fine and our business doubled in size from year one to year five," remembers Freeborg. "The population is now over 300,000, which is, in part, what we attribute a considerable amount of our growth to. We continue to double our business every five years. The first five years business just happened without a lot of strategic planning. We were committed to providing our customers high quality products with exceptional service and that seemed to be enough. However from year five on we have made it a point to stay in touch with changing customer requirements and evolving technology. The result continues to change the face of our business, but we have not lost sight of our original customer commitment to deliver quality.

Step 2
"As digital printing started to emerge, so our customer's expectations grew, and we saw an opportunity to expand our services. We purchased a Fargo thermal machine, which was inexpensive to buy, but expensive and slow to operate. But it did get our toe into the digital business."

Step 3
"Well, it looked like digital was here to stay, so next we invested in the Gerber Edge. This printer was both expensive to purchase and expensive to operate, but it was a quality machine. At 300dpi the resolution wasn't very high, but it did a good job printing decals."

Step 4
"As soon as large format digital printers proved themselves we jumped on board with the purchase of an HP 5000 printer. This allowed us to offer customers short run posters and POP materials. Due to the high desert climate prints really fade. Running UV inks we were able to provide about one-year outdoor durability, however, for the most part we recommended indoor applications. We also used the HP for vehicle graphics, but the vinyl media that worked with it was not well suited for applying around curves and corners. Speed was also an issue. We found ourselves waiting around for output, which can be expensive."

Step 5
"Earlier this year with our real estate signage business booming and a growing demand for large vehicle graphics, we realized the need for greater speed, quality and flexibility of output. After researching the market we decided on the Mutoh Toucan industrial 64-inch, 4-color printer. With its three-year (five-year with lamination) outdoor durability, incredible speed and high quality, we try and print everything we can on it."

"The Mutoh machine will print more in one-day than we can assemble so we're never waiting for output. Our staff just keeps assembling, delivering and installing."