It’s taken 30 years of hard graft, lots of ups and some very serious downs for Norman Mayhew to be in the position he is today, with his burgeoning Sussex Sign Company once again growing and on the brink of significant expansion. But without resilience, he says, he would not be here.
“Over the years there may be days you think you can’t pay your VAT or corp tax or you have to tell a customer you’ve done a bad job and you have to take total responsibility for that. These things are learning opportunities and if you don’t use them like that, they will close you down,” he says.
The challenge
Mayhew co-founded The Sussex Sign Company with his father-in-law Peter Lake in 1995 from the spare room of Lake’s house. Established as a signage broker, Mayhew says the pair wanted to build a substantial business for Sussex founded on customer service and quality products.
“I didn’t want to be a one-man-band selling out of my garage, I wanted to generate real business and employ a workforce,” he recalls.
“We had no money when we started and banks weren’t interested so we opened on a wing and a prayer and went door-knocking. We had no computers or equipment so we bought everything from a firm 35-miles away and I would drive out to collect every order. This was before the advent of the big trade suppliers that we have now,” he explains.
From a first order that brought in £160, the pair turned over nearly £40,000 in their first year and worked out of Lake’s house for a further year while they grew, continually reinvesting everything they earned. After finally securing a small bank loan they were able to move into a 140sqm factory in Newhaven.
“I couldn’t afford to buy it so I negotiated to rent it for a year and then buy it. That didn’t quite happen because although we’d grown I wasn’t being clever with money at the time.” Eventually however, with the help of a government grant, Mayhew bought the factory in 2001.
The method
Sussex Sign Co’s first kit purchase was a Graphtec 600 vinyl plotter with other pieces soon to follow. A circa-£30,000 investment on a 1.6m wide-format device brought digital print capability in-house in 2004 and significantly expanded the firm’s portfolio. Headcount rose to seven, the business had become a limited company in 2003 and so began an acquisitive growth strategy. Two years later Mayhew brought screen printing and labels in-house by acquiring its Hove-based supplier Milterbest. Then followed the purchase of Sussex Sign Co’s biggest competitor, Portslade-based Brighton Sign Company, in 2007. Turnover more than doubled overnight.
Lake retired in 2007 and at the start of 2008, Mayhew says, everything seemed to be turning to gold: “We were turning over around £1.3m as a group, we had 24 staff over three sites and a fantastic manufacturing facility.”
But the financial crash of September 2008 slashed income to £700,000 within three months and with debts high, Mayhew was forced to consolidate.
“It went so wrong so quickly it was unreal. I had to learn very quickly how to properly run a business, not just fly by the seat of my pants. I discovered the importance of cashflow and how important good strategic financial management was. I had to make staff redundant. It was awful, I felt devastated.”
Milterbest and the Newhaven site were closed down and all operations moved to the 372sqm Portslade site. A friend invested in 50% of the business, which Mayhew says got them through the toughest times. They remain a sleeping partner today. With the team reduced to 12, Mayhew got his head down and spent the next five years “paying bill after bill, determined not to go bust”.
By 2014 the business was in profit again and debt-free in a further three years. Mayhew grew the team again and invested in kit including a “game-changing” Bobis vinyl applicator “doing the work of three people” and upgrading print technology with a Roland R640 and later an eight- colour Roland Tru-Vis VF-640.
Mayhew explains his strategy was to use major quality trade suppliers such as SignFab, Simplex, RMC and William Smith for hard structure builds such as totem poles, aluminium trays and illuminated stainless steel letter builds that his company didn’t have space for.
“The quality of their work is superb and their skill base was better than ours in all honesty. We were outsourcing the ability to punch above our weight,” he explains.
Mayhew adds: “There are lots of people that manufacture everything in house but their skill-base is limited. My policy became one of sourcing the absolute best manufacturers in the country for specific jobs so that we could offer the best of the best.”
By the start of 2020 the business was turning over around £1m again with 24 staff including two new sales reps taken on ready to push sales to £2m over the next five to 10 years.
Then Covid happened. Once again turnover was nearly halved and the team cut to 12, but thanks to lessons learned over the last decade Mayhew stayed the course and came out strong.
The result
To get through the tough times you have to be something of a hustler, Mayhew says. He credits his hard-working staff for supporting him and the business through the darkest of times.
“If you don’t know how to hustle, you will panic the minute things start to go wrong,” he states. “You have to learn to hold your nerve, believe in yourself, your team and what you do and you have to know that your team is 100% behind you. When the shit hits the fan, people show their true mettle – you have to get rid of the cruisers and focus on those who are working with you to make it a success.” One of those is Mayhew’s general manager Maisie Miller, who joined the business at 18 as an assistant and who he says proved indispensable during the pandemic.
“She fundamentally helped save the company and I am hopeful for a successful management buyout when I retire at 70,” he says.
Mayhew’s focus on constant reinvestment in the business and its staff has earned Sussex Sign Company numerous accolades over the years including Small Business of the Year, Newhaven Business of the Year, FSB Southern Region Small Business Champions, Investors in People certificates and most recently claiming gold in the Roll-Out category at the 2024 UK Graphics Awards. Having started as an apprentice himself, he is a huge advocate of apprenticeships and has taken on 15 over the years, which he says helps to make the business and the industry stronger.
Bouncing back from Covid has been steady with the team building up again to around 15 and sales to £1.35m in the latest financial year, which puts them back on target to achieve £2m turnover by 2027.
“We’re on the brink of expansion again with a solid growth plan in place,” says Mayhew. “So with the current political climate I truly hope we’re not about to see world war three!”
The business has just bought a brand new, 110sqm facility in Burgess Hill, which opened at the start of April, operating as a dedicated vehicle wrapping centre.
“Although we have a small vehicle-wrapping bay here at Portslade, we struggle with the weather and wrapping large vehicles so we really needed an indoor facility to be able to grow this service to be the best in the area.”
Initially the site will be manned by staff from Portslade, but with growth on the agenda Mayhew ultimately anticipates a dedicated team on site. He is optimistic about the future and reflects that while the advent of the internet, the vinyl applicator and digital print have been the key technologies to propel the business over the past three decades, AI will be the biggest game-changer.
“It’s going to be as big or bigger than the advent of the internet,” he states. “It gives small businesses that can’t afford to pay for lots of expertise a whole new opportunity. It levels the playing field at an administrative level.
“Sales can use AI to write better pitches, source potential leads and write professional tenders. In the future it could even help us to improve signage design, or work out maths equations for wind-loading on signage. We need to embrace it and take it forward. It gives us a great chance to mix with the big guys.”
So, says Mayhew, the road ahead is promising. With solid growth again he intends to re-implement his earlier model of expansion through acquisition, next year, with the plan to create local branches around the Sussex area.
“We’re looking to purchase businesses that do what we do but in other areas. People don’t like to travel, they want to buy local and that’s what I want to provide.
“We have gone two steps forward and one or even three steps back, over the years, but we always have an eye on the future and that’s what makes us strong.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Sussex Sign Company
Business location Portslade, East Sussex
Inspection host Norman Mayhew, managing director
Size Staff 15; Turnover £1.3m
Established date 1995
Products and services A full-service sign company providing a wide range of commercial signage and vehicle signwriting and wrapping services
Kit Roland Tru-Vis VF-640 wide-format printer; Easy mount Laminator; Roland Camm-1 Pro plotter; Graftec 1300 plotter, Bobis flatbed applicator; a wide range of additional sign manufacturing equipment including saws, routers and drills
Inspection focus Building a business that stands the test of time
TOP TIPS
Mayhew says you have to learn how to hustle and not panic when things go wrong. Implementing clear and consistent planning and processes is fundamental, he says, but flexibility is key if things don’t go to plan. “Never be frightened to change direction,” he adds.
“You have to build resilience, if you don’t have that then don’t start a business,” he says. Use the tough times and the mistakes as learning opportunities and move forward, he advises. “You have to be 100% committed to your company, if you don’t you simply won’t succeed,” Mayhew adds.
Mayhew admits he had no idea about cashflow in the early days and says learning about these things has been fundamental to the firm’s survival. “You have to be a voracious learner, there is so much out there now whether you learn by reading, listening or watching things, you need to embrace learning and make sure you implement what you learn.”
