Two employees at a Harrogate sign centre on Knaresborough Road are celebrating becoming the bosses!

Marc Squires (31) and Kevin Masheder (25) bought Signarama Harrogate following the retirement of Michael Webster who opened the specialist signs and visual communications centre 15 years ago.

By coincidence Marc and Kevin are both product design graduates. Marc started working at the centre ten years ago and Kevin became part of the production team in 2013.  

Said Marc: “I have been working here since I left university and have enjoyed every minute of it. Kev and I work well together and it made sense for us to pool our resources to buy the company. We know what a good business this is because we have seen the success for ourselves, so when Michael told us he was retiring and putting the company up for sale it was too good an opportunity to miss. He has built up a really good customer base and we’re looking forward to taking Signarama Harrogate it to the next stage."

The business support team at Signarama UK have been working with the new owners to help them transition from being workers to bosses focusing on finance, management and marketing skills.  The pair have already been to the company’s worldwide headquarters in Florida for an intensive two-week training course to learn everything there is to know about owning and running a Signarama centre.

Said Kevin: “We’ve got a great team here. Every day is different in the sign business and we get to work with some lovely customers. I have always wanted to be my own boss and it’s not every day you get the chance to buy a ready-made business with a proven pedigree.  Being able to access top quality business advice and support through the Signarama Business Support Centre in London helped us tremendously and we learned a lot from the training.  We had expert help with putting together a business plan, raising the finance and now have a business mentor to guide us as we adapt to our new management roles.”

Since taking over the business Kevin and Marc have invested in refurbishing the shop and installing a new reception area. In addition to contacting existing and previous customers to let them know about the change in ownership they have launched a major marketing campaign which includes social media, email marketing and radio advertising to establish Signarama Harrogate as the town’s leading sign company.