A legacy of steel

by carly_mchugh | 8 April 2024 1:44 pm

By Carly McHugh

From when he was young, Tom Hrivnak has watched Steel Art Signs expand and thrive in Canada’s evolving sign industry. What remained consistent for the company, which was co-founded by his father in Toronto, was the desire to bring new and innovative ideas to the craft, while maintaining pride in their finished product.

Since then, the business has expanded by leaps and bounds, and moved its operations to Richmond Hill, Ont. After growing his career with Steel Art—where he began working as a teenager—Hrivnak took over as chairman, and the company formed a partnership with fellow industry legend Gregory Signs. Now, celebrating its 75^th anniversary this year, it shows no evidence of slowing down, and continues to thrive in today’s cutting-edge, competitive market.

For a close-up account of how Steel Art has remained a household name in the industry, Sign Media Canada spoke with Hrivnak, as well as vice-president of sales and marketing, Boris Kaminsky. Together, they detailed the company’s history, its recent projects, and how it has continued to achieve success in today’s ever-changing world.

Sign Media Canada (SMC): What is the history of Steel Art Signs?

Tom Hrivnak (TH): In 1949, Lou Hrivnak and Nat Zajdner decided to start a metal fabricating company, where they made air conditioning ducts, stainless steel kitchen counters, and equipment, and even some wrought iron. The name was “Steel Art” because they were working in metal at the beginning. They weren’t in the sign business. However, they did make stainless steel letters for E.L. Ruddy, which was a fairly large sign company at the time.

Then, later, when acrylic sheets were being manufactured, people started building “suitcase signs,” which was a light box with a plastic face, and they thought this was an area they should get into. So, they went to E.L. Ruddy and said, “We just want you to know, we’re going to go into this new kind of sign business.”

The company said they had no problem with it. Steel Art continued to make letters for E.L. Ruddy, as well as Chrysler letters for Tek Plastics, but then they developed their own customers. Canadian Tire was one of the first large customers, along with Eaton’s and CIBC. That’s how they got going.

SMC: How did the business develop over time and continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive industry?

TH: My father and his partner prided themselves in building a quality product. My father was strong in the sales end and Nat was more of the production head. They warrantied their work. They looked for new ways to make signs. I remember hearing my father and Don King—who had a company called King Products—discussing which one was the first to use extrusions. Aluminum extrusions were something they pioneered in making signs. They also did all of the things everybody tries to do now: deliver on time and give great customer service.

Over the years, they built quite a clientele, and they were making signs with fibre optics. Then, later—when I was running the company—Steel Art and a company called Philadelphia Sign in the U.S. were the first two major North American sign companies that were using LEDs.

I followed what my father and his partner were trying to do, by pioneering new ideas and technologies. Since the beginning, where we were doing mostly large exterior signs, we ended up going into interior signs and small, non-illuminated signs. Instead of just putting the big signs on the outside of hospitals, we started doing all of the interior signs, marking the rooms and lobbies. Now, we’re more diversified in what we supply, but we’re still in what we call on-premise sign manufacturing, as opposed to billboards or outdoor advertising.

Boris Kaminsky (BK): The business also changed in the aspect it’s more detailed in regard to project management, co-ordination, and engineering. There was always co-ordination and project management, but now it’s more emphasized by our clientele, especially the construction companies we have on-site, along with project managers and co-ordinators.

TH: The projects became larger, so where we were maybe supplying half a dozen signs on a building, when you do interior and exterior for a hospital or a university, you might have a couple of thousand signs for that project. More recently, we were doing signage for the Eglinton Crosstown, and there were many different types of signs and many sites, because there’s a dozen or more stations. It took a lot of project management that simpler contracts earlier on didn’t require.

SMC: What makes the company unique?

TH: The company’s always been non-union, which was unique in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Most of the large sign companies were unionized. We were also always owner operated, and that’s still the same. Where my father was embracing technology by introducing aluminum extrusions and different things to sign manufacturing, we, in turn, do the same. We were probably the first sign company—certainly in Canada, but maybe North America—to have lasers that cut both metal and plastic. We’re still embracing technology to improve our productivity, and maybe our capabilities as well, because sometimes the new technology enables you to make signs you couldn’t before. Plus, you still have to give good customer service, and that hasn’t changed. We’ve always manufactured in Toronto, shipped our products across Canada, and had agents install the signs for us. We’ve never had multiple plants. We still do it the same way we always did.

BK: We also still do vacuum forming in-house. The plastic gets heated up and sticks out, and it’s three-dimensional. For example, Tim Hortons drive-thru signs. They’re not flat. I believe that process started during Tom’s dad’s time.

TH: Yes, they did moulding back then. We also have a powder coat paint system. Most sign companies use a subcontractor and have them powder coat, so that’s something we have that most people don’t.

BK: For anything local, the majority of the time, if our staff aren’t busy, we have our own installation crews. We have our own crane trucks and bucket trucks.

Then, one of the biggest things a lot of people don’t have is archives. We have shop drawings that go back in time, and we can always work off those. We have people who have been here for more than 40 years, and they can still build things without the technology. We have craftsmen still in the industry working here, whereas a lot of sign companies don’t have history they can pass on.

TH: Our average length of employment is more than 15 years. Usually, people come to work here and stay here.

SMC: How large is your facility?

TH: We’re using 8,640 m² (93,000 sf). The building is 12,263 m² (132,000 sf), but we rent part of it out and use the biggest portion.

SMC: What type of projects have you been working on recently?

TH: We have national accounts which include Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons. With Canadian Tire, it’s all of their divisions, such as Sportchek, the gas stations, and Part Source. We also had huge infrastructure contracts for the Crosslinx, in amongst the jobs we would get from general contractors. We might do a hospital here and a university building there. For example, we do lots of ongoing work for the University of Toronto (UofT). However, what was really keeping us busy was the major accounts and the infrastructure jobs for the Eglinton Crosstown.

SMC: How much of the signmaking process is handled in-house?

TH: We have everything here. Whether it’s for interior signs, powder coating, or welding, everything can be made here from start to finish. However, if we get really busy, we do have other partners who will make either parts or the whole sign for us.

SMC: What are some of the tools and equipment you use for your projects?

TH: We can mould plastic. We have lasers. We have several computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) cutting machines and three or four router tables. We have two Accu-Bend machines to form the letters. We also have lots of other things most companies would have, including radial saws and band saws. We have two paint booths, in addition to the powder coat booth. We have welding equipment, for both aluminum and steel. Plus, trailers as well as our crane trucks.

BK: We have pretty much everything you would require in the sign industry, and beyond.

TH: We have cranes which run the length of the building. You can use them to move things anywhere in the plant.

SMC: How have technological developments changed the way you operate the business?

TH: Probably the largest difference is so many of the activities involved in making signs were labour intensive and you needed craftsmen. For example, forming the letters. Everything used to be done by hand. Now, we have the Accu-Bend machines. The router tables can cut out faces for letters and various shapes, whether it be plastic or aluminum. Previously, this was done by hand on a band saw, and someone would physically follow around the template and feed the material through the saw blade, to make sure it was done properly. The lasers do the same thing as the router tables, they just do it quicker. We still have more people than we’ve ever had, because we’ve grown larger over the years, but in many cases, they’re mostly assemblers. We don’t have people who specifically form stainless steel letters, because so many things have been automated.

SMC: What is the key to staying successful in the industry for 75 years?

TH: You can’t fall asleep at the switch. Someone has to be gainfully involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. If you coast, or you think you can go play golf three days a week and just come in occasionally, you’re going to miss something. Either there’s a new technology you’re not aware of, or a customer didn’t get looked after the way he used to, so he’s going to move on to somebody new. You have to be on the job.

BK: When you start a business and you have the fire, that fire needs to continue. You always have to remember, you might be a leader today, but to continue to be a leader, you still have to think the same way you did when you started the business.

TH: You have to be excited and passionate about it.

SMC: What do you foresee for the future of the industry and Steel Art Signs?

TH: It will be interesting to see what happens in the marketplace, because we haven’t had high interest rates for a while, and we have them now. It’s possible people will go back to renting signs, because they may want to conserve money for other things.

There are going to be more infrastructure contracts coming up, as almost every major Canadian city is trying to catch up to where they should be, as far as moving people to and from work, and everywhere else. It’s not just Toronto building rapid transit, subways, and rail lines. Calgary also has a system, as well as Vancouver.

There will also be retailers who want to have a nice presentation for their customers. Not everyone is going to buy everything online. They will want a store to go to, so it’s going to be very important for companies to match their look to what their clients want to see. Hotels usually upgrade their lobbies every five years, and fast food restaurants usually upgrade their locations every 10 years. Similarly, if you’re a retailer, you can’t just leave the outside of your store looking the same. As a result, there will be sign business as people modernize or upgrade their image. There will also always be car dealerships. People won’t be buying cars online, so they should flourish.

Additionally, some of these projects are getting larger and larger. Previously, there might have been a project that was $2 million or $3 million, and now we have projects that are $11 million and $12 million. You might suggest some of the larger sign companies have a better chance at those than some of the smaller ones. However, if one company takes the lead, they might subcontract to the smaller companies to do what they’re good at. Either way, it’s going to be a lot of business for everybody.

Going forward, some signs will also be made offshore, which is already happening in North America. It will be another thing to juggle with to keep your employees busy, but to be competitive, you might need to have some signs made in Asia, to meet the price your customers want to pay here.

SMC: What advice would you give someone who is either just starting out, or approaching a large milestone, to achieve continued success in their business?

TH: For the people starting out, I would just say go for it, because from what I’ve seen in the sign industry, larger companies lose some of their clients to smaller companies. No matter the size, this always seems to be taking place. There are up-and-coming new companies who have different ways of looking at the world, and maybe their owner is more eager, so they end up growing, taking business from other competitors, and being successful. There will always be an upward swing for people starting out in the sign business, which is great, because it keeps it alive and keeps everybody else on their toes.

For someone who’s reached a certain plateau, we used to just make large, exterior, on-premise signs, and now we make interior signs, and illuminated and non-illuminated signs. We’ve even gone outside the sign business and built displays. Even if you’re at a certain plateau, you should get into other products or industries, so you have a viable business. Then, if one area of business isn’t busy, you have another area to service, so you can keep all of your people busy.

SMC: Is there anything else you would like to add about the shop, your upcoming milestone, or Steel Art’s accomplishments over the years?

TH: I grew up in the sign industry and it’s been very rewarding. At 73 years old, I still enjoy it. It’s always changing and evolving, and it never stays the same. It’s an inspiration, and anybody who wants to join the industry will get a lot of self-satisfaction. There are great people in the industry in Canada, there are a lot of great companies who have done well over the years, and it’s a great place to be.  

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/a-legacy-of-steel/

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