Pictured from left are Autoexotic Trim and Signs production manager Allison Nurcombe-Richardson, owners Albert and Roxanne Peters, and installer Shelby Friesen.
By Ginny Mumm
As the economy begins to right itself, demand for vehicle wraps—both personal and commercial—has never been stronger. Offering more design and finish options than a paint job, vinyl wrap has overtaken the market as the favoured medium for corporate advertising. In addition, vehicle wraps provide consumers with an affordable way to show off their personal brand, or simply change the colour of their vehicle. Print shops across Canada are seeing an increase in requests for everything from a simple chrome delete to fully designed graphic wraps.
Roxanne and Albert Peters, owners of Autoexotic Trim and Signs in Grande Prairie, Alta., spoke about the growth they have seen over the years in the vehicle wrap and graphics market, and how they help clients choose the best option for their business or personal vehicle.
Roxanne and Albert purchased Autoexotic in 2001, and have used the versatility of vinyl to grow their business to include decals, paint protection, vehicle graphics and wraps, pin striping, fleet branding, tank wraps, signs, banners, magnets, sandwich signs, interior and exterior signage, and window and wall graphics. They also provide some print-and-ship work, typically for existing clients.
Located in downtown Grand Prairie, the shop has been in its location since 2000. Autoexotic shares a strip mall building with one other business. Autoexotic’s production area, front office, and two vehicle bays fit comfortably inside the approximately 278.7-m2 (3,000-sf) facility. Roxanne is the office manager and handles inside sales, design, and installation, and shares some of the production duties. Albert is the sales manager, handling outside sales, customer service, designing, and installing, and any removal jobs that are needed. Allison Nurcombe-Richardson has been with the shop for 16 years and is the production manager, as well as helping out with inside and outside sales and installations. Shelby Peters Friesen has been working with her parents full-time for four years as an installer and is learning to do more of the design work as well as customer service.
Like many shops, Autoexotic experienced some ups and downs in sales throughout the past 18 months; however, business has been booming since spring of this year. With the economy picking back up, many of their clients began refreshing or even expanding their fleets.
Vibrant race car graphics take advantage of the wider colour gamut on Autoexotic’s Roland DG TrueVIS VG2-540 printer/cutter to accurately match sponsors’ logo colours.
Production technology that powers growth
Autoexotic’s production room is anchored by their Roland DG TrueVIS VG2-540 wide-format printer/cutter, along with a Roland DG GR-540 large-format vinyl cutter.
“We’ve always relied on Roland DG print technology for the quality of the production,” said Albert. “The new VG2 has a wider overall colour gamut that helps us match more colours more closely. We’re also running the orange ink, which comes in handy for our construction and oil and gas industry clients. The printer’s output is vibrant and precise, and the fast drying time helps us meet our deadlines.”
Industrial-sized opportunities
Autoexotic specializes in graphics for big trucks and rigs and provides logo design services as well as graphics production and installation. In addition to wraps and lettering, they also offer striping and decals. They work on the larger sleeper semi-trailers, 400-barrel tanks, tank trailers and Super Bs, along with king-sized utility trucks with cranes.
Autoexotic also handles plenty of box trucks, vans, personal vehicles, boats, and snowmobiles, and has wrapped race cars, dirt bikes, golf carts, and helicopters. They have gone above and beyond to wrap the roof of a high-rise Kenworth sleeper semi-trailer, and even offer custom touches such as wrapping the interior panels on vehicles.
Roxanne and Albert estimate their shop has done hundreds of wraps over the years. Between 50 and 60 per cent of their business is fleet wraps. As mentioned, many of their customers work in the oil and gas industry, as well as the trucking trades like construction, electrical, plumbing, etc. Their fleet clients will order truck or equipment decals in sets of 20 to 50 at least once a month, and sometimes more often. Autoexotic supplies and installs various decal packages, and helps these clients with their signage needs as well.
Custom vehicle wraps are not just for cars anymore. Consumers these days want to personalize their weekend vehicles with wraps that express their unique style.
In terms of their vehicle graphics work, about 70 per cent is lettering, and of that percentage, about half is printed and half is cut vinyl. About 15 per cent of their vehicle graphics business is partial wraps and 15 per cent full wraps.
“Wraps are definitely on the increase. We get a minimum of a phone call a day asking, ‘Do you wrap?’” said Roxanne.
The requests range from smaller jobs, like a chrome delete, to grills or bumpers, on up to colour change wraps and full graphics.
“We find it difficult to sell a designed partial or full wrap for a personal vehicle,” said Roxanne. “Most of the designed wraps we do are for commercial vehicles. These clients are looking for impactful graphics that represent their brand and advertise their services.”
