Heritage Signs & Displays Grows
What started off as a hobby in the family garage in rural Southern Maryland that helped a father teach his sons a trade back in 1977, has grown from a small local print shop into a regional commercial interior signs and graphics company known as Heritage Signs & Displays. Allen and Margaret Gass, the husband and wife team that established the business in 1977, passed on the business to their sons in 1988. The first location was based in Leonardtown, MD, and later grew to the Washington, DC area in 1990’s and in 2008, the company added a facility in Charlotte, NC to produce commercial interior signs and graphics.
There are many print shops and sign companies in the marketplace, but few have accomplished all that Heritage has been able to do over the past forty years. Because of the nature of the business, print companies are seldom willing to invest in technology and innovation that can change their future. Big risks are essential in this sign industry, and the payoff has been tremendous for Heritage Signs & Displays. Their production capabilities today greatly exceed printing magazines, newsletters, catalogs, booklets and books – they are a full-service, turnkey solutions provider of branded environments for events, workplaces and storefronts. Their state-of-the-art printing technology has been a great asset to help propel them to consistent success over the years. They have completed print jobs for several high-profile clients, including the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets, Google.org, the Smithsonian and NBC Sports.
Like his father Allen, Joe Gass in a veteran – having served in the U.S. Navy for six years before he joined the family business in 1988.
Joe does not take his business’ success for granted. He truly believes that honoring God by serving their clients and community with excellence is critical to business success – hence the reason his company is known for their responsive customer support and pursuit of outstanding, quality results. The focus on serving others with excellence has led to the consistent growth of the business over the past four decades.
After steady growth in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Heritage acquired a friendly competitor, Beacon Printing in Waldorf, MD in September of 2015. The fusion of these two companies gave Heritage Signs & Displays the ability to increase production in the Washington, DC area to accommodate the growing demand for branding offices with custom interior signs and graphics for businesses in the Mid-Atlantic region.
To complete the transaction in 2015 Heritage utilized the services of Scott Birkner with Yadkin Bank. Scott did an outstanding job of working out the financial arrangements to accomplish the purchase of Beacon and the building they operated at in Waldorf, MD. Joe had this to say about Scott Birkner and his team at Yadkin:
“I have many relationships in the financial services industry, and several talks led me to consider an SBA loan. I was eventually introduced to Scott – he really knows his stuff! There are very few exceptional people in this world that truly know and understand their business in and out; Scott is one of those exceptional people. The process was a challenge, but he helped us through it and worked behind the scenes to complete our loan. He helped us achieve a goal that was very important to our business, and to him I am forever grateful.”
Joe Gass and the Heritage team is looking forward to the continued growth of his visual communications company in the coming years and attributes his partnership with Yadkin Bank as a big part of their success. As the result of this loan, Heritage Signs & Displays has been able to increase its staff from 12 to about 25 to handle the increase in business from the acquisition of Beacon and the growing opportunities in Washington, DC that have developed with its proactive and passionate team of creative, custom signs and interior graphics professionals!
Heritage Signs & Displays will no doubt continue to be a company of excellence, and we are excited to see what happens in the years to come!