Front & Center: Spokane Valley sign company owners follow customer service to the letter

National Barricade & Sign caters to road-building contractors and traffic-control companies.

Apparently it also has teenage admirers.

Co-owner Brian Mathis recalls a phone call he received from a mother.

“She said, ‘I’m cleaning my son’s room out because he’s going to college, and I turned his signs around, and they have your company’s stickers all over them. I’m so embarrassed, because I know he didn’t buy these.’

“She was so horrified, she brought them back to us.”

Mathis appreciated the woman’s honesty, yet had no idea where the signs were purloined. After all, his company keeps 4,000 in stock and manufactures another 10,000 custom signs a year – everything from swimming pool rules to “RESERVED FOR MR. JOHNSON.”

The best seller: standard 12-by-18-inch handicapped parking signs, which fetch $20.

“Every business has to have them,” said Mathis, who together with his wife, Kathy, became the third owners of Spokane Valley-based National Barricade & Sign about 18 years ago.

During a recent interview, they discussed typos, roboflaggers and which signs tend to disappear.

S-R: Where were you raised?

Brian: In South Dakota, both of us. We were high school sweethearts and have been married now 42 years.

S-R: What were your interests back then, besides each other?

Brian: Aviation. Both my parents were small-aircraft pilots, so I had a lot of experience flying with them. I was fascinated with air traffic control.

S-R: What brought you to Spokane?

Brian: When my twin brother, Bruce, and I graduated from high school, we decided we weren’t going to college. Instead, we went to the big town of Sioux Falls, 80 miles away, and joined the Air Force. One reason we signed up was the recruiter guaranteed we’d stay together. After basic training, when Bruce was assigned to Bangor, Maine, and I was scheduled for Fairchild Air Force Base, we showed them the contract, and they said, “OK, pick one.” We liked the idea of heading west, so we chose Fairchild, and ended up in the command post, telling planes when to leave. And we’ve been here ever since.

S-R: What did you do after your discharge?

Brian: My brother and I bought a brand new 1976 truck and started knocking on doors, lining up commercial snow-plowing jobs.

S-R: What happened when spring rolled around?

Brian: By then, we had 12 accounts, so when I saw an ad in the newspaper for a pavement sweeper, I thought, “That’s what I want to do.” But I didn’t make any money until May 18, 1980, when Mount St. Helens blew up. Then business went crazy.

S-R: What did the early lean years teach you?

Brian: To always be looking for other opportunities. Eventually, I got into the parking-lot striping business and started buying supplies from National Barricade. I knew the owner at that time, Pete Freeman, from church, and he asked if I’d be interested in buying him out.

S-R: What did purchasing an established business entail?

Brian: We put together a business plan and went to several banks, but they all said, “This is not going to work.” They couldn’t see the potential growth. So Kathy and I risked everything we owned except our house, and within three years the banks were knocking on our door, wanting our business.

S-R: Looking back, Kathy, what did you think of buying the business?

Kathy: I was like, “We don’t know anything about traffic control.” Even after owning the company 17 years, I still sometimes feel like, “What? They changed the specs again?” For instance, there are three types of traffic signs: engineer grade, high intensity and diamond grade. We need to keep track of which reflective materials are allowed on which jobs, so our customers don’t get in trouble.

S-R: How has the business evolved since 2000?

Brian: We’ve continually grown, but at a very slow pace. We’re not huge risk-takers. Instead of trying to do everything, we focus on what we do best. For example, we don’t do the big concrete Jersey barriers because another company in town has those.

Kathy: On the other hand, when we bought the company, it didn’t have any electronic message boards. Now we have 23.

Brian: And when no one else had trailer-mounted attenuators (portable crash cushions), we decided to get into that. But instead of buying 10 or 20 of them, we started out with one or two.

S-R: Any major financial bumps in the road to success?

Brian: Oh, yeah – roboflaggers (automated flagging systems that allow the operator to remain safely behind a barrier). I was sure they were going to be the next big thing. I invested $50,000 – and sat on them for five or six years before eventually selling them to another company, and breaking even. I still think they’re coming, but maybe not for another five years.

S-R: What’s your business philosophy?

Brian: Everything is customer-based – whatever the customer wants, when the customer wants it. The normal wait for a custom sign is 10 days to two weeks. But if a customer needs it right away, we try to accommodate them.

S-R: When are you busiest?

Brian: Summer – the peak of construction season.

S-R: What’s your typical schedule then?

Brian: We work half-days.

Kathy: (laugh) He means we come in at 6 a.m. and leave at 6 p.m.

S-R: How quiet can it get during winter?

Brian: Really quiet. That’s why we plan to spend a month in Hawaii this winter.

S-R: What’s the hardest part of your job?

Brian: Finding good help. We’re so lucky to have three great employees, including Jerry “Bear” Borden, who’s been with the company 35 years and is in charge of production.

S-R: Making 10,000 custom signs a year, do mistakes ever sneak through?

Brian: Sometimes. Customers proof all the signs before we print them, but if they miss a mistake, it’s still our fault. One of our school-zone signs in Lewiston – “WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT” – hung for almost a year before a student noticed the “L” in “CHILDREN” was missing. Someone else ordered a sign that read “HURSE PARKING” instead of “HEARSE PARKING.” We didn’t know what they were trying to say, so we didn’t realize it was misspelled.

S-R: What are some unusual requests?

Kathy: One customer planning to visit his son in France had us print a 30-by-6-inch sign that read, “SPOKANE 5,127 MILES” with an arrow pointing right.

Brian: Customers who are tired of trespassers have requested signs like “NEVER MIND THE DOG. WORRY ABOUT THE OWNER.”

Kathy: Another sign said, “LAWYER CROSSING – SPEED UP.”

S-R: How much of your business is rental?

Brian: About 30 percent.

S-R: What happens if a rental sign disappears from a job site?

Kathy: The customer gets charged for it.

S-R: Are some signs more likely to disappear?

Brian: Yes. “BUMP” signs are popular.

Kathy: And street signs like “PARADISE LANE.” Another sign that seems to grow legs is “MOTORCYCLES USE EXTREME CAUTION.”

Brian: I walked through the production area recently, and Bear was building a bunch of signs with alcohol-related names, like “BOURBON STREET” and “FIREBALL COURT.” And I thought, “Is this a joke?” It turned out they’re for a Post Falls subdivision called Whiskey Flats. I wonder how long those signs will last.

Writer Michael Guilfoil can be reached at mguilfoil@comcast.net.