After Shop Destroyed by Fire, Sign Company Rises Like a Phoenix

Thanks to neighborly goodwill, Innovative Signs in Wisconsin is up and running again after a fire destroyed its shop earlier in the year, the Milwaukee Business Journal reports.

“All of our printing equipment was gone,” CEO Chad Schultz told the paper. “For the manufacturing equipment, we had to replace a piece of equipment we had just installed and started running two weeks prior. Brand new technology, it was running great. It got corroded.”

In a stroke of serendipity, Innovative Signs had purchased a larger building two months before the fire, though it was not ready to move into at the time of the disaster. That meant the company needed a temporary home, which they moved into within a week of the fire.

While in their temporary digs, a local signshop called Silver Leaf Signs & Graphics let Innovative use its industrial printer to continue making vehicle graphic graphs, real estate listing signs and other products, the article explains. Also, a local furniture maker donated 14 office chairs to help reestablish operations.

By July, Innovative had moved into its new facility in Waukesha, WI. It measures 19,600 sq. ft., about 8,000 more than its previous headquarters.

On Aug. 20, Schultz will join the Independent Business Association of Wisconsin to share the story of how his shop is bouncing back from the disaster. For registration information, visit ibaw.com.

Read more at the Milwaukee Business Journal.