Company: Allison Outdoor
Markets: North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee.
Headquarters: 35 Outdoor Drive, Sylva, NC 29779
Phone: 828-586-2737
Email: claude@allisonoutdoor.com
Allison Outdoor began in 1958 as a custom sign and billboard company. Allison has grown to become the largest outdoor advertising company in Western North Carolina and North Georgia. Since early 2016, they have expanded their footprint into the Tri-Cities of Tennessee. In total they have more than 1,200 billboard faces in over 15 counties.
Claude Dicks is the CEO and Insider caught up with him to talk about what’s happening at Allison Outdoor.
Claude, I was hoping you could provide us with an update on your inventory. How many totals faces does Allison own and how many digitals?
We currently have 1.092 Static Faces and 45 Digital Units.
You have a strong presence in the western part of North Carolina. Were you impacted by last years storms? How has the recovery process gone?
As a company we got very lucky that Helene did not hit 25 Miles further West. That would have had a significant impact on our company. As it stood, we only had damage to 1 board and it is fully back up and running. I live in Asheville and it took me about a week to get back into the office, but most of our employees were able to get back in the office in less than a week.
Though you operate in 3 states, you mostly have a tight grouping of inventory. Your Tennessee boards are a little further out. Have you been able to expand that market?
We’ve been in the Tennessee market since 2016. Slowly but surely we’ve been able to add inventory here and there. It’s been a really good market for us. This past October we had a nice tuck-in acquisition that’s been 3 years in the making. This has added 6 New Digitals and 5 Static Faces to the overall inventory count.
North Carolina has a strong state association and I know you serve on the Board. Can you share about the benefits of working together with other operators?
Being a part of the association and specifically on the board has helped me set a road map for Allison Outdoor where the billboard industry is trying to head in North Carolina. And there are a lot of great / fun people on the Board. So it’s always nice to get together. And it doesn’t hurt that the Association has had some really nice wins these last few years with Relocation and Cutting. Tip of the cap to TJ Bugbee our director for steering the association.
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