Company: Stark Outdoor
Markets: Eastern Texas.
Headquarters: 1211 N Shore Drive, Isabel, TX 78578
Phone: 800-559-1013
Stark Outdoor operates a plant of 23 single and double-stacked billboards in eastern Texas. The firm is owned by Herb and Wilma Stark. Herb has forgotten more about the billboard business than many of us have learned. Insider remembers meeting with Herb at an OAAA convention in the early 90’s when Insider was new to the billboard business.
The Starks entered the billboard business in 1987 when they were looking for a way to bring people to their blueberry farm. Herb traded work with Perry Thigpen of Thigpen Outdoor to build a couple structures near the blueberry farm. It didn’t take long for Herb to discover that billboards were more lucrative than than the blueberry farm and he started developing billboard sites.
Herb tell us about your plant.
Our plant has been designed and constructed in house. We had a background in construction and fabrication, so we used our experience to build our sites. Only a few of our newest sites were purchased from other fabricators so we intimately know each location as we have painted panels and hung vinyls on all our sites personally. Our locations are in the North East corner of Texas on major non interstate highways. We’ve purchased the land under 19 of our 23 sites. I guess we just like to collect rent, but not pay rent. Our signs are illuminated 24 hours a day. Most entrepreneurs go to work early and come home late. I don’t want an entrepreneur who’s on one of our signs to drive by a dark sign. I run about 55-60% occupancy.
Who provides your vinyl?
Circle Graphics. They do a real good job. They’ve treated me well. They have a note in my file to never supply Eco-flex. Eco-flex is not crisp when you get it. The surface comes apart in 6-8 months. I used the heavier vinyl for a while but it’s harder to stretch and get the wrinkles out. Now I use the 7.5 ounce vinyl and it works great.
What’s the northeast Texas market like?
New permits are very tough. We’ve seen some industry pullback because local businesses provide steel for the oil fields. Our mom and pop businesses (Mcdonalds, mexican restaurants, insurance agencies) have been good.
What’s your attitude towards digital signs?
I think digital is the new vinyl. Vinyl printing gave us great graphics to improve our messages. Digital will give the operators of today instant messaging to the public. If I were building a plant today, it would be all digital.
You recently redesigned your website. What did you learn in the process?
Stark Outdoor Advertising has had a web presence for many years. I use it as a sales tool. The latest redesign let me make a sell sheet for each location. I can be talking to a potential client on the telephone and we both can be looking at a site page so the client can visualize their message at that location. Since we operate our plant from remote locations a good web site is essential.
Talk about your passion for travel.
Speaking of remote locations, my wife Willie and have just celebrated our 42nd anniversary. Our common passion is travel. We have ridden motorcycles all over the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe. A few years ago we traded tent camping and motorcycles for the comfort of a motorhome. Our office is able to travel with us wherever we happen to be. The boat is just a tool that we enjoy using to continue traveling places that interest us. We enjoy the mild summers of the Pacific Northwest and the view from our office is one of the best in the world. We were fortunate to be able to travel to Sitka Alaska on our boat last summer. Motorhome, boat or bus, we are happiest when we are “On the the Road Again”
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