Company: Steel City Billboards
Markets: Pennsylvania
Headquarters: 715 Riverview Rd, Verona, PA 15147
Phone: 888-288-7441
Email: mdfowkes@steelcitybillboards.com
Steel City Billboards is a family-owned firm which operates a billboard plant in communities in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company is a member of OAAA, GeoPath & IBO Market Club. Insider talked with Mitch Fowkes about the company.
Mitch, how did Steel City get into the billboard business?
My Dad and brother have a successful online business. When I graduated from college in 2010 I wanted to help market the business. I had the idea of using billboards. I called a local company and asked them what their rates were. When they told me, I asked if that was for the year and they said “nope, just a month.” I got off the phone and went looking for my Dad. I said DAD, “We need to start our own billboard business!” He thought I was crazy. In May of 2011, we started Steel City Billboards. Our focus was to advertise our own products and services while helping small businesses advertise along the way. Things started snowballing from there.
How many faces are you up to?
We have 47 sign faces now. Our inventory consists of 28 digital faces and 19 static. since our last Billboard Insider feature we have added 1 digital, 1 stacked double sided bulletin and 1 wall scape.
How has Covid impacted your business?
When Covid first hit, many business temporarily shut down. March and April were very tough months. However, we received assistance from our bank that helped us delay our loan payments. Eventually people started to travel again and business3es started moving product which helped things get back to normal. We picked up throughout the summer and fall. We still had a record year.
What are your priorities for 2021?
We are focused on securing additional land leases to increase our inventory in addition to selling as much inventory as we can. Throughout the pandemic we averaged an 84% occupancy rate which generates a lot of motivation for us to do better in 2021.
Have you seen inflation in out of home costs (e.g. leases, steel, vinyl)?
The leases we have are percentage payments. Our vinyl costs have remained the same. We haven’t seen a substantial increase in steel costs either.
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