Flexlume is aiming to reach new heights.
That’s saying something for a sign-making company whose work already adorns some of the most prominent buildings in town. Its projects include M&T Bank’s signs atop Seneca One tower and the rebranding of Highmark Stadium.
Flexlume was founded 119 years ago and recently relocated to Lackawanna from Main Street in Buffalo.
“When you have a company as old as Flexlume, it feels like you’re writing a book that never ends, chapter after chapter,” said Jim Boudreau, the chief commercial officer.
The latest chapter: a brand-new manufacturing facility, a project that cost nearly $3 million. The site gives Flexlume more space than it had at 1464 Main St., where the business had operated since 1946.
“We will be able to make bigger signs,” Boudreau said. “We’ll be a lot more efficient. Efficiency is room to invest. The efficiencies we gained moving in here pay for the building.”
Flexlume’s team works with clients to determine what kind of sign works best for them, and ensuring those signs fit within a community’s building codes and regulations. Franchised stores and restaurants have standards for their signs that Flexlume must adhere to.
The company has taken on some massive projects over time. While still at the Main Street location, Flexlume created a 60-foot-by-30-foot sign for Zippo Lighter and Case Knives in Bradford, Pa.
“That sign weighed 7,000 pounds and was put on top of 30-foot poles, and we made that all in house,” Boudreau said.
And Flexlume recently completed a two-year project refurbishing 84 Lumber’s “lollipop” signs around the country.
“Some of these things are 16 to 24 feet in diameter, on a 100-foot pole in a swamp,” Boudreau said.
The company sometimes refurbishes old neon signs, with a modern solution. The tubes can be replaced with LED lights that look like neon when turned on.
“It creates the same visual effect, but with something that’s a lot…
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