Signature Retail Services Inc.

Major retailers rely on distinct construction partners to provide turnkey building and remodeling services that maintain quality and brand consistency on a broad scale. When it is time to give retail locations a new look, many of these chains look to Signature Retail Services Inc. for the in-house expertise and quality control that the team provides in new store construction and renovation. Based in Aurora, Illinois, the business serves national brands, traveling as far away as Hawaii to provide integrated services to its clients.

A successor corporation to Consumer 500 Enterprises, Signature Retail incorporated in 2005. The company provides retail construction and renovation as well as in-store services including training, merchandising and special services to help stores and the brands they represent to boost sales and improve service.

Dan Perry serves as the company’s president. With several decades of experience in hardware retail merchandising, he found himself drawn to Signature Retail. He owns the company with Steve Ignoffo. The partners work with a strong management team to provide quality, turnkey projects to a range of commercial retail clients.

In-house capabilities

The company’s leadership includes John Regole, vice president of construction services for Signature Retail. Regole has been with the business since before its rebranding and has worked in the construction industry for nearly two decades.

Regole works with a team of 125 professionals and growing on the construction end of the operation. His project managers take great pride in hands-on involvement with projects. “There are a lot of strong companies out there who do what we do,” he explains. “The biggest thing that sets us apart is our ability and desire to keep that middle management structure involved in the day-to-day execution of our projects.”

“Instead on sitting at their desks in front of a computer all day, our management is in the field,” he continues. “They are jumping from project to project, crew to crew managing the workflow, the expectations of our customers, the safety requirements, training and the quality control of these projects. Their goal is to develop our team and help us expand out and grow our bandwidth.”

Signature Retail also relies exclusively on in-house labor. Where other companies might sub out a significant portion of work on each project, the company performs every aspect of a new construction project or remodel with full-time employees. “We take a lot of pride in our work,” Regole notes. “We operate with the understanding that this is our contract and our name is attached to it. We have to uphold our reputation in order to build our brand.”

Building relationships

While Home Depot has been the company’s largest customer over the last 10 years, the company has been hard at work building partnerships with a range of new customers. “We are doing remodels for Wal-Mart and Orchard Supply, new stores for Menards, new stores and remodels for Ace Hardware,” says Regole.

One of the company’s largest recent projects is a Home Depot remodel in Dickson City, Pennsylvania. “Home Depot has an aging store program going on,” Regole elaborates. “With stores reaching the 18- to 25-year mark, it’s time for a facelift. They have to replace some of the steel for safety concerns. We were there from December 2014 through January. We updated the store with new showrooms including the appliance showroom, tool corral, hardware department and front end – we touched on several parts of the store.”

Signature Retail also has several projects going on for Orchard Supply, a new customer as of 2014. “We were contracted to remodel seven stores in the Southern California market,” says Regole. “This is a new customer and new contract, so we are excited about it. We’re performing a complete refresh to bring older stores up to the prototype standards of the new stores. We are running several projects simultaneously at five to six weeks completion time.”

Ace Hardware has seen dramatic growth over the last few years. Signature Retail has been working with the national chain since 2012. The team has performed more than 50 remodels for the company and is involved in many new store construction projects and renovations in 2015.

As the team continues to build relationships with these important customers, the business is growing too. Regole and his colleagues are looking forward to continued expansion, reaching out to new markets and partners as time goes on. Signature Retail Service Inc.’s diverse capabilities and strong resources help clients keep their stores looking good, running efficiently and selling product.