Who makes estate agent boards in Northern Ireland?

There are two things people mean by this question, and they have different answers.

Who prints the board

Any decent large format printer can produce a for sale board. It is a printed sheet of Correx or Foamex with a plywood or timber post. On its own, that is not a hard thing to buy.

Who puts it up, moves it and takes it away

This is the part that decides whether an agency's boards work. It needs vans, routes, crews, stock control and someone answering the phone when a vendor rings about a board that has blown over. Very few suppliers in Northern Ireland do it at any scale, because the vans and the routes are the expensive part.

What to ask a board supplier

• Do you erect and remove with your own crews, or is it subcontracted?
• How many vans do you run, and what is the route pattern for my branches?
• What is the turnaround from order to board erected?
• How do branches order, and can the branch see what is outstanding?
• What happens to boards after removal, and do I get the benefit of reuse?

Where we sit

We manufacture in Mallusk, run twelve liveried vans, and serve 140 estate agent branches across Northern Ireland. Branches order through our online system: order before 3.30pm and it goes out the next day. We have been doing it for thirty seven years, which mostly means we have already made every mistake there is to make with a board in a hedge.