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Shop Sees Signs Of Progress

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

HUDSON - More than a decade ago, Sidney Cooper moved his family from St. Louis to Pinellas County. He was supposed to be retiring, but then a new business venture caught his eye.

It was a sign shop in the Scheer Commerce Park in far northwest Pasco County. At the time, U.S. Signs had three employees and a single building.

Cooper, who grew up in St. Louis, had spent years there building a variety of small retail businesses ranging from children's shoes to one-hour photo shops.

Cooper had never built a neon sign, but he knew how to run a business and saw a future in U.S. Signs & Letters.

Since Cooper took over the company in the early 1990s, U.S. Sign has grown to fill three buildings at the industrial park and has nearly 60 employees. The company does about $5 million a year in business, the vast majority of it as a subcontractor for clients out of state.

'We could probably easily double our business here,' Cooper said.

Cooper, 66, is chairman of the family-owned company. His 30-year-old son, Joshua, is president.

Because U.S. Sign is a subcontractor, the Coopers are reluctant to discuss their client list or the companies they're making signs for - although the distinctive lettering makes several of them obvious.

On the walls of the company's sign shop hang the curly letters of a well-known chicken sandwich franchise. Elsewhere in the shop, workers bend thick aluminum into the shapes of letters that will get welded to metal backs. Later, other workers will fill the shape with white neon and add a covered plastic face.

Standing in the bending shop, Sidney Cooper pointed to a man welding together a letter. It's Pete Russo.

'When we started here, we had him,' Cooper said.

Russo learned his trade from his father in Sicily before moving to the United States and finding his way to Hudson.

Keeping workers such as Russo can be tough in an industry as competitive as sign-making, Cooper said.

'There's tremendous competition,' Cooper said. 'You have to gather people who have skills to do things you can't do.'

With business booming, the Coopers are planning to rearrange their shops, adding a paint room and giving more room to the crew that makes their neon lights.

U.S. Signs' growth and success helped make it a winner for this year's Industry of the Year awards given by the Pasco Economic Development Council. The awards were given at a banquet Tuesday night.

Sidney Cooper said being chosen for the award was an honor.

'Everybody likes to hear that they're doing something that somebody thinks is nifty,' Cooper said.

INDUSTRY OF THE YEAR WINNERS

Manufacturing - Category 1: Vortex Racing, Odessa

Manufacturing - Category 2: U.S. Signs & Letters Inc., Hudson

Service/Distribution - Category 1: ABC Supply Inc., Hudson

Service/Distribution - Category 2: Patriot Bank

Technology Award: Datamentors Inc., Wesley Chapel

New Business Award: Freedom Sales & Marketing, Odessa

Special Contribution Award: Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, Zephyrhills

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or

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