Curing the Winter Blues

It’s been a cold, cold winter and unfortunately it’s still far from over, causing many to get stuck with the winter blues. As it gets harder to remember what a full day of sun and warmth felt like, it’s important to remember that nicer weather is on its way and preparing for that weather could help shake those blues away.

We may only be a couple of weeks into the new year, and we don’t yet know the outcome of Groundhog Day, however there really is no better time to start preparing for the warmer weather and taking stock of your current outdoor furniture to determine what you may need to add to your park, BIA, municipality or commercial/retail property.

It’s important to understand the benefits of outdoor furniture when you are considering what to order, so to help with this let’s look at a couple of examples of how certain products benefit BIAs and commercial/retail properties.

With BIAs encouraging its surrounding residence to shop local, it’s important to ensure their BIA has what the consumer wants, and that’s not just a variety of shops and amenities. Benches, bike racks and proper waste and recycling units are the most important outdoor furniture to have in a BIA.

Benches automatically make an area more inviting to a consumer. If there is somewhere to sit to just take a break, or enjoy an ice cream cone from a local shop on a sunny day, people are more inclined to visit the area. With biking becoming an even more popular mode of transportation, it’s important to offer proper bike parking so people don’t have to worry about leaving their bikes unattended while inside a store and to ensure your BIA doesn't become a dumping ground, proper waste and recycling receptacles are a must. Small foot print units can ensure proper disposal of waste without interrupting pedestrian flow.

Retail properties such as shopping plazas benefit from site furniture in many of the same ways as BIAs. However, commercial and even residential properties such as corporate office buildings and condominiums can greatly enhance their properties with the use of outdoor furniture.

With large multi-resident buildings, whether it’s residential or commercial, it’s important to maintain a clean exterior. To do this not only are proper waste and recycling receptacles important, but smoking control units are imperative. Cigarette butts are often times the worst culprit for littering a property, so to have set smoking areas with proper disposal units can really help to combat the problem. It’s also important to have a nice break area that includes picnic tables and benches, especially if you’re an office building, so your tenants have somewhere to enjoy the nice weather while eating lunch or taking a quick break from staring at their computer screens. And again, for those that commute using their bikes, it’s important to have bike racks to allow for proper storage.

Depending on your budget, you can stick to the basics or you can further enhance your property with floral planters, pole mounted floral baskets or banners that can assist in branding your BIA, municipality or office building.

Apart from helping clear your winter blues, planning for the spring/summer months can have its financial benefits. We are currently running an early bird promotion that allows you to receive from 10-15% off any products, ordered, produced and invoiced before March 31, 2014. Delivery or installation can be delayed until closer to the time the products are required. Ordering now also means you will beat the spring time rush allowing for shorter lead times.

Bottom line, don’t wait for Wiarton Willie or Punxsutawney Phil to tell you how many weeks of winter may or may not be left, it may not feel like it but spring will be here before you know it and you want to be prepared to enjoy it!

Store your Décor with Classic Displays

For many municipalities and property managers, Christmas décor is a huge investment. It takes a lot of time to decide what displays best suit your environment and how many you require. Another big factor is determining how you will maintain these large pieces and where you will store them.

It’s important to understand that although a number of our Christmas displays are manufactured for outdoor use, and are able to withstand the elements, they should not be stored outdoors when they are not being used. When pieces are stored outside, various elements such as animals and extended exposure to UV rays can affect the lifespan of your displays.

We understand that a number of our customers don’t have room to store their displays indoors so to help alleviate this storage nightmare we will store the décor in our climate controlled, 16,000 square foot facility for them. While in the care of Classic Displays the units are carefully placed on interior racking with more than 2/3 of the items being stored off the ground.

As the displays start to come back to the warehouse as the season begins to come to a close all of the pieces are cleaned by hand and some by power washer to reduce any grime that may bind to the decoration.

If you aren’t totally convinced, maybe this next point will help. All décor stored with us is fully insured. In the event something happens to your displays while it’s in our care, you will be compensated.

Storing your décor with Classic Displays, even if purchased from another company, will help make your seasons bright for years to come.

The Christmas Season Comes to a Close at Classic Displays

With the final Christmas installs complete and Santa coming in less than a week, we get to take a step back and reflect on another successful season at Classic Displays.

It has been a busy few months for us, starting with the introduction of our new LED snowflakes. From there the orders started pouring in; we had existing customers calling to renew contracts and add new décor to their existing displays and also received a number of calls from new customers looking to add a touch of Christmas to their properties and city streets.

Before we knew it, 239 units had been ordered in the month of September alone. That included the first order for one of our new snowflake designs, coming from the Ancaster Heritage Days Advisory Board, and a large order of a variety of our displays from Lac La Biche in Alberta.

While production ramped up in October, and our warehouse crew began packing and shipping existing displays that we store for our customers in the off season, our installation crew began installing tree lighting across the GTA. Once Halloween had come and gone, it began to look less like Christmas in our warehouse and more like Christmas to everyone else, as displays began popping up practically overnight.

On any given night in November, our crews could be anywhere in Toronto, and the next they would be in Cambridge, or Bowmanville or Kingston, working hard to bring the Christmas spirit to the masses. Luckily for them, the weather was on their side and the snow held off until after our installations were finished.

When all was said and done 520 new units had been produced and 180 installs had been completed.  As the team at Classic Displays looks forward to a relaxing Christmas holiday spent with family and friends, we want to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2014!

The Griffin Unveiled at the PM Expo

Last week we had the pleasure of exhibiting at the PM Expo for the 15^th time and although we always enjoy the show, this year it was even more special for us. That’s because we unveiled the prototype of our newest waste and recycling receptacle the Griffin.

Designed with high traffic pedestrian areas in mind, the Griffin has a narrow footprint and is equipped with solar powered LED panels making this unit an advertiser’s dream. Built to hold a total of 80 gallons of waste, the Griffin can collect up to 4 different types of waste and recycling without having to worry about cross contamination. More basic models will also be available.

Over the two and a half days at the show, the Griffin caught a lot of people’s eye and we greatly appreciate the number of people that stopped by to learn more about the unit and share their thoughts.

Stay tuned for more news as we prepare for the official launch of the Griffin this coming spring!

Winter is Coming

Christmas displays is what we built our business on and although we have grown and introduced other divisions over the years, Christmas still remains a large part of our company and something we take great pride in.

We already offer a wide variety of stock displays, but we always look forward to designing and creating new displays to add to our roster, and this year was no different.

For the 2013 season we wanted to design displays that were less Christmas specific. As vibrant and festive as Christmas displays are there is a downside to the short time period that they can be used. That’s why we wanted to offer our customers something that can be used for the entire winter season, something that gives them more bang for their buck.

With that in mind we focused on something that winter is rarely without, snow. Working with our design team, a number of different styles of snowflakes were drawn up and six were chosen to be manufactured. Ranging in price, with some looking more traditional, while others are more modern, we are very pleased with how they turned out and extremely excited to unveil them to all of our customers!

Manufactured with a steel frame that is fully immersed in zinc and electrostatically plated for maximum rust protection and lit with ½” energy efficient LED rope light, the Snow Blossom, Snow Crystal, Snow Diamond, Snow Swirl, Snow Flurry or Snow Spear would beautifully enhance any city street or property. With the option to have the displays pole mounted or wall mounted and the ability to customize them through the use of different rope light colours, we are confident our snowflakes will become a fan favourite!

Bulb vs. Rope Lit Displays

With Christmas less than 112 days away and orders for décor starting to come in, we at Classic Displays want to ensure that our customers know and understand the difference between LED rope lit and bulb lit displays before they make their purchase.  

At Classic Displays rope lit displays are our specialty. From pole mount to wall mount to large ground mount displays, we have done it all. We carry a wide variety of stock displays to choose from and we have also manufactured a number of custom displays for a variety of customers over the years. 

Rope lit displays are very popular with customers because the rope light gives the display consistent illumination. With the diodes spaced an inch apart and the rope light lining the entire frame of the design, you’re final product is an attractive, evenly spaced, brightly lit display. With a bulb lit display you will not get that same consistency as the bubs are spread further apart.

Another aspect to look at in the great debate of rope light vs. bulbs is the flexibility of the products. The way rope light is made, paired with its consistent lighting, allows us to light more complex, detailed designs with ease. Dressing a more complicated design that has a number of small details (such as a design including a face) is more difficult to do with bulbs. Due to the bulkiness of the bulb, and the larger space between each bulb, they have to be strategically placed along the frame and smaller details can get lost in what looks like a blob of light.

What perhaps is the biggest misconception in the difference between rope lit and bulb lit displays is the price. People assume that due to the amount of rope light used in a display it is the more costly of the two to produce, when in fact that is not the case. As previously mentioned, strings of bulbs have to be strategically placed on the frame making it a more time consuming task and increasing the manufacturing costs. Bulb lit displays are easier to maintain than rope lit displays as you can replace individual bulbs with ease, but overall the cost between the two different displays is comparable. 

Ultimately, what it comes down to is what design you chose and what you are looking for aesthetically. More traditional designs such as snowflakes look great as bulb lit displays, but as you get into more complex, detailed designs, rope light is your best option.

Classic Displays Goes to the Ex

The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) has been a long standing tradition for many within the GTA, including a number of us at Classic Displays, and this year we are happy to say we have become a part of that tradition.

 

The CNE was looking to get away from the standard wooden picnic tables, wanting something more sustainable and longer lasting, so they came to see us and what we had to offer. After some deliberation, the CNE decided to order a number of picnic tables and benches as part of a pilot project. In total they ordered 40 picnic tables, 6 handicap accessible tables and 36 benches to replace some of their existing furniture.

All of the benches and picnic tables that were ordered are made from 100% recycled plastic lumber and have a 25 year limited warranty against rotting, warping, splitting and cracking. Virtually maintenance free, these benches and tables can easily handle the amount of traffic the CNE sees year after year.

 All of the benches and tables were assembled in house over the course of a week and set to be delivered at the beginning of the following week. It took 5 trips to the exhibition grounds to deliver all of pieces and from there the CNE crew took over, placing the tables and benches throughout the grounds.

 

The opportunity to work with the CNE has been very exciting for us and something we hope to continue doing in the future. The CNE opens August 16^th and runs until September 2^nd. With so much to see and do we hope you check it out and make it a part of your summer tradition!

For more information on what's taking place at the Ex this year visit http://theex.com/