34 April / May 2023 - Issue 246 www.signlink.co.uk Bus loads of fun Founded in 2003 as South East Coach Works by current director Mike Bichard’s father as a bus conversion company, SEC Works soon found itself completing some memorable and unique jobs within the signage industry. One of the company’s early jobs was the famous Spice Girls’ ‘Spice Bus’ – a 1978 double-decker decked out in Union Jack graphics that features in the 1997 movie Spice World. Since then, the company has grown out of the bus conversions business and today produces not only signage but other fabrication projects, point of sale, and restaurant products. “As a group, SEC Works has 30 employees altogether, 23 at our coachbuilding department and seven at our sign works. All of whom work extremely hard to complete work on deadline and to our excellent standards and our customers’ specifications,” Bichard explains. Reducing its impact on the environment is a topic close to the heart of SEC Works and the company uses all modern materials that are eco-friendly and reusable which includes all of its signage materials. As the business continues to grow, its footprint is expanding and the company has taken on an additional 100sq m of space taking its total size of premises to 600sq m. “Within our offices, we are also eco-friendly, including using recycled paper. When the paper is shredded, it will be used for bedding for animals or small pets.” Fun and creativity Describing the day-to-day running of the business, Bichard says the team is a very happy one and the company has a lot of fun with projects which involve a lot of creativity. When you look at some of the work the company has produced, from fitting porcelain bathrooms in an exported bathroom showroom vehicle to growing potatoes in a branded educational bus, it’s easy to see why! However, this doesn’t mean it’s not hard work-central at the company with the team starting the day at 7am with a daily production meeting with the designer, production, engraving, fabrication, and installation teams all meeting at 8am. To date, SEC Works has completed over 300 projects and the company works with agencies and brands such as Google, Coca-cola, Waitrose, McCain, The London Olympics, Adidas, and more. Within its portfolio of services, the company offers commercial vehicle conversions, full operational services, vehicle graphics, signage fabrication, joinery, and site surveys, conceptual design, artwork manufacture, and installation. “Everyone will get stuck into the job and work as an amazing team to achieve a finished project,” Bichard says, adding: “a lot of thought will go into our projects so being professional is always part of the job, but making sure our team has fun is always important.” Whilst having fun, it’s important that the SEC Works team stays focused as many of its projects are technically complex. Bichard explains that a lot of the company’s bus conversions will involve lots of technology such as LED lighting and gaming consoles, or other lighting requirements, and also laser engraving. Resilience and hard work In the 20 years the company has been in operation, Bichard says one of the biggest challenges it has faced to date was the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it had on face-to-face meetings with clients. “For many businesses, it stopped customer meetings and we moved to Zoom meetings,” he says. “This was especially hard as working with the client in person to create the projects that they desired wasn’t possible. But as soon as everything slowly became normal again, business was better than ever and now we are busier than ever.” Two years on and the company is now having to naviFrom growing potatoes in a branded bus to designing and fabricating a giant interactive Perspex piano, SEC Works has some pretty cool jobs under its belt. We speak to Mike Bichard, director of the company to find out more COMPANY SPOTLIGHT / SEC WORKS SEC Works was behind the graphics on the famous ‘Spice Bus’ from the 1997 movie Spice World Factoid ▼ SEC Works produces fun and creative graphics for buses at its large coach build workshop in Faversham ▼ The company started out back in 2003 as a bus conversion company
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