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Local entrepreneur finds niche market in modular, affordable holiday signs

January 22, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By JOSH DRAKES

Recognizing a growing interest in affordable, reusable signage, the proprietor of Orangeville’s Pop Marquee has carved out a place in the market.

When one thinks of holiday signs, the large city Christmas signs usually come to mind. But those large units are usually permanent, expensive, and extremely hard to move.

Those are factors that make such signs unsuitable for small towns, more suited to something similar. Most small towns would be hesitant to spend substantial money on a sign that might not last or be as popular as hoped.

Enter Richard Cowan, a local resident and entrepreneur, who decided to bring those big signs to a more affordable package that allows even local communities to tap in.

“My background for the last almost 15 years has been commercial Christmas decorations,” he said. “I had a client in Texas a couple years ago that had a bunch of these gold garland coloured six-foot tall letters.

“I was interested in them because I was considering going off on my own and I was going to use that as a bit of a pilot project to see if I could rent them out.”

The venture proved to be a success and, having observed the signs’ impracticality, decided the process could be refined.

So he got to work.

“Over time, I rented them and sold them to various clients and realized that they weren’t really designed to be moved around,” Cowan said. “So I came up with a design of my own.

“Now our letters are modular so they go together like Ikea furniture would, for example, very easily. Then I kind of just fell into this cycle with many customers, and it’s working out pretty well.”

When Cowan first started, he was working with heavy steel letters, but realized there was a better way and better materials. Now he uses an aluminum composite material, which makes the signs much lighter, easier to handle, and more affordable.

The modular design also means that if a letter is ever badly damaged, Cowan can repair it on the spot with spare parts in about 20 minutes, leaving it looking new again.

That modularity, he says, has become one of the biggest advantages of his system. It’s also allowed him to adapt his designs to be more than letters. He can offer shapes as well.

His signs have shown up in communities throughout Ontario.

One of his first clients was the Orangeville BIA, and he has since donated displays to local groups such as the Optimist Club for use in the town’s parks. In Toronto, his modular word signs were featured in the Love Local campaign.

He provides signage for the 55+ Senior Winter Games, taking place in Huntsville this year, and is returning for the “Love, Orangeville” campaign in February. He has deployments in Brockville and Ottawa, with potential involvement in the annual Winterlude festival.

He will also provide signs for various BIAs in Toronto for the FIFA World Cup games.

A key focus of his business is remaining as Canadian and local as possible. Cowan tries to make as many of his products in-house or as local as he can.

“I am the manufacturer,” he said. “I have about seven or eight suppliers between here and Dundalk that are all small farm businesses. We also do the design in-house.

“Of course, not all our material, like our lights, are made in Canada. But all the cutting and manufacturing is done here and some of the material is actually Canadian-made too. We are fiercely Canadian.”

Cowan said his venture would not have been possible without the support of key individuals and groups who really stepped up.

“I have a long-time Orangeville resident, Tony, who lives close to me, who helps us a lot with our assembly,” he said. “I also just want to thank all the BIAs we work with. They’re really important to us.”

For fellow entrepreneurs who want to start their own businesses, Cowan has one important piece of advice.

“Bootstrap as long as you can,” he said. “And that means not borrowing money and just pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and self-funding and self-financing as long as you can.”

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