It has been a challenging past couple of years for the 20/20’s owner, Jaimie Sibert.
Two years ago he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, incorrectly as it has since turned out, and had no choice other than to take a step back from a business he had nurtured and built into one of the leading design and manufacturing companies in the south west.
Fortunately, he had built a strong team around him that helped keep the business moving forward, but now he’s back with a clean bill of health and keener than ever to push the business forward to new heights.
Over the years 20/20 has developed into a real Cornish success story, working with a diverse range of clients across the UK and beyond. Jaimie hates the term ‘one-stop shop’, but when it comes to signage, display and interior design requirements, 20/20 pretty much has it covered, from the design stage, through to manufacturing and installation. Whether it be navigating you around a busy hospital, or portraying the company’s brand values through an exhibition stand at a trade show, 20/20 caters for a wide range of industries and needs.
While to the uninitiated signs and interior design may sound very different, Jaimie says they share one common element – brand application. For 20/20, everything starts with listening to the clients and moving on from there.
It is currently working on a number of exciting projects in and out of Cornwall, including producing a range of exhibits, audio visual and interiors displays at the new Cornucopia food and drink attraction in St Austell.
Other local examples of its work can be found throughout all Royal Cornwall Hospital locations. Indeed, 20/20 has a built itself a strong reputation nationally for successfully winning and delivering large-scale wayfinding schemes in the NHS sector and is currently working on projects for major hospitals in east Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Employing the same holistic approach 20/20 adopts when working with all clients, its ‘listen, design, deliver’ methodology, the 20/20 scheme helps the effective flow of patients, with the aim of cutting down missed appointments and hospital waiting times.
20/20 has worked with some of Cornwall’s most iconic brands including the Tate St Ives, where it was responsible for signage and visitor experience; Fifteen Cornwall (signage and graphics); and Ginsters, where it was tasked to design and fit out its head office in Callington, reflecting the company’s brand image.
20/20 has also increasingly become the ‘go-to’ company for Cornwall’s Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), and currently works with BIDs in Falmouth, St Ives, Newquay and Truro, where it has most recently installed a new larger signage scheme.
“We also do a lot of work for hotels from The Headland and Scarlet through to Land’s End Hotel,” adds Jaimie, “where we have done interior design and signage work. It is all about that visitor experience; the whole process from the moment they arrive, from how they are shown where to park, from entering the reception.”
It has also been involved in a wide range of different National Trust and English Heritage projects across the country, including the design and fit out of the Lynmouth Pavilion in Exmoor National Park, where it appointed to project manage and deliver a ‘learning and discovery hub’ and all-year-round visitor attraction.
Another new out of county client 20/20 has just started working with is Guildford Cathedral, and follows on from another similar project the company did with Salisbury Cathedral to develop a signage masterplan to complement its new brand and identity.
And again as with all 20/20’s projects, ‘cost engineering’ played an important part of the process.
“We understand that our clients have budgets to work to,” says Jaimie, “and because we have our production and install teams in-house, it means we can design things that are not only realistic but that fit within budgets, so there are no nasty surprises.
“It’s all about building longterm relationships,” he says. “A lot of our clients have been with us for a long time, some more than 20 years, so we have got to know them very well.”
In part, this quest for excellence has been instilled into the company through one of its long-standing international relationships – Japanese manufacturing giant, Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, where it has designed, manufactured and installed various large-scale stands for exhibitions across Europe.
“They are very professional,” Jaimie says of Mazak. “They have a way of doing things. Everything we do for them has to be very precise, they want everything to be perfect.
And we try and bring that ethos back down here to Cornwall.”
20/20 currently employs a team of 23 at its studio and manufacturing facility in Falmouth with more in the pipeline. And it is investment in the staff that is Jaimie’s priority at the moment. “We talk about there being a specific type of 20/20 employee,” says Jaimie. “There are a lot of people here who think my way and would do things the way I would think they should be done. When someone new starts here, we know we will be able to mould them in the 20/20 way.”
Jaimie’s health scare gave him time to reflect on priorities and what’s important when running a business. “Don’t be fearful of investing in people,” he says. “Businesses should make sure they have a good team around them, because you never know what’s around the corner. You should never be afraid of employing someone better than you.
“When you have an illness, it does make you stop and think. Grab life and the opportunities that go with it. I don’t need to be here every day running the business because I have a good team of people here. But it’s a love of mine, it’s like a family. A lot has changed over the years, but I took this business over when I was 27, I’m now 46, and I won’t give it up.”
T: 01326 372520
