Business View Magazine
3
on the exterior of the Pioneer Club in 1951, and has
since become the city’s welcoming trademark.
Josh Young is YESCO’s Vice President for Franchis-
ing. His great grandfather, Thomas Young, started the
company in 1920. “The ownership transferred from
my great grandfather to my grandfather. Current man-
agement and leadership of the company is in its third
generation with my father and two uncles,” Young re-
lates. “I’m one of several fourth- generation that are
currently working. They’ll be several others who will
likely join us down the road.”
Young tells the story of how his great grandfather,
Thomas, began a small advertising and commercial
sign painting business in Ogden, Utah, which, today,
has grown to become one of the nation’s recognized
leaders in the fields of sign design, sign fabrication,
sign installation, and ongoing sign service and main-
tenance. “My great grandfather was an artist,” Young
says. “He was an immigrant from England who came
over to the United States with very little money. He
borrowed $300 from his father, who worked in the
coalmines in England, to get the business off the
ground. In those early years, it was mainly hand-paint-
ed signs, graphic lettering, golf-leaf window lettering,
and coffin plates.
“One of the opportunities that presented itself early
on in the history of the company was for my great
grandfather to acquire the license to produce neon.
That license really propelled him into the electric sign
business and, more importantly, into the Las Vegas
market that was in its infancy. So, he took that license
and technology and began producing the large, iconic
signs in Las Vegas. And as history progressed, it was
additional opportunities like that that presented them-
selves – much of which was driven by the rapid growth
and aggressive nature of the Las Vegas market and
the desire of the casino owners to do more to attract
customers into their businesses. That drove our tech-
nological advances and need to improve, and to come
up with different strategies and creative ways to con-
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
YESCO
WHAT:
Designer, manufacturer, installer, and
maintainer of custom signs and display systems
WHERE:
Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah
WEBSITE
:
