Lighting up at ‘phenomenal opportunity’ Winnipeg-based Smartrend Manufacturing Group grows with demand for illuminated school bus signs By: Martin Cash Posted: 5:24 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025

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This article was published 18/02/2025 (580 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Over the past five years, a mild-mannered custom manufacturing shop in Winnipeg has diversified into a high-growth innovator with a small suite of high-demand proprietary products.

Traction on both sides of Smartrend Manufacturing Group’s business is so good it’s about to break ground on a $30-million, 140,000-square-foot production plant on 7 1/2 acres on Clarence Avenue (beside Motor Coach Industries), scheduled to be ready for commissioning by fall 2026.

While its new products — a fully illuminated stop sign arm and illuminated “School Bus” signs — may not sound like intricately innovative concepts, SMG’s First Light Safety Products division is the only one that makes them well enough to be available on all North American-built school buses (and standard issue on products of the largest companies).

Kevin Smith, CEO and co-owner with wife Cam Quan, said there are 20 patents on his LED/retroreflective signs and he’s already successfully litigated against an infringer in federal court in Michigan.

“There has been some considerable development that are going to be industry-changing,” said Smith. “And we are on the tip of the spear, as they say, for those changes.”

SMG received an undisclosed injection of cash last year, when Vancouver private equity firm Weathervane Investments bought 35 per cent of the company.

With a current staff of 120, including about 100 in Winnipeg, Smith estimates it will need to hire an additional 100-200 over the course of the next five years.

Kellie Manchester, partner and co-founder of Weathervane Investments, said the Smiths’ entrepreneurial passion is “remarkable and inspiring.”

“With the illuminated sign side of the business, they are helping to improve the safety profile of school buses and making our children safer. They have a phenomenal opportunity,” she said.

Five states in the U.S. (North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia and Texas) have already mandated the use of First Light’s signage on all school buses. Illinois-based IC Bus, the largest school bus manufacturer in North America, now includes its signs as standard features.

SMG has good reason to plan to ramp up.

“We expect demand to continue growing year over year,” Smith said. “The standardization in the (United) States and the OEM’s (original equipment manufacturer) commitment will spur a lot more adoption. It is a pretty big domino to fall. We feel very confident that our order book will grow.”

Once school divisions specify certain components on their school buses, they don’t typically downgrade the standards in the future, he added. “When they update the specs to make the bus safer or better for the driver, then that becomes the new floor.”

Data collected from 16 school divisions across the U.S. showed if a bus’s stop sign arm is illuminated — with the First Light Safety Products signs — it is more than 70 per cent likely approaching cars will actually stop.

In 2022, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported a National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services survey on stop sign arm usage showed 130,963 school bus drivers reported 95,319 vehicles passed their buses illegally on a single day.

Throughout a 180-day U.S. school year, these sample results point to more than 17 million violations among America’s driving public.

First Light’s own survey of 16 school divisions with varying numbers of buses in service (via data the school divisions themselves collected) showed First Light’s fully illuminated stop arms were 72.4 per cent more effective at preventing vehicle violations.

As well, the company is starting to develop other illuminated sign products products for the construction industry.

Meanwhile, SMG continues to do lot of business as a custom manufacturer that manages production that has mostly taken place in China.

Among other customers, it makes more than 100 different parts for NFI Group buses, from castings to LED lights to electronic components. It has recently expanded its overseas reach with staff now based in India and Vietnam, as well as China.

As for the looming U.S. tariffs and their estimated impact on business, Smith said he does not believe the threats will become a reality. But even if they do, considering First Light signs account for less than two per cent of the cost of each bus, he does not believe they will have a meaningful impact on sales.

“It would make our product more expensive, but they make school buses significantly safer and we expect the demand to continue,” he said.

“We are not high enough on the value chain to be a major issue.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca