Skip to main content

UK VMS manufacturers merge

Two major companies in the field of signage systems for highways, urban and rail sectors have joined forces, Variable Message Signs Limited (VMSL) and Techspan Systems, creating a stronger business with a broad product range and an extensive technical capability. Following the acquisition of VMSL in 2014, Hill & Smith Limited realised the opportunity to create a world class provider of variable message signs and systems as part of its HS Roads Technology Division. The new combined business will operate und
April 2, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Two major companies in the field of signage systems for highways, urban and rail sectors have joined forces, Variable Message Signs Limited (VMSL) and 2658 Techspan Systems, creating a stronger business with a broad product range and an extensive technical capability.

Following the acquisition of VMSL in 2014, 60 Hill & Smith Limited realised the opportunity to create a world class provider of variable message signs and systems as part of its HS Roads Technology Division. The new combined business will operate under the name of Variable Message Signs.

VMS provides the design, manufacture and installation of a comprehensive range of LED based technology solutions for both road and rail applications, and with a combined workforce of over 70 people, it will continue to operate out of the two current locations in Aylesbury and Newcastle.

Managing director of the new venture, Bill Hamilton, said, “Variable Message Signs can comfortably claim to have one of the largest installed bases of equipment in the UK highways sector. Not only can we service our existing customers more efficiently but, with our combined resources and capability, we are ideally placed to expand our overseas business.”

“The HS Roads Group is committed to maintaining its position as the market leader in its specialist fields,” commented Bernard Greene, head of the Technology Division. “The aim of integrating these two businesses is to provide an organisation that can provide the highest levels of service and support to our customer base and to deliver products which meet the increasing requirements for higher levels of reliability and availability. I think that Variable Message Signs is extremely well placed to fulfil all of our objectives.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mercury Innovation to launch smart signs at ITSWC2016
    September 8, 2016
    Australian company Mercury Innovation is set to launch a range of smart signs that deliver real-time information to road side users. The company claims that, for the first time, these ‘smart signs’ will allow for the cost-effective delivery of customised site-specific messages/conditions to single individual signs or groups of signs in a network of interconnected devices within a Smart City network.
  • Authorities select enforce now, pay later option
    October 19, 2015
    Outsouring of enforcement services is on the increase internationally as highway and traffic authorities seek further support in resources and expertise from the private sector. Jon Masters reports. Signs of a significant company making moves into a new market can usually be read as indication of likely growth in that particular sector. Q-Free’s expansion from tolling operations into general traffic enforcement could be viewed as surprising as it is moving into what are relatively mature and consolidating m
  • Plate matching technology more accurate than conventional OCR
    February 3, 2012
    EngiNe srl's patented Plate Matching technique is something of a paradox, in that it achieves formal vehicle identification without recognising, in the accepted sense, the characters on its number plate. Here, Angelo Dionisi of ENG Group explains how it works
  • Platooning with Ease on the I-70
    July 15, 2025
    What would happen to truck platooning - a nascent technology - if the weather turns nasty? The I-70 Truck Automation Corridor Project in the northern US should provide some answers, reports David Arminas…