at award
London
Our father Tom Johnson started Awards Ltd. in 1977 in the dining room of his
house in Urbana IL where he produced engraved products such as plaques, signs
and awards. In 1982 he moved Awards Ltd. to Champaign, IL, where he set up shop
in the loft of his new home, adding promotional items to his line of products.
In 1989 Tom acquired a similar business called Signmaster which made signs, name
tags, and rubber stamps. He merged Awards Ltd with Signmaster operation and
moved the business to Henson Place in Champaign, where Awards Ltd. is still
located today. He then decided to bring on his two sons Glenn and Kenny to help
with the additional production efforts needed to produce these new products.
Glenn and Kenny took over most of the production side of the business, and
although Tom still kept his hands busy with some production work, he focused
primarily on promotional products and the business side of things. In 1996 Glenn
and Kenny took over managemnt of the business, overseeing all aspects of
production, bookkeeping and marketing. In 2000 Tom decided to retire paving the
way for Glenn and Kenny to take over ownership of the business. Tom still came
to work every day, helping with production, but the thing he liked doing the
most was working on the computer setting up artwork for promotional products and
other production items. Tom has since retired completely, but he still stops by
every day to say hi. He will be 86 years young on May 29, 2017. Currently it is
just the two of us (Glenn and Kenny) and our loyal co-worker Sarah who is a very
hard worker and in the process of learning all aspects of our business. Sarah
has been with us for a little over a 3 years now. We are still going strong
after 40 years in business! Awards Ltd, where ideas are unlimited!
