Poblocki Sign Co. shuts down after 92 years

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After more than 90 years, West Allis-based Poblocki Sign Co. halted its operations and laid off workers in early May, according to former employees and records.

Poblocki operated at 922 S. 70th St. in West Allis and first formed in 1932. The company also had locations in Boston, Orlando and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Michael Polsky, an attorney at Beck, Chaet, Bamberger & Polsky S.C., is the receiver of Poblocki, according to Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions records. The company and its affiliates were named under a Chapter 128 receivership and Polsky was appointed receiver by a court, according to an April 8 news release.

The shutdown will affect 91 company employees, including 24 bargaining members, according to a notice sent to workers.

Those union members are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 494 and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers Local 18, the notice showed.

Shop workers on May 8 learned the receivership and bank would terminate most company positions, said Dustin Wengert, a senior project manager at Poblocki. He added a few workers would stay to help liquidate materials from signs that were built but not installed.

Employees started to notice Poblocki’s financial troubles in 2022 when vendors reached out to ask about payment, Wengert said.

In 2015, Chicago-based TJM Capital Partners bought the Poblocki Sign Co. The private equity group promised larger cash infusions, “But there was always some banking crisis or (cryptocurrency) turn down and we only ever got little investments that kept the water without fixing the leak,” Wengert said in a forum post.

The senior project manager said he heard Poblocki was going to change from its lender, Chicago-based Byline Bank. In response, the bank seized company funds in March.

“The next month was awful,” Wengert said. “The bank would hardly approve any expenditures. We had to sell scrap aluminum just to have cash for gas for installers’ tanks. We were constantly working out joint checks and direct pay with (general contractors) and clients for materials. We were told the bank was looking for buyers,” he added.

On May 8, Byline Bank shut down Poblocki’s four branches and started liquidation, Wengert added.

Poblocki Sign Co. owed $8.8 million to Byline Bank for several loans and was default March 15, according to a civil complaint. The company also had $21,345 in delinquent tax warrants in a separate case with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

The Daily Reporter reached out to TJM Capital Partners and Poblocki officials; as of publication, neither have responded immediately.

Under federal and state law, the company must provide a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) Act notice. But according to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the agency hasn’t received such notice.

“As of today, we have not received a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification from Poblocki Sign,” a DWD spokesperson said.

On social media, owners of different sign companies made posts offering their services to former Poblocki clients.