Manufacturing Excellence

Since 2011, Southern has been a part of Earnest Products, an ISO 9001 manufacturer of fabricated metal products. Earnest Products operates one of the largest, most modern enclousre manufacturing plants in the United States. The company relocated to a 240,000 square foot facility in Sanford, Florida. No longer constrainted by the physical plant, the company purchased new state of the art equipment including an automated punch press, advanced panel bender, and advanced powder coating line.  Earnest Products consistently meets and exceeds the demaning quality and tolerance standards of O.E.M. customers in various industries including medical and transportation. 

While Southern has expanded its expertise and technological know-how, the product quality and innovation remain the same. Today, with near nationwide coverage for various types of street signs, the company is focused on growing its business in ITS enclosures, industrial control enclosures for lighting, SCADA systems for natural gas, water treatment, and industrial applications.

Product Innovation

The ITS Commander is Southern's most recent innovation to meet the needs of its customer base. This device was introduced to meet the future and new requirements to be able to remotely manage and monitor remote ITS equipment. It was specfically engineered to meet the harsh environmental conditions around the country including meeting the TS operating temperature range of -30 to +165 degrees F.

This adds to a long list of innovative cabinet designs, LED edge lit internally illuminated street name signs, and other new solutions for our customers and the nation's infrastructure. 

 

Affiliated Companies

Earnest Products - www.EarnestProducts.com
ITSCommander - www.ITSCommander.com


History

Southern Manufacturing has a rich history of creating solutions to meet the requirements of this country’s ever-increasing need for traffic control signage and enclosures. Founded by Hughes Supply in 1939, Southern Manufacturing was created to produce metal products to support Florida’s rapidly growing infrastructure. Among some of their earliest products were fluorescent lamps, which eventually led to lighted traffic signs and signals. During World War II, the company once again responded to meet the needs of the nation and produced specialty products for both airplanes and boats.

In the early 1990s, the City of Orlando installed their first internally illuminated street name signs.  Recognizing the opportunity to leverage their roots in enclosures and lighted street signage, Southern began producing fluorescent internally illuminated street name signs.  As their products advanced and their utilization began to spread throughout Florida, Southern began expanding its sales beyond the borders of the state.

As a national producer of illuminated street signs and traffic control enclosures, Southern pioneered the use of LED lighting in internally illuminated street name signs.  This single innovation has saved countless thousands of dollars in infrastructure maintenance costs and improved traffic safety throughout the Unites States.

About the same time, Florida and other states began installing cameras along Interstate highways as an element of Intelligent Transportation Systems, ITS.  These systems are used to monitor traffic flow, feed data to traffic management, and capture video feeds.  Responding to a growing need for integrated solutions for ITS, Southern began producing ITS enclosures with integrated custom power panels.

Throughout its history, Southern Manufacturing has listened closely to the needs of the country and has responded with innovative products and designs that are unmatched in the industry. Southern’s commitment to the customer has been proven countless times with the creation of hundreds of customized solutions that are built to match each specific application.

The Company Today

The company manufactures its products in a 240,000 state of the art facility in Sanford Florida with some of the most modern equipment in the industry.