About FMS Neon

FMS Corporation traces its origins back to the early 1930s when business partners Fred Sweet and Bruce McNeil started a small neon sign wholesale business in Minneapolis. Through the depression the operation met with moderate success, but it's focus gradually changed as Fred and Bruce decided to phase out neon sign making in favor of a neon materials manufacturing and distribution business.

After a suspension of business activities during World War II, the company was officially incorporated as the A.B. McMahan Company in 1946. The A.B. McMahan name was chosen because the newly incorporated company had purchased neon tube support design patents from A.B. McMahan and launched operations by selling neon tube supports and hardware manufactured under those patents. The company quickly added fluorescent coated sign tubing, neon electrodes, neon blockout paint, mechanical sign controllers, and other products to more fully meet the needs of neon sign manufacturers.

In 1958 there was a friendly split between long-time business partners Fred Sweet and Bruce McNeil, as Fred took the manufacturing operations and Bruce took the distribution business. The distribution business is known today as Midwest Sign & Screen Printing Supply Company of St. Paul, MN.  In 1970 Fred Sweet retired and changed the name of the company from A.B. McMahan to FMS Corporation. Much has changed since FMS began operations as a depression era neon sign company, but we never changed our commitment to providing quality products to meet the needs of neon sign makers worldwide.

 Today FMS Corporation employs more than 100 people at our 50,000 square foot Minneapolis headquarters. For more than 60 years FMS has used only the finest raw materials and advanced production techniques to develop a reputation as a reliable manufacturer of quality products with outstanding performance characteristics in a wide variety of sign and lighting applications.  FMS products continue to be specified in many national corporate programs as well as countless numbers of smaller custom projects domestically and around the world.

Thank you for taking a look at FMS. We appreciate your interest and look forward to meeting your needs with quality neon products and service. We welcome your questions and comments.

CART: Your Cart Store Log In