Moving Matters with Rob Horrobin of John Lomas Removals

In this episode, Rob Horrobin, Managing Director of John Lomas Removals, discusses how he started in the industry some 22 years ago at the tender age of 14, where he began as porter during his school holidays.

We discover that after a few years of portering Rob became involved in the Sales and Operations side of the business, and that in 2006 John Lomas Removals was brought by Clockwork where Rob became the fulltime Sales Estimator having just completed his Business Studies degree, and soon after became Operations Manager and subsequently Branch Manager.

We discuss how during the recession Rob was told that Clockwork were looking to close down the branch and run everything from their Sheffield location, but that got Rob thinking, and in 2011 together with his father they took over ownership of John Lomas Removals.

We discover that John Lomas Removals are a Bishop’s Move franchise, and Rob explains that Bishop’s bring policy and procedural knowledge, provide access to European and International rates that allow Rob to compete in those markets, and that they bring a revenue generating stream of work.

We discus that one of Rob’s biggest challenges to date has been COVID-19, sorting out policies and procedures to ensure safe working practices.

We discuss Rob’s high points of being in the industry and find that they are when being asked to move family and friends, winning the big jobs that take lots of planning, commercial work (although John Lomas Removals are not a member of the BAR’s Commercial Moving Group, but I sense a yet!) and the acquaintances and friends made along the way.

We discover that Rob would change two things within the moving industry. Firstly, the conveyancing process, because Rob believes that the industry loses too many good people, especially drivers, due to not knowing when they are going to be finished at the end of the day. And secondly, regulating the 3.5 tonne sector, bringing it under the operators licence jurisdictions.

We discuss that the advice Rob would give to a younger Rob would be to work harder at university, specialising in law, and become a solicitor! But on a more serious note, Rob would not allow the business or the industry run himself and not to become a slave to it.

We discover that outside of work Rob likes to spend time with his family, holidays, watching sport such as football (Rob is a massive fan of West Bromwich Albion), boxing, UFC and he’s a big golf fan, both watching and playing, as well as the usual eating out, socialising, watching films and bingeing on Netflix with the wife.

And as always we end Moving Matters with two funny moving stories, one that involved Rob himself and a driver desperate for ‘a number two’, and another involving the site manager on a new build.

Enjoy!

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