We discover that the Pickfords management training scheme was a 3-year program and you learned everything to do with removals, from sweeping the yard, making the tea, answering the telephone and you spent a period of time doing removals, writing reports and making suggestions based upon your experiences.

We discuss that Paul has recently become a part owner of Squab Removals & Storage which is based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Squab Removals & Storage are BAR members, hold 2 of the quality standards (BSEN12522 & BSEN14873), operate 9 vehicles, have a modern warehouse housing 900 containers, and are seen as the professional choice within the area they work in.

We discover that Paul is a strong believer in standards and has been involved in QSS (Quality Service Standards) for the past 6 years and Paul believes there is a very strong link between standards, quality, and profitability. Paul also thinks standards are a health check to a business and I question whether the standards need looking at again considering they have been around for quite some time now, unchanged.

We discuss that Squab Removals & Storage have their own training centre, which is a 3-bedroom purpose-built house within one of their warehouses, complete with household effects and the general challenges found when providing a moving service.

We discover that Paul has had lots of challenges over the years and the challenges are certainly different being your own boss and having your own business to working for somebody else. However, the challenge of educating customers has never changed and this still shocks Paul to this very day.

We discuss the one thing Paul would change from his moving past, but Paul thinks it’s always difficult to look back and much prefers looking forward to the future. Having recently become a company owner, later in life than most, he does wonder if passing up on an opportunity years ago to invest in his own company is a regret. Paul also believes that while you can always blame the past you have to learn from it too.

We discover Paul’s highlight of being in the industry and it’s the people, many of whom have become great friends, and the memories made that you will take with you as you go forward.

We discuss how we can get youngsters into our industry and Paul says people have to see it as a career and a profession in the UK, just like they do in America and other European countries.

We discover that the one thing Paul would like to change within the industry is for our industry to be seen as a profession (as previously discussed) and for customers to pay a proper value for what we do - Paul states when we sell ourselves short, the only people we are ever harming is ourselves, and it should not be a race to the bottom.

We discuss the advice Paul would give to himself just starting out in the industry, and it’s knowing and understanding the business as a whole, understand every element of what goes on within the business and understand your numbers (your true costs).

We discover that within the next 5 years Paul’s ambition is to grow the business and increase its footprint into 2-3 locations, so Squab Removals & Storage are on the acquisition hunt. As an industry the HGV shortage is going to be a challenge, so we need to put value not only in our drivers but also in our porters too, as they are our next drivers.

We discuss that outside of the industry Paul enjoys the countryside, either walking, cycling or driving in his sports car, and Paul is a fan of the egg chasing sport of rugby.

And as always we end Moving Matters with two funny moving stories, one involving the pecking order and the other involving lighting!

Enjoy!

Links to Squab Removals & Storage:

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram

Special Guest: Paul Tracey.

We discover that today’s company is Leatherbarrows (Britannia Leatherbarrows to be exact), which David and wife Diane bought from Aubrey Appleton in 1981 and was based in Hounslow, West London. David and Diane took the business into Pelican, but after some of the big players had decided to leave David was faced with either recruiting new Pelican members or offering themselves as a group to Britannia, which they did in 1987. In 1988 David was able to buy part of the family business, Trenchards, and took over Sketchley’s which virtually doubled the size of his business.

We discuss that David’s challenges were having no money at all when he and Diane bought Leatherbarrows, and 6 months after acquiring the business David was awarded a contract from a local department store who wanted to outsource their warehousing and deliveries, a contract David held for 39 years until the department store went into administration in 2019.

We discover that David would not change anything from his past because the traumatic experience of leaving the family business and buying Leatherbarrows gave David much better opportunity than he would have had.

We discuss David’s high points, of which there are many, but his biggest high point was in 1992 where he became BAR President for the year (as they were back in those days), the year when the borders came down in Europe. And the BAR Conference that David organised during his Presidency year which was held at Bournemouth International Centre (my first BAR conference where I exhibited as a supplier), which David was the Chairman of the Centre when it was built.

We discover that BAR Services did come from a study tour, the first BAR study tour of the USA and a consequent study tour of Europe where David, Derek Blatchford, Joe Luxford and others persuaded BAR to setup a study group to look at such things the industry and BAR could benefit from. In 1977 (corrected – not 1985) BAR Services was born as a co-operative/buying group and recruited Tony Allen to manage it. David was Chairman of BAR Services for 15 years, giving up the role when he became BAR President, but stayed on the board for 35 years!

We discuss BSEN12522 (something I was involved in being part of the original 6 companies to field trial it), and David has always been interested in standards. In 1992/3 after David’s Presidency, the French Removals Association had created a Quality Standard for Removals and had recommended it as a European Standard. 7 years on and David had completely rewritten it into what it is today.

We discover that QSS (Quality Service Standards), something David is very proud of, was formed because although FEDEMAC wanted to use outside companies to provide the assessments, the BAR, with David’s leadership, decided to use the talent of retired removers and train them to undertake the assessments. QSS is totally independent from BAR and non-BAR companies can apply to QSS for many of the ISO and BS Standards currently available.

We discuss that the one thing David would change within the industry is to make the BSEN12522 part of the BAR membership criteria. David would also like more regulation on the low weight vehicles (3.5 tonnes).

We discover that the advice David would give to himself just starting out again would be to follow your beliefs and do not be afraid to make yourself the odd one out.

We discuss that in the next 5 years David sees himself as just being there to provide guidance to his daughter and son-in-law who now run the business. We learn that David wanted to invest in demountable bodies as they offer more flexibility over rigids, similar to Richard Webster’s (Tonks Removals) comments in Episode 21. Industry wise David thinks removers need to be cleverer, recruit more youngsters and train them properly, and drivers have got to be self-taught.

We discover that David has over 300 model trucks that he has collected over the years! And I recite a story about my old boss, John McGinty (Alton Moves Group) who had models produced of his livery, to only discover an error on them!

We discuss that outside of the industry David has never lost his interest in local politics, and upon retirement from an employee of Leatherbarrows David was instrumental in successfully lobbying to drop the number of local councils in the Dorset area from 9 to 2.

And as always we end Moving Matters with not a funny, but a charming moving story with a repeat event that happened 25 years apart!

Enjoy!

Links to Britannia Leatherbarrows:

• Website
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• Twitter
• Instagram

Special Guest: David Trenchard.

We discuss how Covid procedures put in place are limiting the number of moves at the moment to 2-3 a day rather than 4-5 with hired assistance, as they look to keep themselves, their staff and their customers safe.

We also discover that their low point from the past would be the purchase of Turks of Lydd from their friend Andrew in March 2008, where due to bad advice and the biggest collapse of world banks later that year the newly acquired company was forced into liquidated less than 12 months from purchase.

We learn about Anthony’s Director role within QSS, Quality Service Standards, and discover just how much Anthony loves standards, and how later in life he would like to become an auditor himself - you heard it here first!

We discover that Karen would like solicitors to change the exchange process, making it more like Scotland, and how Anthony would enforce tighter regulation of the moving industry.

Outside of the moving industry we find that Karen enjoys spending time with her daughters, Anthony enjoys spending his time fishing and gardening and how together they both work alongside the Lions Club, when not cruising.

And we end Moving Matters with 3, yes 3 funny moving stories, which I am sure most removers will relate too.

Enjoy!

Links to D.C. Groves & Son:

• Website
• Facebook

Special Guest: Anthony & Karen Groves.