Celebrating 42 Years
New Zealand Movers has been serving Kiwis since 1982
This year marks the 42nd anniversary of New Zealand Movers. For forty two years, New Zealand Movers has continued to provide quality relocation services and is now regarded as the preferred mover for thousands of kiwis around New Zealand and across the world.
Upon achieving the 40 year milestone in 2022, Group Managing Director Mark says that reaching this milestone is an outstanding achievement and the growth and success of the company comes down to our staff. “It’s an amazing feeling to have a business achieve 40 years of service. It has crept up on us over the last few years with the focus on the covid challenges, but we are very proud. A good number of our team have been with the company for over 20 years.”
New Zealand Movers was founded in 1982 under the name Allied Movers with three branches in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. Initially, the company was established to target new furniture transport for retail stores and moving within New Zealand.
In 2000, Allied Movers was sold to USA-based global relocation company Sirva, where it continued to operate under the Allied Movers brand.
In 2007, the company was purchased by Worldwide Relocation Logistics Ltd, a New Zealand Company and was rebranded to ‘New Zealand Movers’ in 2011.
Mark says, “The company needed to distance itself from the Allied name, and research showed that customers wanted to move with a New Zealand Company. The new name and branding reflected exactly that, a New Zealand owned and operated business.”
Over the last 40 years, New Zealand Movers has evolved its offerings from local household moving to service and manage intercity moving, exports, and imports for worldwide relocations, office moves and corporate moving services.
“Over the years, the company has provided moving and relocation services to high profile individuals, sports stars, and government personnel, and in the last five years has become a leader in the hotel fit-out market, having recently completed a 182-room hotel in Queenstown.
The project included devanning and delivering 26 x 40″ containers, room fit-outs and joinery of furniture in each hotel. Due to covid restrictions and building delays, the project was completed over eight months. The team adapted well to all changes while continuing to provide quality moving services. We are now commencing another new hotel project in Christchurch,” says Mark.
Dean, Christchurch Facility Manager, says, “A lot has changed over the last 22 years where we have now evolved into a creative and innovative business with a modern vehicle fleet, warehousing, and IT structures.”
The company completed its first international move in the late 80s.
International Moving was very challenging back in the 80s with fragmented global networks and communications by telex! International moving was a key opportunity, and the company became renowned for its quality service.
To offer their customers the best moving experience, the company became members of FIDI – Federation of International Movers, the Global Alliance based in Brussels, Belgium, and runs the FAIM Quality Programme – FIDI accredited International Mover Programme, having achieved a top 5% pass globally on our most recent audit in October 2021. The Audits are performed globally by EY.
In 2010 New Zealand Movers launched the ‘Go Green’ initiative, which is their commitment to operating sustainably and limiting their operations’ effects on the environment.
“Our ‘Go Green’ initiative is very important for our future, having a sustainable and adaptable business is critical for our continued success. The company will also be commencing with the carbon reduction programme this year,” comments Mark.
The impact of COVID-19 was significant and meant New Zealand Movers had to revisit their business model. As moving house was not considered an essential service in the 2020 lockdown, the industry took a big hit in winter. However, the tide changed during summer, with many ex-pats relocating back to New Zealand.
To adapt to the increase of imports, and speed up the process of clearance, especially with the global shipping congestion already creating significant transit delays, New Zealand Movers developed a professional team of night shift workers to specialise in the devanning of import containers.
Mark says, “This evolution has allowed us to grow and minimise the disruption from the long delays with shipping anything via container, that is currently being experienced globally, once the container is in New Zealand.”
In 2021, New Zealand Movers were rated number one for customer satisfaction by Canstar Blue New Zealand and Australia’s premier research and expert ratings agency.
“It was very satisfying for our team to be rated in the top spot for customer satisfaction by Canstar Blue. We strive to provide high customer satisfaction levels with what can be very challenging times for people moving.
Even with world-class facilities and industry leading technology, our success would not have been possible without the passion and dedication of our staff – they really are awesome.
When you reflect on the number of our team who have been with the company for 10, 15, and 20 + years, it’s very satisfying to know that they enjoy the culture and environment that we operate and they see opportunities to grow within our group,” comments Mark.
Debbie Bradshaw, Customer Service has been with New Zealand Movers for 15 years and says that working with great people is what she enjoys most about the job.
“The people I have worked with over the years have all been fabulous people, I spent most of my New Zealand Movers life working with Helen Bates and we’ve have had some pretty good times hence known as truck and trailer around the workplace. The company has certainly grown and grown from what it was and there was always plenty of opportunity to learn and grow along the way, I count myself lucky to have the privilege to work for such a great company and look forward to what the future holds.”
While colleague, Helen Bates, Sales Manager agrees it’s the people that make New Zealand Movers and is proud to be celebrating 40 years of service.
“It’s wonderful that New Zealand Movers are celebrating 40 years, not many companies can hold themselves in business for this amount of time, I’m quite proud of the companies’ achievements.”
Today, New Zealand Movers are proud to still be 100% New Zealand owned and operated with four branches and 12 secure storage facilities in the NZ Group nationwide, over 120 employees, 40 specialist moving trucks, 300 branded high cube 20′ containers, 1000 storage cases, and a global network of trusted partners in over 60 countries.
As New Zealand Movers looks forward to the next forty years, Mark says the future looks fantastic.
“We have a great reputation and are part of the largest moving group in New Zealand, and we’re strong in our market segment. The global moving industry outlook is solid, with the post covid world indicating significant international and domestic moving on the horizon. The future looks awesome for bricks and mortar operators that offer complete ‘inhouse’ door to door moving services.”
Whether you are moving local, inter-city or overseas we can help every step of the way. We’re New Zealand’s moving experts with 42 years’ experience and a passion for moving Kiwis! Call: 0800 000 022 or request a free moving quote online.
