Market trends dictated a strategic shift for a removals firm. Now it has to adapt to the change. Wayne Sidell is looking for a change of image. Not for himself. He’s happy with his dual personality of being a former trucker who now heads a £22m business employing 150 people across Europe.
He’s looking to change the image of Atlantic Corporate Relocation, a business that had its roots in packing and shipping home contents but which a year ago decided to expand its offering to a full relocation package.
With offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Geneva – and working with partner companies around the globe – the firm helps those families who have to up sticks, due to a company placement, and move lock, stock and barrel to a different country.
“We cover everything from helping them to find a home and settling the children into schools to opening bank accounts, securing visas and finding the nearest golf clubs,” said Sidell.
Atlantic also physically packs and ships their belongings. And we’re not just talking a sofa and a couple of pictures. The kind of homes the business sources for its clients employees are on the market at rents of about £4,000 a week and the chattels that follow these global corporate migrant workers often include valuable antiques, said Sidell.
But having moved up a rung, the issue facing Sidell and his co-owner, group managing director Chris Baker, is how to differentiate the new kid on the block – Atlantic – from the handful of major competitors all vying for a slice of the corporate relocation market.
For a start, they are banking on the company’s 20 year history: Sidell started out as a man with a van. The business, Atlantic Worldwide Movers, grew and Sidell found himself heading a team of packers with a fleet of vans. The firm has seen a 500pc increase in income in the past four years.
The decision to expand the offering was more reactive than strategic. “There were a lot of companies starting to offer a comprehensive service,” said Baker. “Those looking to relocate staff wanted everything from one supplier. What we were doing, the packing and shipping, was being swept up.”
Sidell and Baker realized that to survive they too had to offer the less lucrative add-on services if they were to continue to win business. “We were being forced down that road,” said Sidell
The problem is Atlantic is still seen as offering the brawn- manhandling crates and containers – rather than the brains; micro-managing every element of an intercontinental family move. It’s an image the firm has to change.
“Atlantic is well known within the removals industry but not that well known in the corporate market,” said Baker.
Major corporate spend millions moving key staff around the world, he said. What they want is to make sure that their high flying executive is quickly as productive in their new placement as in the old. Therefore, those charged with moving top staff with minimal fuss don’t always look for the cheapest option
Which means SIdell and Baker have to quickly find a niche, “a differentiator” said Baker. With more than half of its business involving moving staff from the US to the UK, Atlasntic is banking on pandering, pampering and pre-empting as a way to secure the contracts.
It’s policy that may, though affect its 30pc gross margin. What’s in the Atlantic package depends on the level of fussing each clients company wants for its star workers. They may not all get help adapting to the culture but they will get the services of a handyman to change appliances to the UK three pin plugs.
“There’s a tremendous amount of handholding,” said Baker. “ Even when the relocation is complete they will often keep in touch asking where the nearest pilates group is for example.”
“It costs about $35,000 to relocate a family,” he said. “Its serious money.” Luckily for Atlantic the bulk of that goes on the most profitable segment, the physical move – Atlantic’s core and original business.
In the last year Atlantic has changed its name, logo and premises. Its also boosted its sales force to help woo the small group of key corporate relocation buyers.
“It’s a challenge to maintain the company culture as you grow. We have certain values and if you grow too fast it becomes nigh on impossible to maintain that attitude from the staff: there’s a risk as we get bigger we won’t be as good,” said Sidell.
“We want to get a reputation for being a relocation company that will go the extra mile. But how go you instail that in the workforce? One option is to change the structure of the company to encourage greater buy-in.
Atlantic is run by a team of six directors from its head office in Walton-on-Thames. The three European offices, which together account for half of the groups workforce, are run as separate entities. The country manager in each is a part owner with SIdell and Baker retaining a majority holding.
“We’ve always had a flat structure with no hierarchy,” said Sidell. “I want to keep it like that. After all, I was once just a trucker and everyone in the firm knows that.”
(An article published in the Daily Telegraph outlining Atlantic's vision for the future. Accompanied by an Expert View section. | Download PDF )
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