Al Bingle celebrated 30 years working for Bishop’s Move this January, overcoming the challenges of becoming the first non-family member appointed managing director in 160 years and overcoming the various financial crashes and increasingly uncertain housing markets.

In 1984, Al originally undertook the position of trainee manager for Pickfords at its Aldershot, Surrey depot at a time where it was a question of ‘getting a job’ or moving to Germany due to his father’s Armed Forces imminent move.

Within six months Al was promoted to Basingstoke branch manager but left the company three years later in 1987 as the company’s then Managing Director, Dennis Oliver, passed him over for the job of Brentford branch manager following a bad overseas complaint.

Al went on to join a small company in Chessington but left within eight weeks as he was more at home in a larger corporate setup. Later that year, Al successfully applied to Bishop’s Move for the role of Leatherhead branch manager and doubled the branch’s profits within a year. Over the forthcoming years he progressed to area manager, area director, group operations director, deputy managing director and finally managing director (taking over from former managing director of over 25 years, Nigel Bishop, in 2009).

“Having been in removals for over 30 years I’ve experienced first hand how the industry hooks you in,” said Al. “Every day brings a new set of challenges and obstacles to overcome.”

Al said that the high point in his career had been when he took over as MD with the backing of the Bishop family. He also remembers the difficulties of implementing harsh reactionary changes in the group following the financial crash in 2008, which sadly lead to the loss of some loyal and experienced staff.

And the future? Al is dedicated to continuing the development of the company as well as the franchise network to provide the best level of service within the expanding commercial, international and corporate markets.\

www.bishopsmove.com

Photo: Al Bingle