The Grospiron story began in 1840s Paris when Edouard Grospiron started a local delivery service using horse-drawn vehicles. During the next 150 years Grospiron remained a well know name in the city’s removals industry, changing hands many times during its long history.
The Grospiron story began in 1840s Paris when Edouard Grospiron started a local delivery service using horse-drawn vehicles. During the next 150 years Grospiron remained a well know name in the city’s removals industry, changing hands many times during its long history.
It was in 1990 that a young Jean Luc Haddad, who had been sales manager for Desbordes, bought Grospiron along with another removals company, Bedel, which was owned by the same family, and founded the present Grospiron International.
“I was 33-years-old, I had two company names, two OMNI memberships, two FIDI memberships and around 200 employees,” said Jean Luc. “All our work in those days was for private customers, most jobs were domestic moves and our turnover was under one million euros.”
The business has changed dramatically since Jean Luc acquired it 25 years ago. Today almost all Grospiron’s work is for corporate clients and international trade customers, although some domestic work is still undertaken. Despite having far fewer employees, turnover has risen more than 20-fold and now stands at around 24 million euros.
Grospiron International employs 120 people and Jean Luc says that it is the only independent international removals company in France with offices in Paris, Lille, Nice, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse. Two years ago Philippe Mirault was appointed general manager to handle the day-to-day running of the company. Philippe is a well-known figure in the industry having held senior positions with a number of major companies during his 25 years in the moving business.
In 2014 the company opened a new representative office in Hong Kong to support Grospiron’s agents and clients in the Asia Pacific region. The office is run by Franck Vidal, a French native with 10 years’ experience of relocation in Asia.
Grospiron is also a major player in the relocation sector having acquired Cosmopolitan Service Unlimited in 2013, the founder of relocation services in France. The company employs 28 staff and operates from an office just off the Champ-Elysees. “We’d been working in the relocation sector for a number of years but we needed to expand,” said Jean Luc. “Cosmopolitan was the biggest independent relocation company in France and acquiring it has dramatically increased our presence in the international relocation market.”
Jean Luc believes that good communications are a key element in running a successful business and has invested heavily in the company’s IT systems. “We have a full-time IT manager who looks after all our systems, a full-time quality manager and a risk and insurance manager. We self-insure all our shipments so maintaining a high standard of care is vitally important to our business,” said Jean Luc.
Compliance is another area of the business that Jean Luc takes very seriously. Currently Grospiron is the only company in France to hold ISO 14001, 9001, and 27001 for its removals services. The company has also signed the French Diversity Charter, a commitment to ban discrimination in the workplace, and is also a member of the United Nations Global Compact, which aims to promote human rights, protect the environment and prevent corruption, along with many other societal goals.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Jean Luc’s stewardship of Grospiron and the occasion will not pass unnoticed. A special anniversary party is planned in December to celebrate the company’s achievements during the past 25 years and mark the beginning of the next chapter in its continuing success.
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