Steve Jordan talks to Robert Bartup of GB Liners in the UK about getting the right price for your service and avoiding the race to the bottom.
Anyone who reads this magazine often will know that we very rarely ignore a discarded gauntlet. They are usually picked up. One such challenge came during a conversation I heard recently. It was an interview by Colin Wynn on his Moving Matters podcast, with Robert Bartup, MD of GB Liners in the UK. Allow me to explain.
Robert is a third-generation moving company owner. His grandfather started the business in 1923. It was continued by his father until his death in 1995. Since then, Robert, who has worked in the business for 46 years, has been the managing director.
He inherited a business with two sites, Brighton and Hereford, and three other businesses in London, Bristol and Cheltenham. By his own admission, the company had no money. Since then, Robert has expanded the business to give it 11 branches, two stand-alone self stores, the Clark & Rose brand with depots in Aberdeen, Stirling and Biggleswade, and Unique Van Bodies, a body building company in Warrington that builds some of the finest moving vehicles on the market. GB Liners and associated companies have around 100 vehicles and employ close on 300 staff. Most importantly, it’s now got a healthy balance sheet and owns many of its premises rather than rents them ...
Photo: Robert Bartup.