Beverly Smyth builds on long history of service

A while ago Niall Doris got a call from a woman in Cleveland, in the US, who'd bought a piece of antique furniture.

There was a Beverly Smyth sticker on the back and a removals company in the States had been able to tell her that it was the name of a removals company in Ireland.

The woman was trying to date the furniture and Doris asked if there was a number on the sticker. There was.

"At the time there was a foreman who'd been with us since he was a boy, and whose father had worked as a foreman with us," says Mr Doris.

The foreman was given the number and returned the next day with a rough estimate as to when in the 19th century the piece of furniture had been shipped to the US and who had shipped it. The woman in Cleveland was duly informed.

Beverly Smyth is one of the oldest commercial operations in the State - in business since 1846. It has been a family business during all that time, being owned first by the Beverly Smyth family until it was bought by the father of Doris's wife, Sheila, in the late 1930s.

The company has now taken over the Oman group, with a Doris family trust owning a controlling stake in the new entity and senior management owning the rest. Doris (68) believes the new, enlarged entity will have the scale to allow it pitch for larger contracts, such as major contracts with US multinationals, and also become more competitive through synergies and increased buying power arising from the merger.

He will retire from his position as chief executive of Beverly Smyth and take on the role of chairman of the new group. Paul Coy, finance director with Oman, takes over as chief executive of the enlarged group.

Beverly Smyth owns the Nat Ross removals company, which is big in Munster and which itself has been in business for well over a hundred years. The three brands are to be maintained and will trade separately. A fourth brand, McConnells, which operates in Northern Ireland, may be integrated and renamed Oman.

Patrick Oman, the largest shareholder in Oman, is not involved in the new entity.

The merger is something that has been in Doris's mind for some time and which has been worked on actively for the past year. Working with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the Beverly Smyth group was restructured and then merged with Oman. The property has been separated from the business and is now owned by the family. Doris says he was anxious to secure the future of Beverly Smyth "so it can go on for another 150 years". He felt the options for a family-owned business were to grow or be gobbled up, and opted for the former.

Beverly Smyth operates in a number of areas, including the moving of fine art, commercial and office removals, and the international relocation business. In relation to the last the company works for multinationals and the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as Government agencies.

"It's a repeat business," he says. This week the company was helping an Irish ambassador move back to Ireland. "We handled every move he made in the course of his career."

The company has also handled the move into Áras an Uachtaráin for every president since de Valera. Some years ago it took the Book of Kells on tour to Australia and the United States.

Doris didn't start out in the removals business. After school with the Marist Fathers, he completed a hotel management course in Shannon, Co Limerick. He worked in a number of locations abroad before returning to Ireland and, in time, coming to own his own hotel, the Oakland in Carlow (now the Seven Oaks).

"My wife's father was the owner of Beverly Smyth and she was an only child. He was getting on - he was the same age then as I am now - so I came to Dublin. It didn't take me long to cotton on. It is another service business and there is no basic difference between it and hotels."

The key issue moving employees abroad is to do as much as possible to help the person settle in their new location as quickly as possible. The employer does not want the new employee sitting in work distracted by children's toys lost on the high seas.

Multinational companies can decide they will be involved in one or two or three hundred moves per year, around the globe, and will seek bids for this work on an annual basis. Doris feels the new merged entity has a scale now to pitch for this work and handle it, using the network of relationships it has around world.

Beverly, Nat Ross and Oman all have particular complementary strengths. Acquisitions may be made over the coming years. The merged company will have an annual turnover of more than €20 million and employ 120 people. Doris expects further employees will be required as the business grows.

The eldest of his three daughters, Rhona, is a director of the new merged entity. He says family businesses have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Its a small, niche market but the company is now strong and has scale, he says. Paul Coy and his fellow executives have a platform from which, he says, he is confident they will develop the business. "I'm gone now," he says. "But I have great confidence in the new management team."