Happy 30th Birthday Britannia Bennetts

Judith and Alan Bennett’s company is celebrating turning 30 this year and Judith has taken the time to tell us all about the company’s humble beginnings and their transformation in to the impressive removal company that Britannia Bennetts are today:

C Bennett started trading on Friday 27th March 1987 – it was going to be Monday 30th but a good moving job rang to book so in true remover style AC wanted to please his first client!

Our original van colour was burgundy and Alan favoured the use of the good old fashioned apron as used by his former boss. The business rented a small store initially but Alan soon realised that owning a store was the securest way of offering this service to his clients and he started saving for a deposit – operating 2 removal trucks.

Alan met me in 1997 and had just prepared his business plan for the bank who he wanted to finance a property loan – I had a look over the figures and thought ‘there’s more to this chap than meets the eye’! We got married and the property was purchased and renovated by Alan’s dad (a retired Bovis project manager) and Alan in his spare evenings. He asked me to work with him and I joined the business in June 1998 having already been roped into Saturday morning quotes and doing accounts in the evenings. We were at these premises for nearly 6 years but there was a newly developed site in Malvern, on the Enigma Business Park and Alan had really wanted to buy and build there but the only plots left were too large and costly. It was a chance telephone call by me that led to us being able to buy two of a four acre plot and we were fortunate to sell our existing land and premises and build on the newly purchased land simultaneously with the help of Natwest bank – we know for a fact that they wouldn’t be able to lend on the ratio nowadays but we had a great Bank Manager called Stuart Forrest who believed in us and the potential success of Bennetts expanding their storage facility and at this point we became Bennetts of Malvern Ltd. We are in our 14th year at Britannia Way, Malvern as Britannia Bennetts, becoming a shareholder member of the group in 2007 and the company has continued to expand carefully despite the crash in 2008/9.

We have just started clearing and making good the land on the second acre with a view to further expansion – the story of A C Bennetts to Bennetts of Malvern Ltd to Britannia Bennetts keeps on growing and Team Bennett is in its strongest position yet in an ever-changing market place with the stress that running a removal business brings; a blank diary in two months’ time. We look forward to the coming years with the possibility of one of our teens joining the business in the future – exciting times ahead!

Judith Bennett