Steve Jordan talks to Nigel Mayo Saunders as he steps back from the moving industry after over 40 years.

Nigel Mayo Saunders has recently retired from the moving industry.  His most recent position was as General Manager of Nuss Relocations in Sydney where, as part of his role, he championed sustainability and eco-friendly operations. 

Although Nigel has spent much of his working life in the moving business, his entry to the industry, as with many others, came because of an unexpected opportunity. Nigel was working in the steel industry in Saudi Arabia where he met, by chance, Jim Kriegsman who, having sold his share of Crown to Jim Thompson, was on a five-year non-compete restriction. Jim was running a trucking company hauling, amongst other things, steel. When his non-compete agreement expired, Jim wanted to set up a moving company with two of his old Crown managers (Greg Harrison and Kent Comstock) and asked Nigel to join them.

“They offered me a partnership. That was in 1984.”  Nigel spent some time working in Jeddah then set up a new office in Riyadh.  The company was called Camel Moving. He looks back on this as one of the most exciting times in his working life and regards it as having been a tremendous opportunity.

He met Maria, his wife-to-be, in Jeddah and stayed with Camel for around three years then went to England before moving on to the USA where he had attended university.   There he worked with Mayflower International covering the west coast states and Asia Pacific, then on to Indianapolis, before returning again to the UK.

It was in 1991 that Nigel met Paul Evans of Trans Euro who he hails as being one of the most influential people he met during his career. Nigel replaced Peter Carter who had left Trans Euro to set up Sterling with Richard Levine. He stayed for three years before deciding to emigrate, with Maria and their four children, to Australia where he initially worked with Afsin Atalay at Movements International, someone else who Nigel holds in high regard. “He was a very clever man,” he said. “One of the best operators I have ever come across. I learned a lot from him.”

Nigel knows that he has been fortunate to have worked with some extraordinary people throughout his career.  He is reluctant to name them as he knows he risks omitting someone deserving of praise, but he includes Tony Squire and Stewart Peck from his Trans Euro days and, of course, Ray Beard, his friend and colleague from Nuss. “Ray’s a good man,” he said. “Bob Nuss too of course, I learned a lot from him as well.”

Bob Nuss approached him in 1998 when he had plans to expand his business, including opening in Melbourne. He stayed with the company until his retirement, 27 years later, longer than he had stayed anywhere else by some distance; a testament to Bob Nuss, the organisation and all who work there.

Reflections
Looking back at his 41 years in the industry I asked what he felt were some of the significant events. He doesn’t want to be seen as sniping at the industry, but he does believe that there have been opportunities lost, with the benefit of hindsight. First on the list is the rise of the relocation companies. “Rather than trying to find a way of keeping our accounts, we focused more on becoming suppliers to the RMCs. It became much easier for us to sell to them and more difficult to reach the corporate accounts themselves.  Looking back, of course, everything is easy.  But there were circumstances and reasons why companies did that.”

Self storage is another opportunity that Nigel feels was not exploited to its full advantage.  “We were all so sure of how great our storage systems were,” he explained. “A lot of companies did very well because they owned big warehouses, but they didn’t always think about the best way to fill them in the most profitable way.” He feels that many could have more enthusiastically embraced diversification into, for example, archive storage, as a more profitable revenue stream.

That said, Nigel has great respect for moving companies, most of which he says try to do a very good job.  “But I think, when you look back, we can see that a lot of moving companies relied very heavily on property investment and insurance sales.”

Looking forward
I asked Nigel for his assessment of the international moving industry.  Some say it’s doomed; does Nigel agree? He doesn’t believe that the international market will contract much more. Nor does he think we will see so many sole use 40ft + container moves in the future. “But I do think we will see the market coming back in the next year or so because of pent-up demand, corporate and private.  Fewer people are moving because they don’t want to take risks right now.  But that will change once the world adapts to the new normality. I don’t think we will have to wait much longer.”  That said, Nigel thinks the industry will continue to see more consolidation resulting in fewer, larger companies. “Businesses will adapt.”

What will be the difference between the companies that succeed and those that fail? “Willingness to change,” he said. “Companies will have to change what they do and how they do things.” The embracing of AI, for example, is the obvious one. “In the past there was a level of comfort, with people making a reasonably good living. That’s becoming harder, so there are more compelling reasons to look at other ways of doing things.”

Nigel feels that the new generation is more open to trying new ways of doing things. “That’s not being critical of past generations. A lot of them were running very good businesses, very successful businesses in difficult circumstances. It was a different world then though.”

There is, however, a caveat. In the same way that the previous generations missed out on some opportunities, so the current one risks doing the same unless they are acutely vigilant. “If they miss out, they will fall behind again. But there are many very smart people in the industry, and they will learn from their predecessors’ mistakes, much more than we did, because of how the rate of change has accelerated.” In the past, change was harder to spot because it happened so slowly, now change is constant and faster.

Inspirations
Nigel said that throughout his career he has always worked in companies, led by people who do things properly and fairly.  People who always try to do the right thing in the right way. “I have never had to battle with an ethical or moral dilemma,” he said. “So I have therefore been able to run the business in a very ethical way without any pressure to do anything other than that. If I had, it would have been a problem, because I wouldn’t have done it.”

He also offers much praise to the people who have worked with him. “It’s always been a team effort,” he said. “It’s the team that does the work and I have been fortunate with the people around me.  So we all inspire each other every day. The passion that people show in their work inspires me.”

Nigel mentioned some people earlier in the story who had particularly inspired him.  In what ways did they do so?

“Paul Evans had an ability to see different ways of doing things. He also had very good judgement in the way he made decisions.  Jeff Wangler (Aires) built a great business and recognised that he couldn’t just be a mover, he had to go into relocation management and achieved that transition with huge success, not least by building and inspiring a great team. Afsin Atalay was a tough man but also very decent, good and kind.  He could be very generous. He was a man who cared about people and was very proud to be a mover.” There were others, of course, but Nigel is reluctant to aim for a comprehensive list for fear of inevitably missing someone out.

His family have inspired him too.  His wife Maria is a nurse. “She has spent her whole life helping others,” he said. “Her encouragement and support has been instrumental, she has been an inspiration to me.  Always putting other people first.”  So too his maternal grandfather, Joseph Mayo, who educated himself, became an electrician, built his own business in the North of England and installed the first computer in Britain “the size of a small house!”. “He was also the local Mayor.  He gave so much back to other people.”   

Nigel spent ten years on the board of OMNI (Overseas Moving Network International), which he still views as a leading body for international movers. “I treasure the time I spent with the organisation. I met many exceptional people, and I value the time I spent working alongside the OMNI directors and staff, all of whom were committed to improving our industry and to helping others.”

Faith
But when I asked the question, Nigel’s first response was that he had been foremost inspired by his Lord Jesus Christ.  He was raised in the Christian faith and remains devout. How has his faith affected his business and personal life? “I've always wanted to model my life on my Christian faith,” he explained. “I always wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus. There have been times when I have not been as forgiving as I should have been. But my faith causes me to reflect on it.  I believe that I should always be able to explain everything I've done. I should never feel a need to hide anything. If I did, I shouldn't be doing it. I ask myself, could I go home and tell my children what I have done today?” That principle has been his barometer in making decisions.

But, I argued, you can do that without a religious faith. “Yes. You can. Faith, and a desire for doing what is right, are not mutually exclusive but it is my faith which inspires and guides me. But I want to do it this way because this is where my faith takes me and yes, I do want to go to heaven. I believe that there is a place to go when we leave, when we eventually die, and we're going on to better things. That is not the only reason of course, I simply get great satisfaction and peace in being guided this way."

Has Nigel ever made a decision because of his faith to the detriment of his business? “I don't think it's ever worked against the business. No. How can you do the wrong thing by your business, if you're doing what you believe to be the right thing? If you do the right thing, good things will come from it. People might not agree with you, but they understand that you're doing it for the right reasons. You are not doing it deliberately to hurt anyone.”

Losing touch
Nigel says that he has always enjoyed his work, so does he have any regrets on leaving the industry? “I don’t have any regrets. I have been planning it since the beginning of the year so had a lot of time to get used to it. It’s going to be a different way of life.”  Maria is retiring too, so they will have more time together.  They have four children and nine grandchildren.

How does he feel about losing touch with all the people he has worked with over so many years? “I suppose I will lose contact with some, but there are others who I have made relationships with that go beyond work.  I am sure they will continue. I know people who have retired and feel they have not had as much contact as they would have liked, but contact goes both ways. I won’t be sitting at home expecting people to ring me.”

As might be expected, Nigel is retiring but, then again, not quite.  He will no longer be working in the moving business, but he has already developed some completely different business interests that interest and excite him.  The journey continues.