Beverly Smyth was founded in 1846 and has grown to become Ireland’s largest removal and storage company, writes Renee Jones

WHEN IRISH moving and storage company Beverly Smyth placed five advertisements in The Irish Times’s first edition in 1859, few would have expected the company would still be thriving 150 years later.

Beverly Smyth began moving furniture around Dublin by horse and cart in 1846 and has grown to become Ireland’s largest removal company. The business has remained family-owned over most of that time and still provides many of its original services.

Owner Niall Doris (71) married into the family-operated company through his wife Sheila Doris about 40 years ago. He says few businesses published in the original newspaper would still be functioning today.

“I think that on that page there would not be another company that is still in existence, yet we are still here and have been since 1846,” he says. “We are probably one of the oldest companies in Europe in this business.”

Doris also owns three other moving-related businesses, Nat Ross, Oman and Hire a Crate, acquired in 1984, 2004 and 1990 respectively. All four companies were sold to publicly listed company Veris for €14 million as Doris wound down for retirement in 2006. However, he bought back the businesses, which employ 75 people, for just €74,000 in March this year.

“It is a very personal, family type of business and the opportunity came up to buy it back around Christmas so I did,” he says.

“When it came up all the family wanted to come back. I wanted it back in the family, so there was a certain amount of sentimentality involved.”

Under the ownership and management of Veris, Beverly Smyth and Oman were merged to form BOND Business Support.

However, Doris said the businesses would now revert to being separate companies and would be rebranded to revitalise their original identity.

“It was not very successful for them and we had been successful for a number of years. Public companies are not always able to run these types of companies.”

Meanwhile, the entire management team are all shareholders in the business, including his daughter Rhona Doris and her husband Rob Gilbert.

The company’s head office was originally based on Dawson Street and was run by the founding owner Beverly Smyth.

However, the headquarters were eventually relocated to Tallaght and Kill in Co Kildare about 30 years ago.

The company expanded beyond Ireland in 1924 when it shipped the first Irish ambassador to Washington’s household to the US.

Since then, the business has managed the relocation of six Irish presidents to Áras an Uachtaráin, transported the offices of US presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan during visits to Ireland and packed, shipped and supervised National Museum exhibitions.

Beverly Smyth focuses its business primarily on diplomatic removal, fine art shipment, office removals and international shipping.

Last year, the company moved about 2,000 people both into and out of the country and has agents based in every major city in the world.

Although Doris admits there are many challenges in the current economic climate, he remains optimistic the company will continue to succeed.

“We have challenging times ahead, but we certainly have an energetic management team to be able to deal with all this. Over the next couple of years, we will have it back flourishing again.”

Doris also believes that the underlying principles of the business had contributed to its long life.

“It is because we have an international reputation for giving good service. It has survived because of the attention to detail we give on the service end.”

He added that Beverly Smyth has always understood the intricate process of local and international removal.

“Relocating from one location to another is a very stressful time for people and their families.

“We have to pay attention to the details so people are relocated with the least inconvenience and fuss as possible, especially when moving to another country as it takes time to settle in and services have to be provided,” he says.

In addition, the group provides relocation services, including helping their clients finding a new home or school.