UK based movers, storers and shippers, Burke Bros Moving Group Ltd,
www.burkebros.co.uk
, having recently returned from New York City, enjoyed a busy October 2007 schedule of two back to back International moving events. Firstly at the Pan American International Movers Association (PAIMA) held on 10th to 13th October, followed by the official 45th Household Goods Forwarders Association of America (HHGFAA) Annual Exhibition & Conference held on 14th to 17th October 2007.
The first exciting news came when Burke Bros took a distinguished award from PAIMA for the most improved tonnage, i.e. moving more household goods between members than anyone else, going from 35th largest tonnage to 7th largest in under 12 months. This is a global award, showing that Burke Bros reached the highest increase between members across 50 different countries.
PAIMA, is an association of international movers, freight forwarders, and insurance companies.
The senior Burke Bros team, Gary & Chris Burke and Chris Starkey, travelled all the way to New York City to attend the award ceremony and collect their award. Burke Bros MD – Gary Burke, commented saying “This award was such a surprise to us. There are some very good PAIMA members out their doing an excellent job of moving household goods around the globe, so we were particularly delighted to find out how well we’d done relative to our industry peers.”
Chris Starkey, Head of the Burke Bros International Department, went up to receive the award, saying “This event is a great place for PIAMA members to network with each other, working together to increase our overall market share, across all the members. It is a pleasure to be receiving this award and to be congratulated by so many industry colleagues from across the international removals community.”
On the Sunday morning, between the two events, the Burke Bros senior team took to the streets of New York to complete a 30 mile Graebel cycle race around the city. The race took place on Sunday 14th October on a warm morning in 70 degree heat, with all the team finishing the race successfully. They were also joined by removals industry colleagues Scott Sheldon – MI Group New York, Ed Ooms & Don Rankin both from Graebels Denver & New York, and Phil Rodrigus Trafimar from Mexico.
Then, if that wasn’t enough, The Burke Bros senior team stayed on in New York to attend the 45th HHGFAA Annual Conference, where they joined over 2,000 trade delegates from 160 countries.
The exhibition was called ‘All the World’s a Stage’, which was especially apt as it was held in ‘The Big Apple’s’ Times Square, right in the heart of Broadway.
Chris Burke, Director of Burke Bros, said, “The HHGFAA conference is all about building up your network of contacts, globally, which gives us ever increasing breath and depth of industry colleagues, especially in the USA & Canada. The way we move household goods around the globe means you need good, professional, and efficient partners you know well and can trust.”
Household Goods Forwarders Association of America, Inc. is the largest international trade
Gary Burke said, “Before attending the conference, we are sent the trade delegates list so we can spend the weeks leading up to the event frantically organising all the meetings we require with an array of different company contacts. These meeting are imperative to growing our International support services, where we can discuss opportunities with the maximum number of people in one place. As you can imagine, if we had to travel around the world and visit all 160 different countries to meet all these contacts it would be an impossibility. The HHGFAA gives us all a focal point and platform to all meet our industry peers, each year, allowing us to do good business, effectively.”
If you would like to find out more about Burke Bros Moving Group and their comprehensive range of international removal services please visit the Burke Bros website at www.burkebros.co.uk or if you have any immediate questions or requirements, please contact Chris Starkey or Chris Burke on +44 (0)1902 714555
