When you’re relocating your business, or your school, museum, warehouse, hotel or shop, it’s not just about packing everything up in boxes and loading them onto a van – it’s a complex logistical exercise that requires planning and careful execution.
So if the thought of moving your business or organisation brings you out in hives and has you reaching for the coffee (or the antacids!), we can help!
When you’re relocating your business, or your school, museum, warehouse, hotel or shop, it’s not just about packing everything up in boxes and loading them onto a van – it’s a complex logistical exercise that requires planning and careful execution.
At Shires, we specialise in commercial moves, recognising that each one brings its own unique set of challenges, so we offer every client a perfectly tailored, personal solution that provides a stress free and successful outcome – every time.
“Proper made”
Yorkshire has a well-deserved reputation for quality and there is a reason the best dressed folks across the globe proudly wear Yorkshire cloth. In Yorkshire we’d call it “proper made” – providing goods and services that consistently exceed expectations for excellence and innovation.
At Shires, we take pride in our Yorkshire roots and our Yorkshire values, bringing 46 years of commercial moving expertise, our attention to detail, technical quality, and professional service to bear on every move we undertake.
We ascribe to the Yorkshire value of “proper made”, and we do it extremely well.
So we like to spread our “proper made” around the UK and around the world, moving you wherever you need to go.
Personal service
We know that no commercial move is ever the same, and that the need to minimise disruption to your business is paramount.
To ensure a seamless relocation we provide a wide range of services, including complete project management, porterage, packing, containerised moving, recycling and disposal, and business storage that can be customised to suit your unique circumstances.
“Suit you, sir!”
Whether you are moving into a bigger or smaller office, relocating departments within the same building, or moving entire companies across the country, we have a service to suit you. You can be confident of a successful move, secure in the knowledge that every detail is planned and executed by highly trained, experienced, and professional removal experts and technicians.
When you hire Shires Removals to coordinate your business’ move, we’ll handle everything – from the transportation logistics, specialised packing, to delivery – so that you can rest assured that your items are in expert and safe hands.
We offer:
- Professional Packing – We have trained handlers for the for safe transportation your valuables, including vintage and antiquities.
- Protecting your space – We provide protection for walls, stairs, and floors in both the current and destination locations.
- Protecting your goods – We wrap your goods in custom covers for added protection
- Containers – We provide the right containers for your move, for safe transport and long-term storage.
- Specialist Equipment – We use the right specialist equipment for lifting and moving even the challenging of items.
- Unpacking – our professional team can also unpack and place your furniture and equipment into your new space.
- Storing things safely – we can provide suitable secure storage for long or short periods of time.
We move:
Office equipment and furniture
Unique items
Medical equipment
Vintage and Museum
Art galleries
Desks and education items
Stores fixtures and stock
Appliances
Manufacturing equipment and stock
Hotel furniture and items, including dismantling, relocating, and reassembling.
And so much more – just ask us!
Supporting your local community
Often, a move will result in surplus or unwanted items like office furniture and IT equipment. We take care of the recycling of this for you too and can facilitate its delivery to local community projects nominated by you- we’ll even snap a few pics for your company newsletter!
10 things you can do to minimise disruption and ensure a successful, stress free commercial move.
So, we know that moving to a new business space is a big ask – you’ve got big pieces of furniture, difficult to pack electronics and years of stored records and other “stuff”!
To top it all, there’s probably not a whole lot of time to get it all done – after all, you can’t exactly shut down operations for a week to sort things out. A business relocation is a lot of work, regardless of the size of your company. If you’re trying to navigate one, follow these top tips to make the process go as smoothly as possible.
- Start planning early.
You can’t really wing it when it comes to moving to a new office space.
You need to start the planning process early, deciding who will be doing what, how they will be doing it, and when it will be getting done. Otherwise, you may find yourself flinging staplers into boxes at midnight and hoping someone remembered to pack the printers!
As well as planning how you’ll get everything ready for moving day, you’ll want to have a plan in place for where things will go when you get to your new space.
Use a blueprint to figure out office and common space layouts and figure out any new needs you might have.
Plan on needing at least a few months to adequately plan your business relocation, and a couple of months to get everything set up and ready to go. And don’t forget to plan for your moving budget—it’s important to know how much you have to spend.
- Appoint a Move-it Manager.
Even if you’re going to be dividing up the work, it’s still important to have a designated person who can facilitate and follow up on each step to ensure that things are progressing.
Usually, the best person for this is the one who loves spreadsheets and pays attention to detail, (every business has at least one!) or you may be lucky enough to have someone with experience of commercial moves.
- Hire an expert moving company.
This is where we come in! We offer a full-service menu, with everything from planning and project management to packing and unpacking, loading, and unloading. You can have it all or take a pick and mix approach to suit your needs, schedule and budget.
- Assign everyone the task of packing up their own desk.
Whilst you’ve made a great call and booked us to come in to take care of the big stuff, it will still be a major help to have everyone responsible for their own desk space.
Give your teams a heads up on when they’ll need to have their desks packed up by and try to encourage them to do a little bit at a time so nobody is trying to get all packed up at the last minute. You may need to just give your team a couple hours of time off on the day before the move to get their desks in order.
Don’t forget I.T.
Most businesses need their tech to be operational, and one of the biggest complications inherent in moving to a new office space is disconnecting and reconnecting all of your essential I.T.
As soon as you know the date of your move, have your I.T. department or Managed Service Provider make a plan for transferring all of your office’s technical equipment.
This includes computers, servers, and phones, as well as your data and internet plans. This is a big job, and one that you can’t outsource to us, so it’s critical that your team gets to work on it as early as possible.
If there are pieces of equipment that you’ll be getting rid of, we can help you to recycle or donate these safely.
- Get a handle on building rules.
Unless your company owns the building you are moving out of or in to, you will need to get a breakdown of all building rules around relocating. It may be that you are only allowed to move during non-business hours or that you need to put in a special request to use the service lift.
Get these rules from building management as early as you can and share them with us, as they will dictate the logistics of moving day.
- Change of Address notifications.
Don’t forget to change your address on all your digital collateral, including your website and social media accounts, your email footers and any digital advertising you have in place. You’ll also need to order new business cards, letterheads, envelopes, return labels, etc. and update your clients, especially if they regularly ship stuff to you.
It’s much better to have all of your updated documents on hand before your move than to risk going days or weeks without them in your new space.
- Label everything – carefully!
Labelling your boxes crucial to the success of your move! To keep your business operational every box will need to be carefully labelled so you’re not looking for things like more printer paper or toner only when you really need them.
For maximum efficiency, label each box with a location and a number, and keep a corresponding spreadsheet that lists each box number and the items that are inside of it. It’s a bit more work, but it will save you a lot of time and stress – and your nominated Excel Move-it Manager will love it!
- Make sure everything will fit.
While you may want to bring your huge American fridge with you, the dimensions of the new kitchen space in your new staff room might not allow for it. Instead of wasting time, energy, and money on transporting items that aren’t going to work in your new office space, make good use of this blueprints we mentioned earlier and compare the dimensions of your largest objects to the measurements of your next location.
This applies equally to things like your conference room tables, large electrical equipment, and anything else that necessitates a lot of space.
- Thank your teams!
A large-scale relocation is stressful on everyone, including your teams. As a “thank you” for everyone’s cooperation in making it happen and to celebrate and settle into your new work home, budget in a small party for after the move. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, but it should be fun, frivolous, fabulous and help everyone feel comfortable in the new space.
Follow these 10 top tips and your move will be a lot less intimidating and stressful – you’re welcome!
Home Moves. Office Moves. Business Moves.
Whether you are moving house or office, nationally or internationally, our friendly and helpful staff aim to make the move as easy and stress free as possible.
Our head office is located in Kinsley, near Pontefract and Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK but we cater for moves all over the country whether you are moving a few miles or a few hundred miles. Our representatives can visit you at your home to discuss your moving requirements, with no charge and with no obligation to use us.
We provide Local, National and International Removals, Packing, and Storage services to Domestic and Commercial customers.
You find a place, and we’ll take you there!
