While some 800 Interior Heath staff are looking forward to moving into their new office location downtown, making that happen has become a massive undertaking for the Âé¶čAV commercial movers firm Bekins Moving & Storage.
The IH employees are expected to begin moving into the new building at Doyle Avenue and Ellis Street beginning in October.
To manage a move of this scale, Bekins began preparations in January after successfully bidding on the contract for the job, to handle the moving and storage aspects of the IH administrative relocation.
âItâs quite a substantial move so weâve scheduled roughly six to eight weeks to pull it off,â said Nathan Miller, owner of Bekins. âThe second theyâre ready to go, we start putting office furniture in there.â
Miller noted one of the main goals for any commercial move is to minimize downtime and disruption.
When asked what the biggest obstacle was, the affable Miller laughs: âAcross the board, itâs just having everyone keep up with me. You have to have the right staff in place.â
Bekins has rapidly expanded operations since Miller took over in January 2015. In that time, he increased his warehouse capacity from 8,000 square feet to nearly 20,000 square feet. By Christmas, he expects that number to be closer to 24,000.
Fortunately, thereâs plenty of room to grow in their current location at the old Hiram Walker plantâa 45,000 square-foot facilityâin the Winfield industrial park.()
Miller has also increased his arsenal of moving equipment by about two-thirds since he started with Bekins, growing from 30 pieces to more than 50. This includes everything from moving trucks to forklifts to specialized dollies.
Miller currently operates with a staff of 40, and he has recently hired for several key positions, including a new dispatcher and office admin worker.
âPeak season is now over, but we havenât slowed down, we just changed gears,â said Miller. âI donât have enough staff to do all of the winter work I have lined up. Thatâs pretty unheard of in our industry.â
