Issue 1 2010 > Chairman's Message
Chairman's Message
45 Years of Exciting Growth
It all began on February 1, 1965 in Yokohama, Japan. It was an exciting time for me but there was undeniable apprehension on my part as well. With a miniscule amount of money, no business and only one year's experience as a salesman, I set off to start a company that I hoped could win customers and become a successful small moving business.
Happily, the business succeeded and today, at 45 years of age, the Crown Group has grown beyond anything I could have imagined back in 1965.
Anniversaries such as this are always a time for reflection so let me look back and highlight a few milestones in the development of the Crown Group.
The first big event came in 1970. Up until that time the company only operated in Japan and most of our business came from the Tokyo area of the country. However in February 1970–five years after the startup–I made the bold move to open a Hong Kong office and this began our journey of steady expansion. Hong Kong's free and open economy and low taxes resulted in a very positive start in that new market.
With the success of our Hong Kong operation we made the decision to expand to a number of other cities in East Asia. It was a time of growing foreign investment in the Far East in the 1970's–especially when the American/Vietnam War ended and China began to open its doors. There were very few companies offering a quality international moving service in Asia and we were able to fill that need. We developed a good team of managers and we met with success throughout the region. Crown was a leading mover in Asia by 1980.
Further development in the 1970's and 1980's found us opening new locations in the United States and the Middle East. We hit some roadblocks in our Middle East development resulting from the Iranian Revolution as well as the difficulties of doing business in Saudi Arabia at that time. Consequently, we settled down into the role of a Pacific Rim company serving most locations in the Far East and the west coast of the U.S.
A major milestone came in 1989 when we were able to acquire a sizable moving company based in the United Kingdom that had operations throughout many of the British Commonwealth countries. This acquisition established us in Europe, Africa, Australasia and the Middle East. When we combined these new offices with our existing offices in Asia and the U.S., we were now a global relocation business.
The decades of the 1990's and the first ten years of this century have seen us continue to open new offices every year as well as expand our services into records management, global mobility services, specialized logistics services, fine arts and fine wine storage. Along the way we built or purchased a large number of first class warehouse and office buildings to accommodate the increasing number of items we were called on to store.
In 1994 we made the decision to tie our global business together under a common brand. We chose the Crown name and we selected a very bright red color by which we could easily be identified. Today, Crown's distinctive red vehicles can be found in cities all over the world.
It's been a very exciting 45 years of development and the most rewarding aspect of it all is that the Crown Group today enjoys a solid financial position, excellent management and staff, and a steady pattern of growth and development that will see us moving into the future as the only true global company in the international relocation business. Additionally, our records management and fine arts transport business have also expanded globally at a very solid pace.
Crown's success is due to the people that have helped build the company over the past 45 years. Each, in their own way, has made the company a bit stronger. While they are too numerous to mention by name, they are the heroes and heroines of Crown. You will see references to some of them throughout this issue of The Global Connection and on our 45th anniversary, I salute them all.
However, no company can succeed without loyal customers. You are the reason we exist. On behalf of all the members of the Crown Group we sincerely Thank You. I assure you that no matter how much Crown grows we will always be dedicated to providing very personalized service to every one of you.
I hope this expanded issue of The Global Connection will provide some interesting tidbits to help you better understand the culture of Crown as we celebrate our 45th anniversary and march on to an exciting future.
Jim Thompson
Crown Worldwide
Chairman