Our story

2010

Ai??Number of Employees | 2   

 Ai??Number of moves | 278   

 Ai??Distance Travelled | 33600

We both never really wanted to just study business, so after leaving school we decided to do it! Justin and Matt came together and JAM Vans was born. With some family experience within the moving industry, as two keen and naive 18 year olds we bought Oscar, our first van. We racked it out, bought new blankets and with an advert in the newspaper we were ready to hit the road.

We lugged boxes up and down stairs, lowered wardrobes down from balconies and toured the county in our trusty little Oscar. Our biggest mission when we set up JamVans was to provide a service that our clients would talk about and to challenge the status quo for the moving industry. This is still our biggest mission today.

 

 

JamVans 2010 Newspaper and Van

2011

Ai??Number of Employees | 4

Ai??Number of moves | 589

Ai??Distance Travelled | 58200

Our plan seemed to be working and before we knew it we needed extra hands. Two became three and three soon became four.

It was in 2011 that JamVans first went to Europe, Bulgaria to be precise. With some useful websites and contacts we pieced together work all over Europe. From hair-raising moments at the Romanian border, and going through 4 hours of security checks at the European Research Centre in Italy, to relaxing on a beach in Monaco or skiing in the Swiss Alps whilst waiting for return loads, we travelled to 16 counties within the year.In 2011, 40% of our customers were recommendations with a lot of this coming from repeat business, our customers thought we were doing something right and we think so too.

JamVans 2011 Map and Employee

2012

Ai??Number of Employees | 7

Ai??Number of moves | 697

Ai??Distance Travelled | 96500

2012 was a year of growth for JamVans, revenues grew by 100%. Having achieved a steady flow of work from repeat business and a few local contracts, we continued to expand. After spending the previous two years packing all of our paperwork into our portable crate and alternating been our respective homes, we took the big jump into getting our own warehouse and offices. This provided great foundations to grow the business, we could store more boxes, employ more staff, and importantly had secure parking for more vehicles. As we were no longer going on every move ourselves, it was important for us to ensure our ever growing team provided the service people talked about as we continued to challenge the status quo. This saw the introduction of the Jam Bible, our all in training programme and the Jam way of doing things.

JamVans 2012 office

2013

Ai??Number of Employees | 11

Ai??Number of moves | 876

Ai??Distance Travelled | 142900

More demand, leads to more staff and vans.

We were carrying out more moves than ever and our team continued to grow. This saw the introduction of the JamVans days out to reward staff for their efforts. With our passion for the best team and friends back from University, we decided to form a football team. In true JamVans style, only the best was acceptable, with our own home ground, the best home and away kits, it felt like a Sunday league going on premier league. Jam United FC was born. With the ever growing demand we were able to purchase two new vehicles, bespoke to removals. This enabled us to carry out larger moves and continue to deliver our exceptional service to more people.

 

JamVans 2013 Football Team

2014

Ai??Number of Employees | 15

Ai??Number of moves | 1004

Ai??Distance Travelled | 189000

Things started to get crazy as JamVans became one of the fastest growing removal companies in London. We made headlines on BBC London News, by reaching out to the residents of a sink hole that had opened up in Hertfordshire. Our team worked into the night helping to get residents’ possessions safely into our storage facilities. We also continued to support The Hospice of St Francis with their events, most significantly their Mud Pack Challenge, which raised over £100,000 for a great cause.

With the demand for our moves doubling, our workspace needed to as well. 2014 saw the expansion of new offices, a new staff room and more administration staff. We introduced dedicated move co-coordinators to keep a one point contact rule to guide our clients through the moving process.

JamVans 2014 Charity Involvement

2015

Ai??Number of Employees | 18

Ai??Number of moves | 1389

Ai??Distance Travelled | 249000

What started as a dream five years earlier had now become reality. In 2015, we carried out 16 times as many moves than that of 2010, our team had doubled every year and we had over 100 containers in our storage facilities. Five years on and who’d thought we’d be invited back to our old school. This time however, it was for a careers day and to discuss the option of running your own business. Although an equal opportunities employer, we weren’t ready for what walked though our door in August 2015, Dyson the cat. After carrying out a move to Staffordshire, the stow away was discovered in the back amongst the blankets. Dyson spent an eventful week in our office, until we traced his owner with the help of BBC Radio Stoke. Our most amazing year yet saw the introduction of our personal favourite, the employee bonus scheme, where our team benefit from recommendations, reviews and repeat business. This is seen as a way of rewarding our staff for maintaining our high standards and pushing the boundaries of the moving and storage industry.

JamVans 2015 Charity Involvement

2016

Ai??Number of Employees | 23

Ai??Number of moves | 1899

Ai??Distance Travelled | 404000

By far our most exciting year to date, 2016 was a year to remember. The JamVans brand became much stronger with the introduction of our updated logo, printed boxes, new vehicle livery and our new website. What had been a year I the making our website went live that included our bespoke and market leading online calculator which enables users to get a rough quote online fore their move.

The JamVans brand was further cemented, as we became a member of the British Association of Removers, the best accreditation for a removal company in the UK. We also became a member of Which Trusted Traders, the largest consumer organization in the UK. JamVans makes the small screen! DIY SOS was in need of a removal company to transport their plants from the London Chelsea Flower Show to Great Ormond Street Hospital for their Big Build and we were selected to help out.

The biggest accolade of the year was Matt and Justin, the company founders wining the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Hertfordshire Business Awards. It was a night to remember and a great boost, the award is a true testament to the hard work and attention to detail by the whole team at JamVans.

2017

Ai??Number of Employees | 29

Ai??Number of moves | 2636

Ai??Distance Travelled | 412000

2017 was a big year at JamVans with a lot of changes and exciting additions being made to the company. Early in the year we took delivery of a further two removal vans as well as the addition of a new surveyor’s van, our fleet had grown to 11 vehicles. June 2017 saw the terribly sad news at Grenfell Tower unfold. JamVans played a small part in assisting on the day of the tragedy. We donated hundreds of boxes for the donations to make them easier to handle. We worked late into the night co-ordinating the donations and getting them to a central location at Imperial College London. We love that we were able to help in a small way and it was amazing to see people from all walks of life pull together to assist which such a horrific event, definitely not something we will forget.

In September we made the big move to our new premises, three times as large as the original building we were working from, however only over the road. This enabled us to scale up our operations even more and have better organisation within our warehouse. In addition, it gave us the ability to grow our office team. Several weekends were spent getting everything ready and by the time of the official opening, our new premises looked like something that would fit in within Silicone Valley. With introductions of new vehicles, capacity to grow within our premises and our forever growing reputation for great customer service, 2017 left us in good stead to start 2018.

JamVans Man & Van Removals in London

2018

Ai??Number of Employees | 36

Ai??Number of moves | 4259

Ai??Distance Travelled | 768000

A massive year for JamVans which started with the introduction of another two additional removal vans as well as an operations manger to keep everything running smoothly and to maintain our high standards.

In April Justin ran the London Marathon for the first time. A huge feat for anybody to achieve however possibly an even bigger deal for Justin. Born with bilateral talipes, Justin had pioneering operations at Great Ormond Street Hospital to enable him to walk. Without these operations JamVans would not have been able to be a possibility. Great Ormond Street were the only hospital with the resources, ability and knowledge to conduct such operations. Therefore, it was a massive triumph for Justin to complete the marathon whilst raising over £7000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital at the same time.

We were honoured to be selected to take part in the 2018 Parliamentary Review for Transport. This is a publication of best practise within the transport industry and gave us a platform to put forward our points of view on government policy within the transport industry. It also saw Justin and Matt attend an evening at the house of Parliament with guest speakers, Andrew O’Neil, Michael Gove and Julia Hartley-Brewer.

Another great achievement was when Justin and Matt were contact to return to Longdean School for their Senior Presentation Evening to give a motivational and inspiring speech to the students that had won awards. During the evening over 150 awards were handed out with a great story from Justin and Matt, talking about the how they started with many anecdotes along the way.

JamVans - Justin Yates Matt Williams

2019

 

Having achieved the standard to become a Which? Trusted trader a year earlier, March 2019 saw JamVans win Which? Trusted Trader of the month a great achievement for any business. With a business focused on customer service, protecting the environment and inspiring the local community, read the full write up to learn more about why we won.

With multiple surveyors now operating it was important to look at innovative ways to quote moves in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. With the surveyor’s van travelling round London and the Home Counties it was time to innovate, this saw the introduction of the Renault Zoe, an all electric car. Not only is this great for the environment but it also means lower road tax, no congestion charge zone and cheaper insurance cover. With innovation at the heart of everything at JamVans, this saw the company winning another award, this time the Low Carbon Workspace grant. The grant was used to heavily subsidise the purchase of the electric car as well as new heating and air conditioning for the offices which offset the cost of charging the electric car. Once again JamVans landed itself in the local press.

 

 

2020

 

A year of social distancing, hand sanitiser and face masks. 2020 set a challenge like no other. With the threat of  dramatically declining sales due to the pandemic JamVans cut cost and fast, reducing advertising, furloughing staff and negotiating discounted rates on overheads.

With every situation comes an opportunity and JamVans spring to action, introducing ‘Self Store to Your Door’. A contactless storage with collection service that could operate during the pandemic safely. This innovative approach caught the attention of Sky TV and once again JamVans made its way to the press, this time on TV! Check out the Sky TV Advert.

2020 also marked a big milestone for JamVans with its 10 year birthday! A whole decade since its inception, now over 40 people strong moving people across the entire world from America to Australia and covering tens of thousands of miles per year with a great reputation including over 1000 online reviews.  The first ten years has been an amazing journey with even more exciting times to come.

 

JamVans 2020 - Justin Yates Matt Williams

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