For over 35 years, Kiwi owned and operated moving companies have had to battle the world’s largest moving companies, on our shores.
In the face of this intense competition, The Moving Company has managed to survive and grow to become New Zealand’s first choice international mover for thousands of families and individual customers. Many might say international moving would be the domain of the multi-nationals?
There are several reasons for our ongoing success and the serious decline of foreign owned businesses in the New Zealand removals market:
The Moving Company is committed to a sustainable future. Being 100% Kiwi owned and operated company enables us to plan for today, without compromising future generations. Whether it’s actively reducing our carbon footprint or addressing the human needs of our staff and communities, we are fully invested in the future of Aotearoa New Zealand, and our own place in the world.
Foreign owned moving companies, within our borders are essentially value extractors, not value creators. Critical services are negotiated and paid for off- shore. Overseas owners and shareholders also require high returns on their investment.
The current focus of overseas based moving companies is to survive by cutting jobs and costs. If you visit their offices (outside Auckland) you will find little local management or decision making. The buildings are half empty. Essential jobs have been taken away from kiwis and outsourced offshore to take advantage of cheap labour markets.
In short, overseas owned, and managed moving companies simply cannot extract sufficient value from their investment, let alone contribute to a more sustainable future in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Global organisations are obliged to send your shipment to their own internal branches, the quality of which can be variable. Services are often ‘contracted out’ to regional business hubs, franchises, or 3rd parties.
Over the last 39 years we have built a worldwide network of the world’s best moving companies to deliver our customers end to end international moves with confidence. Unless you are moving to a remote location our service partners are members of the FIDI Global Alliance, and meet the world’s only independently audited quality standard, called FAIM. These are the companies that will uplift, customs clear and deliver your shipments, under our instruction and guidance, when you arrive at your overseas destination.
A feature of our alliance partner network is that we all share a common operating system, called Moveware. All move management details, and necessary personal information is securely transferred to our overseas service partners, at the click of a button. It enables us to monitor relocations, right through to delivery. This feature gives us the equivalent of a handpicked ‘one company’ network to the world’s best moving companies, in over 100 countries.
New Zealand’s foreign owned moving companies all control their businesses from Australia or further afield. They practice ‘matrix management’ where kiwi-based staff may report to multiple managers, many based off-shore. With ownership so far removed from the coal face of the business it’s not surprising these companies are completely out of step with the local market, and the needs of kiwi customers.
For us, the secret sauce is simple. Our senior management and owners are not sitting in overseas boardrooms, they are working in the business. We understand that the emotional significance of moving is just as important as the physical aspects. We can communicate in real time and make decisions very quickly, in the event of delays, cancellations, or other issues. This level of agility, and ‘on the ground’ responsibility is superior to overseas owned movers.
In the late 1990s, major New Zealand corporates started to be absorbed by Australian and overseas entities, a trend that was also happening worldwide. At the time, these super-sized corporations stopped buying local and offered global contracts to similarly sized and positioned moving companies. Over time they demanded more and more, at lower prices, which the moving companies found impossible to deliver, without suffering big losses and service challenges.
During the Global Financial Crisis corporations further streamlined their business models, taking out complexity and reducing non-essential functions. Company employees when transferring was given ‘one off’ lump sum payments and asked to ‘self-manage’ their relocations. This simplified approach to moving staff was universally adopted, resulting in a significant reduction in global moving contracts.
The overall effect of these trends has been the decline of the ‘one company’ international moving and storage businesses worldwide. The end of global moving dominance started in the UK and Europe and like other global trends the reality is now here, in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Thank you for taking the time to find out more about The Moving Company, and who we are. If you are currently considering a long distance or overseas move, please don’t hesitate contact us for an obligation free quotation. We look forward to being of service.
The Moving Company is one of New Zealand’s best known and most successful international and domestic moving and storage companies. The places are moving company.
Moving Kiwis everywhere for 39 years.
Proudly 100% New Zealand Owned & Operated.
Secure
Storage..
500 worldwide network partners.
Starship foundation supporter.
Highly satisfied customers.
The Moving Company was founded as the Nelson Moving Company, specialising in nationwide moving and the delivery of new furniture orders, from Nelson based furniture manufacturers.
During this period, we became a full service international moving company, with our first move to Australia completed, the first of many thousands to follow.
The company was rebranded as ‘The Moving Company’ and grew through the acquisition of leading removalists, Banner Removals and Action Pack Express.
New branches were opened in Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga, Hamilton, and Auckland. Head Office was moved from Nelson to Christchurch.
The Moving Company moved away from commercial furniture deliveries to focus on international relocations, large domestic moves, and storage services.
Branch locations were consolidated to the main port locations of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.
We joined the FIDI Global Alliance and OMNI Global Network. These memberships cemented relationships with the world’s leading international moving companies in over 60 countries.
The Moving Company was purchased by our current owner’s, enabling us to remain as a privately held and owner managed business. There were 40 full time staff and 20 removal vehicles at the time of acquisition.
We took our first, of many subsequent deliveries, of over a hundred custom built, fit for purpose high cube shipping and storage containers to use on intercity moves and for storage of customers goods.
We received our first FAIM accreditation, the world’s only recognised, supreme seal of quality in the international moving industry. We still hold this accreditation today, being independently audited bi- annually by E&Y International.
We moved into our first design-built office and warehouse facilities in Christchurch and Auckland. Both being able to store containers three high inside the warehouse, a New Zealand industry first.
We moved from a manual paper based system to Moveware, the world’s leading Move Management platform. This transformed the business, enabling the secure and seamless transfer of customer files, data, and vital information to our international service partners.
We Invested in a proprietary AI software application enabling our customers to get instant quotations by conducting their own in house surveys by cell phone or tablet.
In association with our removals group, we implemented an aggressive and on-going fleet upgrade. 25 long distance trucks were replaced with clean burning new units, which meet EURO 6 environmental standards.
During this period flat screen television cartons, bike cartons and hanging wardrobe cartons were introduced to provide added protection for our customers personal effects.
We adopted an aggressive waste reduction programme, for the re-use of packing materials, within our domestic operation. We now upcycle over 150 tonnes of packaging, annually.
In 2015 The Moving Company joined the country’s leading artists and designers as a major sponsor of Starship Children’s Hospitals ‘Big Egg Hunt.’ We moved, stored, delivered, and installed over100 giant eggs, right across New Zealand. The eggs were auctioned to raise over $200,000 for the children’s hospital.
We invested in HSE Connect a leading platform for managing & administrating all health, safety, and wellness activities across all branch locations.
We also introduced the industry’s only in-house truck driver training and licensing programme. Staff can now be taken safely through the driving grades from a car license to a full class 5 truck licenses in house.
On the 27th of March 2026 The Moving Company celebrated our 39th birthday. From humble beginnings we had grown to having a full- time staff of 150 and a fleet of over 80 removal trucks. Today, The Moving Company provide outstanding removal and storage services to every corner of Aotearoa New Zealand and over 140 countries, worldwide.
The Moving Company NZ has been in business since 1987, moving kiwis everywhere, with a reputation built on repeat customers and satisfied customer recommendations.
The Moving Company has long established memberships with the best moving industry associations worldwide, and is proud to have achieved prestigious accreditations in the international moving industry.
The Moving Company – NZ Best Movers are here to help with any queries you might have about relocating within New Zealand or international moving. Get in touch with our friendly team using the form and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We’d love to help you get moving!
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