HISTORY
The Advance Group is an innovative organization that includes commercial moving, office furniture installation, distribution, storage, document management, and employee relocation services. It is the largest organization of its type in the tri-state area.
Family Beginnings
The Advance Group is the product of a family business that had its roots in the post-World War II period. Molloy Bros. Moving & Storage started in 1946 and expanded rapidly. In 1957, Molloy Bros. became an agent for Allied Van Lines and grew into one of New York’s largest residential movers. The company then expanded to New Jersey and to three Florida locations. In 1973, Molloy Bros. changed its affiliation to North American Van Lines.
In 1976 the Molloy brothers sold the business to non-family members. At this point in time, the business focus moved from Molloy Bros. to Jim Molloy exclusively when he joined North American Van Lines as a sales executive in the New York City corporate sales office.
In 1979, Jim started Advance Relocation and Storage, a commercial moving operation, to capitalize on the growing need to relocate commercial businesses. Business grew rapidly and prospered and, in 1987, the company expanded its offices and facilities to New Jersey and Connecticut.
In 1989, Advance Relocation and Storage took over the sales office operations in New York City for North American Van Lines to service existing national accounts as part of Advance Relocation and Storage.
Consolidation
The opportunity to reacquire the family’s Molloy Bros. residential moving operation presented itself in 1990. With Molloy Bros. back in the fold, Advance Relocation and Storage had expanded its capabilities to include employee relocation. It had also gained a marquee name as well as significant assets, including facilities in New York, West Palm Beach, Pompano Beach, and Miami.
By 1995 the company had outgrown its roots as simply a moving company. The company name was then changed to Advance Commercial Movers to reflect the expanded emphasis on the commercial market. Advance Commercial Movers left the North American Van Lines organization in 1994. It remained an independent until 1998 when it joined Mayflower Transit, which is a part of the world’s largest moving organization, the Uni-Group. Later, in the mid-nineties, a document management company called Record Guard was started.
Understanding the need to expand service offerings and to increase the company’s foothold in the New York City commercial market, Jim formed a joint venture partnership in 2003 with Shamus Barnes that brought FITCO, a leading Queens-based furniture installation and warehousing company, into the fold.
Tremendous Growth & Innovation
The prescience of these moves was demonstrated in 2005 when the company experienced record-breaking growth of more than 30 percent.
Over the past several years there has been an overall strengthening of the company’s team, operations and systems. At a time when others in the industry were downsizing, The Advance Group expanded, investing in seasoned professionals who were ready to make changes. Some of these valued professionals include Mark Shapiro, Director of Business Development; Frank McNally, Assistant Vice President Operations; Jeff Silverstein, Vice President of Sales; Pedro Lozada, Project Manager; and Linda D’Onofrio, Commercial Project Coordinator.
We also invested a new facility in New Jersey to better service the New York metropolitan area. Our Harrison facility has twice the capacity of our prior location and is more convenient to our customers and labor force.
A Global Future
The Advance Group is now a member of the Office Moving Alliance, LLC, otherwise known as OMA. This is a major step forward for us, expanding our ability to relocate single employees, or entire corporations virtually anywhere in the world. OMA members actively serve over 200 key cities in 10 countries around the globe. So no matter where your next move takes you, The Advance Group can help you organize it and make it go smoothly through its own resources and those of its partners.
What does this mean to our clients, partners and employees? It means that continued success lies ahead. We are committed to evolving and maintaining our status as the industry leader. This commitment leads to better service, satisfied clients, strong vendor relationships and employees with bright futures.
Today, more than 40 years since his journey began; Jim Molloy’s vision has been defined with the integration of five core business units and a dedicated, professional management team into the entity known as The Advance Group.
