FACTFILE: CADOGAN TATE BASED: Wormwood Scrubs, west London. FOUNDED: 1977
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by R Masson Taylor and T Deakin to collect and deliver fine art to auctioneer Christies. CONTACT: managing director Jonathan Hood. FLEET: 23 specially designed furniture container Mercedes-Benz rigids; mostly 12m rigids downplated from 17 tonnes to 15 to save VED. Chassis are bought new; bodywork is mostly by Marsdens. Two drawbar outfits are on order for European work. SPECIALIST CONTRACT: Moving antiques and fine art for Christies and Phillips Auctioneers, household and commercial removals and storage. TURNOVER: -£6m.
Like many removals firms Cadogan Tate was started by two men with £1,000 and a secondhand Commer van. Unlike most removal firms, it has grown into probably the largest carrier of fine art and antiques in the country and boasts the unofficial title as carrier of furniture to the rich and famously rich.
Sitting in the firm's plush offices a short break-out from Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London, it is difficult to imagine this firm ever had anything as scruffy as an old Commer van. Today it employs 140 staff and is about to open an office in New York. It handles most of the items for two of the three major London auction houses and ships fine art all over the world.
"The eighties were a very funny time in this business," explains Cadogan's managing director Jonathan Hood. "The industry was pretty much controlled by Pickfords who were doing removals very cheaply but charging a fortune to store furniture, and this gave us our opportunity." The company was also helped by the fact that a number of the department stores in London including Harrods and Army & Navy decided to end their removals operations, creating a gap in the market In 1980 it won the exclusive contract to store and handle all the lots for Christies in South Kensington which it still retains today, despite having to tender for the work each year. After each sale all the furniture, or whatever has been sold, is loaded into wooden containers and shipped to Cadogan's warehouse. Buyers can pick up the items or have them delivered. A similar system is also in place at Phillips in Bond Street. Although the auction work has the highest profile, it is the storage of furniture that earns the most revenue. The company owns and leases warehouses all over London and at any one time can have four thousand containers on its books.
"We very much see ourselves as providing a Rolls Royce service because it's what our clients expect," says Hood, who came to Cadogan after running his own courier firm. "We are very particular about who we employ and put a great deal into training. Staff either leave after a week or they stay for several years. It has to be done our way because you have to remember some of the items we carry can be worth several million pounds," he says. No-one can turn up nursing a hangover and anyone found drinking on the job is immediately sacked. The rewards for dedication are good, though. Several of the top foremen are on more than £30,000 a year with overtime, while all staff get private health care. And what of the future?
"We'll definitely be expanding into Europe and America," says Hood. "VAT changes in the UK mean that a lot more of the Fine art will be sold in the US and we will have to respond to that. I see us doing more commercial moves and we are planning a flotation at some stage." As the reception in the company's headquarters is covered in framed letters of thanks from customers who probably command several pages in Who's Who, that could be a