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Two Men and a Truck
By some account, moving is ranked as the third most stressful event a person can
undertake, after death of a relative and divorce of a marriage. Two Men and a Truck
started as an after-school business for two high school boys in Lansing, Michigan. As a
small business focused on local moving services, the company began in 1985 with $350,
a hand-drawn logo, and an advertisement in a local community newspaper.
In 1989, Melanie Bergeron, the daughter of founder Mary Ellen Sheets, opened the
first franchised office of Two Men and a Truck in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
Melanie is now board chair, with Brig Sorber as the chief executive officer and Jon
Sorber as executive vice president. Randy Shacka, who joined the company as an intern
in 2001, was promoted in 2012 to president. This is the first president of the company
who did not come from the family.
Two Men and a Truck is no longer “two men and a truck.” The company has grown
both domestically and internationally to most of the United States and some 320
locations worldwide. Two Men and a Truck is the fastest-growing franchised moving
company in the United States, with more than $300 million in sales, 2,100 moving
trucks, and some 6,000 workers. The average franchise grosses about $1.5 million
annually. Bergeron said that “we never imagined being in the moving business—that is,
until my mom and my brothers Brig and Jon scraped together some money to buy a
truck to help raise extra cash for college.”
Two Men and a Truck has remained branded as “Two Men and a Truck” in all parts of
the world in which it operates franchises (e.g., Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom).
Names such as Dos Hombres and Two Blokes and a Lorry do not appeal to them! The
company has decided to stick to the core American brand name because “that’s what
master franchisers and their investors want,” said Bergeron. “The customers are less
interested in whether it’s a U.S. brand . . . the appeal is the opposite . . . it’s a local
[franchise] company that will be available when I need them. . . . They want the U.S.
brand power and mystique.”
In going international to new markets, Two Men and a Truck’s primary factors to
evaluate are the size of the middle class in a country and the population’s mobility. They
use software tools to help pinpoint income levels by neighborhood and whether the
housing market is primarily based on single- or multifamily units. The market for Two
Men and a Truck is best where there is a good mix of both. In addition, Bergeron said
that two other key areas in determining locations in which to operate include obtaining
accurate market research and identifying potential master franchisees.
In the case of Two Men and a Truck going international, the industry itself also
represented a challenge. There are plenty of moving businesses worldwide; why should
franchisees represent Two Men and a Truck? The company’s answer to this market
differentiation problem is its exceptional focus on customer service and a sophisticated
web-based tracking system. Quality control, labor costs, and cycle time to complete a
move are core performance metrics in the system. In fact, the company has become
known in its industry for faster and better analytics to run the business. It has installed