Winner of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2021.

Our Story

The MasterMover brand has its origins in 1997, when the late founder Andrew Jones started out with just one machine initially developed for moving caravans and small goods.

Andrew’s background was in retail and the textile industry, but he recognised the wider potential for providing a safer and more efficient way to move wheeled loads.

In the late 1990s – just as supermarkets were investing in large, out-of-town stores – it became apparent that moving roll cages over long distances from storage to shelf would prove difficult.

Instead, supermarket chains looking to achieve safe and efficient replenishment wanted a solution that could move multiple roll cages at a time. An electric tug from MasterMover was the answer. National contracts with major supermarket chains followed and, with an expanding product range, different sectors across industry also began to take an interest.

In 2004, MasterMover launched the SmartMover. This machine remains a customer favourite to this day and can be found offering safety and efficiency benefits worldwide, from hospitals and laboratories to factories, warehouses and shops.

Andy Owen became Managing Director in 2007 and a Partner in 2009. Confident that electric tug solutions were exportable and provided benefits to a diverse range of sectors, the MasterMover team entered a new period of growth.

The technology could travel. While the UK remained the firm foundation on which to launch an export push, it was clear that other countries lacked a comparable solution. From 2007 onwards, and with a clear marketing strategy in place, the business became increasingly proactive in overseas markets. It was a plan that paid dividends. Beginning with a phased roll out to Europe and in response to rising demand, the company’s global management team and sales partner network went from strength to strength.

Meanwhile, our reputation for innovation, engineering excellence and truly customer-focused solutions has also grown.

In 2016, James Jones, Andrew’s son, joined the business as a Partner. James now leads on bespoke project managed solutions designed to solve the often complex challenges presented by customers’ specific material handling needs.

Our German subsidiary was established in 2012, later followed by the North America in 2017 and France in 2018. In the past six years, overseas sales have grown by 227% and the proportion of sales exported has now increased to 59% overall.

So far, our machines have been delivered to more than 40 countries and counting.