John Morgan & Sons Ltd, now trading under the Morgan Document Security brand, is this month marking its centenary. It is one of only a handful of Northern Ireland family businesses from the early 20th century still in existence today.
In 1915, Belfast-born John Morgan established a haulage company, and it was his son, William, and in turn his grandson, Raymond, who developed the firm into the well-known ‘Morgan Removals’, their distinctive yellow and red vans commonplace across Northern Ireland.
The company transformed its core business into an archiving and document storage firm in early 2000, which Company Director David Dunlop (a great grandson of John Morgan) says was based on an identified gap in the market:
“We were a hugely successful removals firm and, in the course of this work, we identified the need to provide professional commercial archive and document management services. We invested heavily in advanced archive technology as we understood that this sector demands complete confidence in its service providers. It has grown steadily and is now our major focus.”
Morgan Document Security offers secure document storage, document archiving and retrieval, vault storage for media and deeds, along with secure shredding and scanning in its 40,000 sq ft. depository in east Belfast, where the company has been trading for the last 25 years.
The John Morgan Group of companies continues to be overseen by Raymond Morgan, together with his son William Morgan and daughter, Rosemary-Anne Berryman.
With David Dunlop (his nephew) managing Morgan Document Security and son in law, Nick Berryman, now managing Melville & Co, the largest independent funeral directors in Northern Ireland, the Group continues to be family-owned 100 years on.
David continued, “When my great grandfather started way back in 1915, moving goods in and around Belfast, he could never have foreseen that we would be celebrating today in 2015. It’s thanks to the hard work of both the previous generations and the current team for making the company the success that it is, through constantly listening to customers and being able to meet their changing needs and requirements.
“Our archives are kept up to date, stored securely, tracked constantly and traced from our warehouse into each client’s hands and back again, providing peace of mind. The service is an essential risk management tool used already by large numbers of successful businesses in Northern Ireland and I’m pleased to report demand for our service is still on the up.
“Trust in a family name still means a lot to our customers- and that’s something none of us takes for granted.”