About Halo International Relocations: a name, not a reference number
I started Halo because I spent thirty years watching the thing that matters most get squeezed out of this industry. Not the lorries or the containers — those got better. The part where somebody knows who you are.
Paul HandleyFounder, Halo International Relocations
Why I started this company
I have worked in removals since 1995. I started by carrying furniture down other people's staircases, and I have done most of the jobs there are since: sales, international shipping, running a branch, and finally running a multi-branch removals group as managing director.
What I learned at the top is that scale costs you something. When a company moves enough households, the only way to manage it is to turn them into records. You are allocated a reference, your file passes between departments, and the person who surveyed your home is not the person who answers when you ring from Auckland at the wrong hour. Nobody intends it. It is just what volume does.
For most house moves that is a reasonable trade. For an international move I do not think it is. You are handing over everything you own, sending it somewhere you have never lived, and waiting weeks to find out whether it arrived intact. That is not a transaction to be processed. It needs somebody who knows your name, your dates and why the move matters to you.
So Halo is built the other way round. Deliberately smaller. One consultant from first call to final box — usually me. Fewer moves, handled properly, for people who would rather deal with a person than a portal.
Thirty years, from the van to the boardroom
Halo is a new company. The experience behind it is not. This is the whole of it, and you can check the dates on LinkedIn.
-
1995–2003
Removals operative — Pickfords
Eight years actually doing it. Packing, loading, carrying, and learning what happens to furniture that is not wrapped properly. Everything I know about how a move should be done physically, I learned here rather than from a manual.
-
2003–2007
Sales consultant — Pickfords
Surveying homes and quoting moves for one of the largest removals companies in the country. The point at which I learned that an accurate survey is the whole job, because every problem later starts with a volume somebody guessed.
-
2007–2016
International sales consultant — Anglo Pacific International
Nine years in deep-sea international shipping with one of the UK's established international movers. Containers, groupage, air freight, customs regimes, destination agents and the things that go wrong between two continents. This is where the international side of what Halo does comes from.
-
2016–2017
Europe & international shipping manager — Pearson Home Moving
Running the European and overseas desk: road freight across the continent, sea and air worldwide.
-
2017–2018
Sales manager, then branch manager — Business Moves Group
Midlands sales manager, then branch manager. First time running a branch rather than a desk.
-
2018–2024
Yorkshire branch manager — Clockwork Removals
Six years running the Sheffield branch. Grew it substantially, relocated it into a purpose-built warehouse with containerised storage, extended its coverage into Leeds and West Yorkshire, and wrote its tender submissions for regional and national contracts.
-
2024–2026
Managing director — Clockwork Removals
Running a multi-branch UK removals and storage group. Implemented transport management software across the group, oversaw a full website rebuild, and led the acquisition of other removals companies into it.
-
2026
Founder — Halo International Relocations
Left to build the company described at the top of this page.
What thirty years actually buys you
Experience is easy to claim and hard to evidence. Here is what mine means in practice, on your move.
- I have carried the furniture myself, so I know what survives a container and what does not
- I survey accurately, because I spent four years learning to and twenty more watching bad surveys cost people money
- I have handled customs regimes across six continents and know which ones will catch you out
- I know which destination agents are worth using, because I have sent shipments to the good and the bad
- I can tell you when not to ship something — a car, a sofa, a container you do not need — and I would rather do that than take the booking
- I have run a branch and a group, so I know exactly how the industry's corners get cut
- I hold the formal qualifications below, and I keep them current
Qualifications
- Transport Manager CPCUK and International — the regulated qualification required to hold an operator's licence
- Certificate of Practical EstimatingThe removals industry's formal surveying qualification
- FSA InsuranceQualified to advise on transit and marine cover
Talk to me directly
Not a call centre, not a form that disappears into a queue. If you are thinking about a move, ring me or send me a note and I will answer it myself.
- Telephone
- 07749 924755
- paul.handley@halointernationalrelocations.com
- Paul Handley — the career history above, verifiable
- Ready for a figure?
- Use the move estimator for a quick indication, or work through the self survey room by room and send it to me.