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Moving Ahead
By Kevin Kipp
A smart man can give good advice. A wise man can take it.
Rich McClure was listening when his mentor Art Quern told him, “Either
make government a career or get out by age 40.”
Rich
McClure, president, UniGroup Inc.
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McClure was
then deputy chief of staff in Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson’s administration.
Now he’s president of Fenton-based UniGroup Inc., the parent company—with
nearly $2 billion in revenue—of United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit.
He is also CEO of these and each of the company’s other operating
subsidiaries.
McClure went to work as Missouri’s then-Gov. John Ashcroft’s chief
of staff from 1985 to 1992. “When Governor Ashcroft left office,
I was just about 40,” McClure says. “That was convenient.”
Convenient, too, was that he had gotten to know Sam Cook, paterfamilias
of Central Bancompany ($5.8 billion in assets) through the latter’s
work on the University of Missouri’s board of curators. McClure
went to work for a couple of years at the bank in corporate services.
During his tenure in the Ashcroft administration, McClure also got
to know Bob Baer (who became president emeritus of UniGroup in April)
working on the TWA Dome. UniGroup would be his second private sector
position.
Before taking charge, McClure served as COO at United Van Lines
and UniGroup Worldwide, and executive VP of corporate financial
services at UniGroup.
McClure’s experience as a teller at Empire Bank (while earning his
management degree at Southwest Missouri State University) also shaped
his early career choices.
“I saw vice presidents who took 20 years to reach their positions,”
he says. “I also worked in the city administrator’s office, and
thought government might be a quicker way to advance.”
Thus did he determine to leave his native Springfield, Mo., to pursue
his master’s in public administration at the University of Syracuse,
and a career-initially-in public service.
His decision had personal repercussions, as well. Fresh out of college,
the woman who would become his wife of 24 years hired McClure as
an intern on the staff of Lt. Gov. Bill Phelps.
“Traditionalists marry the boss’ daughter; I just married the boss,”
he says. “That hasn’t changed by the way.”
Sharon and Rich McClure’s son, Ryan, studies journalism at Mizzou.
Daughter Lindsay is at Westminster Christian Academy.
“Sharon hired me at wages that would qualify for food stamps,” he
says. “I was in the office that handles complaints; you learn a
lot about what people are thinking.”
That experience is still valuable. “It’s a challenge whenever you’re
touching people’s lives as closely as we do moving their households.
It’s important to understand their feelings at a very stressful
time.”
McClure says that together, United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit
boast $1.65 billion in revenue and an industry-leading 34 percent
market share of their industry.
And he’s confident that UniGroup will maintain, even extend its
lead, because of its structure. “We have independent agents in 900
locations, representing our companies exclusively,” he says.
UniGroup management owns a low single-digit portion of non-voting
stock in the company. Those agents own the rest.
“In this business, there’s not enough money in the equation to keep
the agent and the investor happy,” he says. “Agents end up on the
short end unless they own the company. They do here. So our first
advantage is that in our model, both are the same entity.
“Our second advantage is attracting agents of substance and quality,”
he continues. “It has been difficult for our competitors due to
our first advantage.”
UniGroup management also regards their agents as their primary customers.
“That’s a key cultural dynamic,” McClure says. “It’s our vision
to support them with the best value and essential services they
need to serve their customers.”
The subsidiaries, adding $250 million to the top line, support the
agents:
- Total
Transportation Services Inc. sells or leases everything
from advertising specialties to rolling stock.
- Vanliner
Group Inc. specializes in insurance for moving and storage
concerns at reasonable rates.
- UniGroup
Worldwide Inc. moves families, executives or high value
product overseas at competitive rates.
- InSite
Logistics manages the accumulation and installation of
hotel furniture and other complex projects.
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Meanwhile, he
says, 30 percent of United and Mayflower’s business “is moving high
value product: photo finishing machines, trade show displays, switches
for telecom companies... things that need specialized inside delivery
and air ride equipment.”
UniGroup also has contracts to move employees for 400 of the Fortune
500 companies, including exclusives with Edward Jones, Charter Communications
and Graybar Electric.
McClure continues, “Our core business— moving household goods—will
always drive what we do.” That includes quality control. “We have
rigorous service requirements,” he says. “We survey our customers
with a 66-question analysis that pulls apart every part of the move...providing
tremendous diagnostics to determine who did a great job and thank
them, and discover where we need some work.”
There’s more back-patting than spanking. Eighty-two percent of those
surveyed conclude that they would “recommend” or “definitely recommend”
one of UniGroup’s van lines.
Kevin Kipp runs Bubble Communications, a creative services and
community relations firm in St. Charles.
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