Gentle Giant makes West Coast move

Gentle Giant Moving Co. of Somerville said it has purchased a Seattle moving firm for an undisclosed amount as Gentle Giant pursues a geographic expansion strategy.

Gentle Giant, a private company that said it had $28.1 million in 2007 revenues, said it bought TempStore Moving Co. and changed its name to Gentle Giant Moving Co. West LLC.

Founded in 1980, Gentle Giant initially specialized in local moving jobs. If someone was moving from Dorchester to Cambridge, for example, Gentle Giant could handle that.

Four years ago, Gentle Giant branched out into national moving. As a result, if someone was moving from South Boston to San Francisco, Gentle Giant could handle that job too.

One challenge, though, was getting moving jobs for the Gentle Giant van's return trip from the West Coast; the Seattle acquisition makes booking return moves from the West Coast easier, a Gentle Giant spokesman said.

TempStore employees included some Gentle Giant alumni, one of whom has been appointed as the company's new Seattle branch manager.

Another reason for the acquisition is that Seattle doesn't seem to be as hard hit by the housing crisis as many other cities, meaning that many people are still moving in Seattle, Gentle Giant said.

“Acquiring TempStore and establishing our first West Coast branch in Seattle accelerates the nationwide expansion of the professional, award-winning local and interstate moving services that Gentle Giant provides,” Gentle Giant president and chief executive Larry O’Toole (pictured above) said in a statement. “This acquisition also supports our dual purpose of raising people’s expectations of a moving company and developing leadership opportunities for our employees.”
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)