On Friday, January 31st, 2020 Victory Van officially celebrated our 75th year as a company. But today is an important day for us as well. Today, 75 years ago VICTORY was declared for World War II in Europe and provided the name and occasion for Victory Van’s founding and naming.
For 75 years we’ve been fortunate enough to carve out a space in a competitive industry by continuing to evolve and find creative ways to serve our customers. Each year that passes is not only a testament to the dedication of our craft, but also a promise to persevere onwards and upwards. Without perseverance – from Victory Van and our allies in WWII - we may not be celebrating this milestone, but the good news is we’re here together.
We can’t help but to take a step back and truly bask in what an accomplishment that means as a company. 75 trips around the sun is a long time to still be doing what we do best and to say we’re grateful is an understatement. Even with the strange times we are currently living in, 2020 is poised to be another successful year for Victory Van. We’re going to continue to scale our business upward by setting and hitting our quarterly goals, but more importantly we’re going to continue to foster a work environment where our employees can grow professionally, personally, spirituality, and be the best versions of themselves they can be. We take our work bond seriously and as an employee of the company you’re not just a member of the team, you’re a member of the Victory Van family.
In order to better understand the industry it’s important to look back at how far the moving industry has evolved. Let's take the year 1945 for example, the year we changed our name to Victory Van in celebration of winning World War II following the surrender of Germany in May and that of Japan in September of the same year. There was a short period of concern immediately after the war: the American economy was negatively affected by inflation, the cost of living was rising, currency was losing its value and a potential recession was on hand. However these problems were generally short lived and by the mid-1950s the United States was in the midst of serious economic growth and general prosperity as a nation.
What did this mean for the moving industry? Well, many Americans moved to different parts of the country in the 1950s. Most Americans continued to live in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the country but growing numbers moved to the western states. The population of the western states increased by almost 40 percent during the 1950s. That’s a lot of residential moves!
Interestingly, last year we saw similar trends in the moving industry when compared to our founding year of 1945. Once again, the westward bound trend continued. In 2019 counties in the South and West lead the United States in terms of population growth. According to the annual Magnet States Report released by Allied Vans Lines, the top five destination states for consumers who moved were Florida, Texas, California, Arizona and North Carolina in 2019.
2020 will no doubt present its own array of challenges - and we’re ready for them. In fact, this year is presenting us with one of the biggest challenges we’ll probably see in our life time: Covid-19. We’re an essential business, ready to help those people who still have to move and those businesses that must relocate. We’ll seize each moment together and support each other to ensure success.
Here’s to another 75 years of doing what we love, the Victory Van way!
