A lifelong entrepreneur continues to move forward with a mission to remove barriers to transportation and health care.
Richard Jones, CEO of MoveMobility, recently shared insights from his entrepreneurial journey at a WTC Talks event. The March 19 event, hosted by World Trade Centre Winnipeg and sponsored by BDC, drew a crowd to Torque Brewing.
The company completed its first wheelchair van conversion in 2007; however, its roots stem back much further. Jones reflected on his youth in England in the 1980s, growing up on his family’s farm.
“The farm was stricken by a fire and it went through quite a few of the buildings. I was 11 at the time, and it left such a mark on me that it made me wake up to the fact that you’re not going to get through life if you’re just going to dream along — you just won’t make it,” he said.
“So at that point, I started to really push myself to think outside the box and develop that culture of helping others.”
The fire destroyed a year’s worth of food and fodder, so nearby farmers stepped up to help and brought truckloads of food for the animals. This gesture of generosity impacted young Jones, who also wanted to find a way to help his family — and others too.
When he was about 14, he launched his first business doing lawn care after school. He built a trailer for the back of his bike to transport a push mower to jobs. As the business grew, he started to skip school to take on more work, resulting in letters home from the principal.
By the time Jones finished school, the business was already up and running. His dad joined the endeavour, and the business continued to grow. Over time, they landed landscaping jobs for commercial hotel properties, schools, playing fields, golf courses, cemeteries and more.
Eventually, the family sold their farm and Jones felt ready for another challenge. He started to look for opportunities in other countries. Since his family is part of the Plymouth Brethren, he reached out to other members around the world — including in Manitoba.
In 2004, they bought Manitoba-based business called Accutool from one of their contacts, which helped to facilitate the emigration process for Jones and his family. They continued to employ the company’s existing staff, and they quickly learned how to operate a business in Canada. After operating the company for several years, they gave the business to the employees, who purchased the inventory from Jones and his family.
Around 2007, they bought a business called Van Extras that focused on commercial vehicle outfitting. With an eye on expansion, the team logged and analyzed every incoming and outgoing phone call — a practice Jones recommends for every business owner.
Over a six-week period, they received 13 incoming calls inquiring about wheelchair-accessible vehicles, which wasn’t part of their business at the time.
“It was on a Monday morning when I just had inspiration. The week before, we had three of those 13 phone calls within a space of about 36 hours. I came into work one morning and I said to the one staff member ‘We’re doing this. We’re going to make this happen’ — not knowing what we’re going in for,” Jones said.
“So, again, we reached out for help. We went to the industry, and we started to research who else was doing it, what was the competition we were going to be up against.”
They reached out to a B.C. company that was doing similar work, and the owner offered to share his knowledge with Jones.
The new venture seemed to be an ideal fit for Jones, since he was able to help people, employ staff and make money all at the same time.
“For the first six to eight months, we were producing one vehicle a month at that point, so it was very slow but we built on it. Now we’re pushing somewhere between 30 to 40 vehicles a month out the door,” he said. “It’s been a huge journey.”
They ran the business under the Van Extras name for a while, before partnering with a marketing agency to rebrand as MoveMobility.
For Jones, listening to customers is the most important aspect of creating a sustainable business, which is evident in how his customers drove forward the idea for MoveMobility.
He also noted that it’s impossible to create and run a sustainable business on your own.
“Even if there are some smaller businesses here today, be encouraged and reach out,” he said.
“There is help available. Seek to leverage the support that you can get.”
A turning point for the business took place in 2017 when Jones heard a speaker at a conference talking about the importance of having an in-house innovation team separate from the main business. Wanting to take the business to the next level, he sought help and hired an engineer. Today, 20 per cent of MoveMobility’s staff works in innovation and engineering.
With an interest to capture more of the Canadian market, MoveMobility eventually opted to open and operated a facility in Ontario. However, they decided to shut down the Ontario-based facility two years ago and bring all the manufacturing back to Manitoba.
“The innovation team in Winnipeg re-engineered everything that we were doing, and the quality that was coming out of the Winnipeg plant way exceeded the Ontario plant,” he said. “We weren’t there every day, and the culture wasn’t quite the same.”
During the pandemic, they once again responded to customer needs and started to develop mobile medical units equipped with cupboards, drawers and more.
“Those machines have been working ever since then, and the output has really increased,” Jones said.
“Now we’re doing six to seven fully outfitted vehicles with that same equipment per month.”
Today, the company is located in CentrePort Canada, which has bolstered their reach even further.
“They network at a different level, and their contact base and the way that they do business is huge,” Jones said. “It’s been an excellent support for us.”
At the same time, he expressed appreciation for the support the company has received from World Trade Centre Winnipeg.
“Over the last 10 years, the vision that I’ve had for the business has really come to fruition and we couldn’t have done it alone. There are many who have helped us from insurance to finance to development, research,” Jones said.
“World Trade Centre has been very helpful to us in contacts, enabling us to get to the next level.”
Looking ahead, MoveMobility is now working towards building ambulances as a spinoff from the medical vehicle.
“We’re proud to say that hopefully by the end of this year, if not Q3, we should have a fully compliant tested Type 2 ambulance,” Jones said.
“There are only a couple of manufacturers that do ambulances in Canada. With the recent disruption in the supply chain, the manufacturing of a product like this in Canada — let alone in Manitoba — is going to be a real flagship for the province.”
To help ensure the success of other Manitoba entrepreneurs, Jones urges the provincial government to find ways to support them in their growth.
“Manitoba is built up of a lot of small businesses. We’ve got the bigger businesses as well, but what makes this economy so stable is the smaller businesses,” he said. “We don’t get the boom or bust. We’ve got a lot of good stable smaller businesses.”
And to keep up with MoveMobility’s growth, Jones anticipates their challenge for the next decade will be to find the right talent to continue the upward momentum.
“I think that one of our constraints is going to be recruiting or finding the right people and the right managers to get us to the next level. I think we can do it, but it’s just going to take a lot longer,” he said.
“Business always comes back to people.”
