About Advance Forwarding Ltd.

Advance Forwarding Ltd was formed in 1993 by Mike Bull and Steve Hodson, who were close friends from the 1970’s but from different commercial backgrounds. Mike having held various senior positions within the freight industry during the previous 10 years and Steve who had been a Sales Director at two National Catering Distribution Companies. Combining their Sales and Operational skills the concept was to build a freight forwarding company that would provide premium services that were second to none to local companies who required a hands on service. Nothing would be too much trouble for Advance and the customer would always be King, a philosophy which is as true today as it was back then.

Originally concentrating on Air, Sea and Trailer freight we soon realised it was necessary to broaden our range of services to further satisfy the requirements of the rapidly expanding customer base. By 1998 we were operating all modes of freight forwarding adding Imports, Couriers and Domestic freight and employing 10 people. Having developed a close working relationship with worldwide courier UPS our parcel business was exceeding all expectations.

Advance were sub-contracting a considerable amount of export packing and so in 1999 Mike and Steve invited Keith Large in to form Advance Packing Ltd moving into new much larger facilities. Keith had been in senior management with two large export packers over the previous decade and therefore came with great experience and knowledge. Being able to offer a full packing and shipping service proved the catalyst for further rapid expansion and within 3 years outgrowing this new facility.

In 2003 Advance Forwarding and Advance Packing moved into brand new purpose built premises in Melbourne, Derby. Over the next 10 years the two companies have continued to develop the customer base and fine tune the services. The spectrum of customers that we are now proud to service range from one man operations to Multi National enterprises all benefiting from the vast experience and expertise that we have gained over the last 20 years. Mike, Steve and Keith are still actively involved in the business which now employs over 30 people and services a customer base of in excess of 300.