Starting as Teen, Mover Is in It for Long Haul

Charles Kuhn, left, chief executive, and his brother Steve Kuhn, executive vice president. (Photos Len Spoden For The Washington Post)

Charles Kuhn's professional journey -- building a business that has served the White House, FBI, Pentagon and luminaries including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder -- began with a single purchase.

It occurred in 1981, when Kuhn was a 16-year-old sophomore at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax. He was determined to follow in the footsteps of an uncle named Tom, who owned a moving and storage company in Montgomery County.

"So I got my driver's license and bought this 20-year-old truck from a nursery in Maryland," Kuhn said. The 26-foot truck cost $5,000, and he put $500 down. "I didn't have a marketing budget, so I started bringing fliers to homes that had for-sale signs. My first job was moving a family from Annandale to Fairfax Station."

Two decades later, Kuhn says his Sterling-based company, JK Moving & Storage Inc., has annual revenue of $45 million. Once headquartered in the basement of his parents' house, JK (his father's initials) is based on a 28-acre compound near Dulles International Airport. The company has 430 employees and 260 moving vehicles.

And it's growing: Last month, JK acquired Gaithersburg-based Thomas AAA Moving and Storage Inc., adding 75 employees and 47 vehicles. "We have always done a fair amount of business in Montgomery County," Kuhn said, "but we want to have a stronger presence there."

Like many owners of private family businesses, Kuhn, 39, is reluctant to share financial details. He won't disclose what he paid for Thomas AAA, for example. And he won't discuss JK's earnings except to say it has been profitable since he made that first delivery.

Kuhn does offer a prediction: The acquisition will help boost JK's sales to $55 million in 2005. And as JK expands in suburban Maryland, where Thomas AAA operated for three decades, more than 100 people will be hired, he said.

JK is among the largest movers in the region. Even so, its sales pale in comparison with the revenue reported by national moving companies such as Missouri-based United Van Lines, which had earnings of $14.1 million last year on revenue of $1.16 billion, according to the American Moving and Storage Association.

Like United, JK isn't bashful about trumpeting the work it has done for high-profile customers. In the moving and storage industry, after all, good references are everything.

A recent press release from United was headed: "UNITED VAN LINES CHOSEN TO MOVE PRO BOWL DEFENSIVE END FOR NFC CHAMPIONS," referring to Mike Rucker of the National Football League's Carolina Panthers.

Asked for names of JK's well-known clients, Kuhn produced a list that included NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, former defense secretary Robert McNamara, ex-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and retired Redskins offensive lineman Joe Jacoby.

Kuhn said about 75 percent of his revenue comes from making local and long-distance moves. One local job brought JK to the White House in the early 1990s.

"We did an install of antiques at the White House for a telecast on literacy," featuring President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush, Kuhn said.

The antiques were rented from a company on Capitol Hill. "We installed four rooms of antiques, then picked them up and took them away after the filming," Kuhn said.