Bill Appleton

Headquartered in Mr. Appleton’s hometown, El Paso, Texas, Spectrum and its affiliates provide a wide array of domestic and international moving and forwarding services to corporate, institutional, government, and military customers as well as individual households. Through a relentless commitment to quality and service, Mr. Appleton has built Deseret into one of the Top 10 household goods forwarders for the U.S. Department of Defense and an emerging leader in commercial household goods forwarding, providing a full spectrum of door-to-door moving services to local and international moving agents worldwide.

Starting with a single, moving and storage company, which he acquired from his then employer in 1981, Mr. Appleton has built a conglomerate with more than 400 employees, assets of $30 million, and combined annual sales of more than $65 million. In addition to Deseret, Spectrum’s operating subsidiaries include Central Transportation Systems, Inc., Scobey Moving & Storage, Ltd., International Moving & Warehouse, Inc., and Deseret Forwarding International, Inc. The Spectrum group of companies has moving and storage service centers with modern warehouse space in seven cities across Texas – Austin, El Paso, Killeen, San Antonio, and Waco; international forwarding offices in El Paso and Miami; and a national account sales office in Atlanta.

Through a combination of acquisition and organic growth, Mr. Appleton has built a group of companies which offers a wide array of services including: full-service, residential moving and storage; commercial and industrial moving; door-to-door, international moving; international household goods forwarding; commercial warehousing and distribution: specialized transportation; turnkey installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment; and the sale and disposal of institutional furniture.

In 2005, Mr. Appleton acquired Spectrum’s flagship division – Central Transportation Systems, Inc., a member agent and voting shareholder of Unigroup, Inc., the $2.3-billion parent company of United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit. The acquisition of Central, which has an 85-year heritage, expanded Spectrum’s statewide presence in key major markets, and gives Central access to Unigroup’s global network of 1,350 partner agents. Spectrum’s Scobey Moving & Storage division, which Mr. Appleton acquired in 1996, is a Mayflower agent.

Mr. Appleton is a classic entrepreneur who learned the nuts and bolts of the moving and storage business through hands-on experience in all aspects of operations. Throughout his 36-year career in the moving and storage industry, Mr. Appleton has sustained an unrelenting commitment to quality and superior customer service. His prudent and conservative approach to financial management has enabled Spectrum to build a financially sound enterprise a solid balance sheet with strong reserves.