What would eventually become the Carolina Services Group of Companies began in 1955 as a modest moving and storage operation in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the city that sits at the front gate of Fort Bragg — the largest military installations in the world, home of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations Command, and at any given moment, home to tens of thousands of service members and their families waiting on orders to move.
James Thornton built a business that would end up outlasting him and growing into something significant. When Mr. Thornton passed, his wife, Iris, stepped in and began running the company. As their two daughters married, their husbands joined the business. Together the family expanded the warehouse footprint, they added locations, and in a move that few operators were thinking about at the time, they grew the portfolio beyond moving and storage.
The company today looks much different from the one when it started. For decades, the portfolio grew without a unified identity. Individual companies under individual names, operating in parallel. The Carolina Services Group of Companies now operates under a single brand umbrella complete with a carefully designed logo and slogan, that took months to perfect, finally puts a face to everything the family built.
Generation by generation, decision by decision, what started as a single operation became something hard to define and far harder to replicate: a diversified family enterprise, built from the inside out. The business has been run by one family, and continues to last for seven decades of continuous operation.
Thomas Kiser, CEO, grew up in this business. He worked in the warehouse and on the trucks in high school and college, learned the rhythm of the operation from the ground up, and watched his father and uncle run the company before taking the wheel himself as a third-generation mover. Before assuming leadership of the company, Thomas served as a Tank Platoon Commander in the United States Marine Corps, where he developed the leadership, discipline, and decision-making skills that continue to shape his approach to business today. He has been CEO for over ten years, bringing deep industry roots, military leadership experience, and a lifelong dedication to exceptional service. Today, Thomas leads with a focus on building lasting relationships and delivering customized solutions designed to exceed customer expectations.
Heather Turlington, CFO, did not grow up in the moving industry. Her professional journey spans through large-scale agriculture, with leadership roles at Smithfield Foods and Butterball, before pivoting to expand her expertise into the private sectors of oil and mobile technical and specialty vehicles.
After joining The Carolina Services Group, what Heather found was an industry unlike any other, dense with acronyms, and steeped in tradition, cyclical in ways she hadn’t anticipated. What got her was not a program, a contract, or a van line relationship; it was the people.
One of the greatest strengths of the Carolina Services Group is the experience and stability of its leadership team. Our leadership team represents more than 175 years of combined service to the company, providing an unmatched depth of industry knowledge and operational expertise. This experienced team includes Josie Williams, Accounting Manager; Horace Gilbert, General Manager of Patterson Fayetteville; Stephanie Bittle, General Manager of Fidelity Fayetteville; Sara Tyler, General Manager of Patterson Record Storage and Shredding Center; Dwayne Cauley, General Manager of Troy Humphrey Jacksonville; Ike Gaskins, General Manager of Fidelity New Bern; Ben Lankford, General Manager of 1-800-PACKOUTS of Southeastern North Carolina; and Joe Roghelia, General Manager of Murray Wilmington’s Interior Design Services Division.
Their collective experience has guided the company through changing markets, economic challenges, and decades of industry evolution. This level of leadership continuity provides our customers with confidence, our employees with strong mentorship, and our company with the expertise needed to continue growing.
The company runs on an average of 174 people today, many of them working under a contractor model that Carolina Services shifted to in 2023. That shift allowed the company to operate more efficiently while maintaining the relationships with people that matter most. In a business where the summer surge is real and the off-season is relentless, they look to keep their best people year-round.
Walk into the Carolina Services office on S. Eastern Blvd in Fayetteville and you’ll find something you don’t find everywhere: the CEO, the CFO, HR, accounting, safety, and a working warehouse and storage company, all in one location. Every person who touches the business, from the first dock worker to the one who signs the financial statements, is right there, accessible, visible, and present.
Heather talks about this when she describes what real operational understanding looks like. In order to build a well-oiled business, you talk to the first person who touches the job, the people on the frontlines, and you work your way to the last. You don't build a business from the top of the org chart down. You build it from the dock up. That philosophy, baked into how she approaches her role as CFO, is also how the company runs day to day.
You can tell a lot about a moving company by the reviews nobody asked for. The ones that show up on a Tuesday, weeks later, from someone who just wanted to express how good the service was that they received. At Carolina Services Group of Companies, those reviews tend to mention the same things: a manager who was on-site on a Saturday, a crew that didn't cut a corner when cutting one would have been easy, the sense that someone actually cared how the job ended.
In a business where something easily goes wrong on a move, what the Carolina Services Group provides is peace of mind in every move as a trusted moving and storage partner.
The Carolina Services Group philosophy on growth is simple: you have to be better before you can be bigger. For most of its history, Carolina Services was a military mover. That’s how it was built, that’s where its relationships were, and for a long time, that was enough. Then the DOW’s Defense Personal Property Program reconfigured the competitive landscape. Rate structures changed, and the pressures multiplied. Companies that had built their entire business model around government moving found themselves facing a reckoning.
The Carolina Services Group felt it too, so they made a decision to pivot. Thomas, Chris Sneeden, (Director of Real Estate) and Heather used the disruption to their advantage, and they looked to what they already had for solutions. With the portfolio of warehouses, trucks, experienced crews, and relationships throughout the Carolinas, they knew they could begin diversifying their business even more.
They began providing Interior Design Support Services, which are very unique and highly specialized. They have also opened a premier contents restoration and remediation company, 1-800-Packouts Southeastern NC, located in Wilmington. Record storage and shredding, which is already in the portfolio, serves clients who need hard copy records safety stored and document shredding with paper shredding bins in offices throughout all of North Carolina. And a real estate portfolio that further extends that asset base. Every new service line aligns with The Carolina Services Group's core business, reinforcing its foundation and expanding its capabilities in key areas.
Take the recent rebranding, it was all intentional. Until last year, twenty-two companies operated under twenty-two different names with no unified identity. The Carolina Services Group brand logo contains the chevrons representing the military, yet when turned becomes the foundation of a home, two moving or storage boxes strategically yet slightly hidden, and the arrow pointing permanently upward, it was the first time everything Thomas’s family had built could be introduced under one roof. This focus on uniting the company was a necessary realignment to slow down before speeding up.
The Carolina Services Group gives from within, the southern hospitality piece is real. The company has an average team of 174 people: drivers, warehouse staff, and office personnel spread across six Eastern, North Carolina locations.
They hold the community tight inside the company: flexibility, team luncheons, quarterly birthday parties, and annual Christmas celebrations. This culture of recognition extends from the president’s office to the dock.
Thomas Kiser was awarded 2025 North Carolina Mover of the Year by the North Carolina Movers Association, recognition of service to the military moving community within the state. The Fidelity New Bern location received the 2024 Mayflower Customer Excellence Award in their category. Heather is active in the North Carolina Trucking Association and Women In Trucking as well the North Carolina Movers Association. The Carolina Services Group of Companies is being built into the industry’s conversation, event by event, relationship by relationship.
"For more than seventy years, our family has built businesses founded on service, trust, and lasting relationships. While we've grown and evolved over the years, our greatest asset has always been our people. Every employee plays a vital role in delivering the exceptional service our customers expect and deserve.
I believe our success is built on honesty. We tell the truth, keep our commitments, and never deceive or mislead our customers, employees, or business partners. Honor and integrity are the foundation of every decision we make.
I also believe lasting success comes from making decisive decisions and embracing change. Standing still is not an option. As I've often said, "Without change, nothing changes." We make tough decisions, adapt quickly, and keep moving forward because companies that refuse to evolve are left behind.
By investing in our people, staying true to our values, and adapting to new challenges, we are positioning our companies to remain strong for our customers, our employees, and future generations."
FOUNDED
1955, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Leadership
Thomas Kiser, CEO (3rd generation); Heather Turlington, CFO; Chris Sneeden, Director of Real Estate (3rd generation)
Van Line
Mayflower and United Van Lines
Locations
6 (Fayetteville, Wilmington, Jacksonville, New Bern)
Companies under umbrella
23
Employees
174
Service Lines
Household Goods Moving and Storage; Commercial Relocations and Storage; Military Relocations; Records Storage and Document Shredding; Interior Design Support; Contents Remediation
Brand Tagline
“Moving What Matters”
Awards
NC Mover of the Year (Thomas Kaiser III, NC Movers Association); Mayflower Excellence Award (New Bern location)
Longest-tenured employee
48 years – Horace Gilbert
