Fabricio Bertoldo from Metropolitan Transports in Brazil, explains how the company’s membership of OMNI has helped it through difficult times in the past and helps it plan for a successful future.

Metropolitan Transports has been one of the top international households goods movers in Latin America since it started in 1969, over 50 years ago. Along the way its main objective was to offer quality services and to aggregate value to its clients for its top tier multinational customers. It also diversified its business to become a leader in the record storage business, information technology management (Business Process Outsourcing and Business Process Management) and relocation. It has operations in the USA and throughout Brazil including major centres in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba. This allows the group to cross sell, share its fix costs and enhance investment capabilities.  

But in charting its course through sometimes stormy waters it has used every card in its hand to stack the odds in its favour. This has involved, to no small degree, embracing the comfort and support of OMNI (Overseas Moving Network International), the network that its founder, Wladimir de Mello, helped to create. According to Fabricio Bertoldo, the company’s deputy CEO, that support has been vital to the company’s prosperity and will continue to be important in the future.

“We have always been proud to be in OMNI,” he said. “Having been so close to some of the finest companies in the industry and being able to share ideas and discuss concerns has always been a great privilege.  That is still true today. But in the last two years, during the pandemic, that support has taken on a new level of importance.”

Fabricio said that one of the main benefits for his company has been the Dow Jones Risk and Compliance Service that is available to all OMNI members. This provides comprehensive vetting, by a trusted third-party, that helps companies comply with anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, corruption and economic sanctions regulations worldwide. “This has proved to be a great comfort to some of our corporate accounts because we can prove that we have done everything possible to protect them from potential compliance challenges.”

The OMNI conference has always been the opportunity for members to get together for mutual support.  Of course, during lockdown that was not possible so, to maintain the momentum, OMNI developed the World Series Forum, in which experts are invited to address the whole network online. “These have been so helpful,” said Fabricio. He referred specifically to one Forum in which a senior manager from a leading hotel group spoke about customer service. “She presented the subject from a completely different perspective. It gave me lots of ideas that we have adapted for our customers. I believe it has helped us set our service level apart from much of our competition.”

Fabricio also appreciated the Forum presented by a major RMC. “It helped us understand that RMCs are not our competition, they are our partners.  If we can offer services that will help them sell at a higher level, the benefits will come back to us.”

Of course, Metropolitan is a member of the other major trade groups as well and all, according to Fabricio, have helped the company along the way.  “Often the difference between one company and another can be marginal. It’s a very competitive business.  We do all we can, every day, to make sure that margin is in our favour.  I believe that our memberships of these groups play an important part.”

Photo: The Metropolitan team (Fabricio Bertoldo 5th from left).