AMJ Campbell in Vancouver, Canada has joined OMNI (Overseas Moving Network International). The company has a long association with OMNI having had its Toronto office in membership for many years prior to a corporate reorganisation some years ago.
AMJ Campbell is a franchise operation in Canada with 26 bricks & mortar operations, four of which, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, specialise in international forwarding. Each business is independently run by the franchisee which according to Tom Finlay, from Vancouver, gives the organisation a significant advantage. He said that there is a great entrepreneurial spirit amongst the franchise holders which helps the company adapt to the unique demands of each location. “Canada is so vast it would be very difficult with just a few entities running all these different locations,” said Tom. “We would very quickly lose track of best practises and costing models in the cities. Also, each jurisdiction is different with different provincial laws.” In that respect, having the benefit of local knowledge is helpful.
“OMNI is a group of the industry’s leading movers,” Tom added. “We like the model through which each member is encouraged to reciprocate within the organisation.” He explained that Canada is a net importer with around 500,000 immigrants every year but only some 100,000 emigrants. Most of them go to the USA. “Canada just doesn’t have enough business to reciprocate with everyone evenly. We’re hoping that through our affiliation with OMNI we will be able to show that we are doing our best to reciprocate with the tonnage we do have.”
Asked what Tom feels his company can bring to enhance OMNI, he returns to its franchise structure. Although it’s only the Vancouver office in membership right now, inevitably Tom benefits from the ideas and inspiration from his fellow franchisees. “We have a lot of very bright individuals in our organisation. They have good ideas and we can bring those ideas to OMNI and share them. There is a lot of skin in the game at AMJ.” He also believes that his company’s membership will be seen positively by OMNI members and yet another company that focusses on quality, has strong social responsibility goals and “does it right”.
AMJ Campbell has close associations with the old Commonwealth countries and, as such sees much of its import work coming from the UK, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Hong Kong is still one of the biggest markets for Vancouver. As well as international moving the company works on special projects, such as moving for retail stores and restaurants, and final mile deliveries which represents its fastest-growing business area.
Tom is greatly looking forward to spending time with the OMNI members. He acknowledges that they represent many of the top organisations in the industry. “Just to spend time with them and share ideas will be great,” he said.