Our Story
Omega Customs and Forwarding Ltd was established in 1993, operating mainly as a customs brokerage. In the early stages, my father, also a customs agent, supplemented our family’s income by managing our mobile food caravan in the Airport Oaks area. His efforts were greatly appreciated as we were very busy building the business while also raising our four young children.
Andrew McLaughlin was the first broker we employed. Together we ran the business, covering all bases, still managing to squeeze in the odd game of golf or squash when we had some spare time. Andrew continues to work on a part-time basis today and has a wealth of knowledge and experience as a customs broker.
Stephanie Branch joined Omega over five years ago, replacing a part-time position that my daughter held before she moved with her family to Seattle, Washington. Steph is an amazing member of our team who keeps a lot of balls in the air (with great skill). She was originally employed in accounts and administration, though has worked in a variety of roles within the operation. Now full time, she is developing her skills as a broker.
Like many other businesses that operate globally, we have found the last few years very challenging, to say the least, but it has also been an exciting time for our company. Although we have experienced significant changes and challenges, it has been a very positive period for us overall.
Changes began when Ray Kearney joined our staff team in 2019. He had been running a very successful company himself for many years and has been in the industry for a long time. Ray is always looking for opportunities to grow the business and is the first person to open the doors in the morning.
The changes continued in 2020 with the acquisition of the McGregor Customs business. Gary, its former owner, continued with us for a short time, then took early retirement. Richard Phillips was working with Gary for about three years at that point and has brought continuity with the McGregor acquisition. Once again, Richard has worked for and run successful companies in the industry himself.
Our staff team was further strengthened with the appointment of Caley Mills in 2021. Caley brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience as a broker and is our go-to guy for all our IT and systems challenges. We are already seeing the positive changes that Caley’s expertise has brought to the company.
My daughter, Nicole Druskovich, returned from Seattle last year and I was very keen to have her join us again, albeit on a part-time basis. She works with Coralie Chaplin (our part-time accountant) in the accounts area, but like Steph, she has many strings to her bow and has assisted me with key projects which she ably handles. It’s so nice to have their family back home on New Zealand soil again.
I decided the best way forward was together, under the same banner, so last May we merged our two operations. We have continued working from the offices in East Tamaki where McGregor Customs was based.
Now that we have the key staff in place, I thought I would tell you about the changes that have occurred within the company and introduce you to all the members of our team. While working on this project, I became aware that we were approaching our 30th year in business, so decided it would be a great time to refresh our brand and to upgrade our website before formally announcing the changes to all our customers and suppliers.
It has been an interesting journey these past 12 months working on the rebrand, but I am pleased that we have made the investment and put the time and effort into coming up with a fresh look for our company which will take us into the next era.
Omega Customs has brought us to this point, but OMEGA GLOBAL LOGISTICS will take us to another level.
There are no changes to the structure of the company or its directors; we are simply rebranding ourselves Omega Global Logistics while retaining Omega Customs & Forwarding Limited as our registered company name.
I feel the change of name better reflects our core business heading into the future. Yes, we started out in 1993 as a customs brokerage, but we are now a global logistics company, developing strategic partnerships to deliver quality, cost effective and timely global logistics services to our customers.
I am excited about the future of the company and am particularly proud of the quality team we have in place. We hope that once you’ve experienced the service levels from one of our friendly team, it will give you the confidence to trust us with your future business and that you’ll have no hesitation in recommending our services to others.
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