With locations around the world, we combine global reach with local expertise and personal service. Every location and every team is an important part of our global network. Get to know our teams, services, and local expertise.
Global Network. Local Expertise.
With locations around the world, we combine global reach with local expertise and personal service. Every location and every team is an important part of our global network. Get to know our teams, services, and local expertise.
We started out as five employees back in early 2023, but we are now currently eight at FMS Oslo and counting.
As a relatively small team working together on a daily basis we need to shut off every once in a while and focus on other topics than just containers and project logistics. We have our annual pre-summer dinner and of course the holy grail in Norway, the annual Christmas Party in December. Birthdays are a big deal in Norway too, bringing cake is mandatory. We do not arrange Happy Hour every single Friday, but our office fridge is stocked just in case or if we have something big to celebrate.
Everyone working here are either doing sales-related activities, focusing on container operations or both, always with the client in the driving seat. Both the ones we already do business with, and the ones we wish to get onboard. This creates a dynamic environment where everyone is taking part in the life-cycle of the transport and learning what our clients expect and what is needed to be a little bit better than the competition. Our sales staff are eager to bring at least one operational employee when visiting both existing and potential customers, making sure all topics and synergies are covered.
There is a lot of competence and experience within these walls, so any up-and-coming talent would thrive under the guardianship of our current employees. Our founding idea was that every employee should be involved operationally to a certain degree and up to a certain point, something we regard as a competitive advantage for ourselves and our clients. The distance between junior forwarders and managers, as well as sales and operations, is a matter of meters – which means the time from idea to execution is incredibly short. If you have a question about incoterms or shipping abbreviations, you most likely get a vocal reply before ChatGPT is able to help you. We believe in a healthy work-life balance and free autonomy with accountability for everyone working here, and it does help that we are situated a few meters from the ocean outside – as well as having a very nice cafeteria downstairs when a break is needed.
In international logistics, we connect people, markets, and cultures every day.
Local business practices, communication styles, and infrastructure play a crucial role in how efficiently supply chains operate and how long-term partnerships are built.
Would you like to learn more about Norway’s business culture, everyday etiquette, the logistics environment, and places worth visiting?
3 questions to Mads Knutsen | FMS Oslo
1. What is your job at FMS ?
I represent our project cargo department, where I am responsible for both sales and operations. I create seafreight solutions and bid on RFQ’s for big and heavy transports, as well as following up shipments from inception to delivery on the other side of the world.
2. How was your professional development at FMS?
Norway is a big shipping nation despite its size, I grew up by the ocean and remember seeing a huge container ship at sea when I was on holiday as a kid. Many years later, I graduated from Cass Business School with an MSc in Shipping, Trade & Finance in 2011 and started working for Maersk just a few hundred meters from where we sit today. They I jumped over to project forwarding for a few years before starting Front Shipping together with my other two partners in 2023.
3. Why do you like working at FMS Norway?
We were (and still are) a small team with lots of experience and freedom, all of us work well together and sharing information when needed and as soon as things happen. We are able to tailor our approach and solution to every client and their different needs, now only supported by a bigger family with superior IT-systems and infrastructure from Hamburg. Our first impression after joining FMS has been nothing but positive, meeting nice people who show an interest in who we are and how they can support us. We very much look forward to the journey ahead of us!
