TrueStar Group Sues Safe Bag, a Milan-Listed Company, as Baggage Wrap War at Miami Airport Intensifies

MIAMI, August 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Luggage wrapping and protection services company TrueStar Group is suing Safe Wrap of Florida, subsidiary of publicly quoted and Milan- listed company Safe Bag, in a bid to secure a new tender for Miami International Airport's baggage wrapping contract. 

TrueStar lost its service contract at Miami International in 2013 to competitor Safe Bag due to a last-minute controversial action of the Miami-Dade commissioners and alleges in its lawsuit "a clear error of judgement and an action not based upon consideration of relevant factors." 

TrueStar's CEO, Fabio Talin, claims it was an incredibly unfair decision. "After years of service to passengers at Miami airport, we won the tender as specified by the bidding rules," he says. 

"However, the commissioners changed the usual rules by cancelling the award and directly assigned the tender to the losers. It does not make any sense, as we offered the higher bid and won. It was an arbitrary decision, full of shadows, to take this contract away from us." 

Since awarding the contract to Safe Wrap in 2013, Miami-Dade commissioners have reduced the minimum guarantee, or rent to operate at Miami International, by 65%, from $9.6 million to $3.5 million in an expedited legislative process that bypassed the normal committee hearing. The revenue-sharing requirement was further reduced from 52% to 35%. In addition, Miami International has also eliminated the $1.8 million in back rent that Safe Wrap owed the airport. 

Talin says that during his company's 3-year concession from 2010 to 2013, TrueStar paid more than $25 million in rent, while SafeWrap only paid $4 million since 2013.

Safe Bag, which is traded on the Milan stock exchange, is controlled by Rudolph Gentile and the Gentile family of Italy.

"Why was the tender awarded to a company that pays millions of dollars less to airport?" Talin asks. "This is not in the interest of the county nor in the interest of the citizens. Miami-Dade is missing out on tens of millions of dollars over a multi-year period by having SafeWrap handle the baggage-wrapping at Miami instead of TrueStar. How can that be?"

TrueStar Group: http://www.truestargroup.com