Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1109092
25.04.19 11 INTERVIEW popular, such as those with almonds and ricotta. You've been open for almost 90 years. How have things changed and is there a secret behind staying in business for so long? GF: Over the years many things changed, and we were sometimes our- selves the driving force behind some of the changes. For instance, we got some inspirational ideas for our products from abroad. BF: Things have indeed changed a lot. Originally, our food used to be sold in wrapping, but eventually we started using boxes. These now in- clude features that didn't exist when our family business started all those years ago, such as best before dates, a list of all the ingredients. We have a person working for us whose job it is to create ingredient labels, for exam- ple. We always make sure that we do things the right way. GF: e secret to remaining in busi- ness, I would say is the fact that Bri- an and I always worked together as a team. We are brothers and friends. We got into this job wholeheartedly and are committed to it. BF: And moreover, I think we also had the same idea of where we wanted to take the business. GF: One of us is almost always at the premises, and if we are not, then our children are here. Our children have indicated that they want to continue in this business, which will make them the fourth generation of our family in- volved in Busy Bee. How many people do you employ, and is it easy to find workers in this sector? GF: We have 90 full-timers and sev- eral more part-timers working for us. And these are not just numbers to us. We know each one of them individu- ally, and we ensure that they can fit in with the rest of the team. BF: Finding waiters, however, is a big challenge nowadays. People working in the catering sector are not seeing it as a career. Even if they excel in a cater- ing job, they still see it as a short-term thing. is mentality is not exclusive to today's world, of course, but in the past, there were more people who saw it as a career. GF: People used to see the role of a waiter in a more positive light. Now waiters in general in the industry might perhaps feel that they are not respect- ed enough. If we didn't have foreign workers to take up jobs around Malta's catering establishments, I think half of the cafeterias and restaurants on the island wouldn't exist. Foreigners are helping the Maltese turn the country's economic wheel. at said, we have several people – around 30% of all our workers – who have been employed at Busy Bee for over 25 years. One has worked for us for 50 years. Another reason behind our expansion to Mrieħel was to offer our workers a more comfortable envi- ronment, because we value them. We want our employees to see us as a fam- ily. And we invest in them, too – we have a training room dedicated to giving training to our catering staff. Looking forward, where do you see Busy Bee going? GF: With our move to Mrieħel, we've just done a huge leap. Our main goal now is to consolidate this. BF: But other projects are also in the pipeline, including the refurbishment of our Msida outlet. People's expectations are higher now than in the past. They have had more exposure to the kind of food available abroad and are more selective about which products they purchase Geoffrey and Brian Friggieri Photo: James Bianchi / MediaToday