Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1132126
20.06.19 11 e fact that we started out as a ship- ping company meant we already had a lot of connections with companies overseas, and this gives you the mindset of endeavouring to do things outside of the country your operations first start- ed in. Malta is small, but there's a lot of business here. In a number of cases, we tried to rep- licate what we started in Malta, outside. For example, we started the McDon- ald's business on the island, and then expanded on it elsewhere. In fact, this is the case for all our businesses, except our Apple business, which has no pres- ence in Malta. An important point to make here is that we've got the right people and the right structures to expand overseas. We have teams in ten countries, and we're all supporting each other, so we have the capabilities to operate internation- ally. Our business does not have a big bu- reaucratic structure, but we pick the right people. People are everything. We have plenty of ideas and access to capital and funding. But if you don't have the people, you can't flourish. I al- ways say that people come first, strate- gy comes second. I think we're blessed that we have around us some of the best people we could ever have – good peo- ple running markets, good people run- ning businesses. Is Malta's current economic and political climate conducive to investments by companies such as yours? e investment we will make in Comi- no will be one of our biggest, and that's the major opportunity we currently have locally. But this doesn't mean there aren't other opportunities for others do- ing business in Malta. You have expertise in a number of other countries. Do these countries make it easier than Malta for companies like yours to invest in? I think the business climate changes over time. With the exception of Mo- rocco, we operate in European Union countries. Our aim is to operate in busi- ness-friendly locations, and which offer a safe environment for the people we engage and for the business itself. Obviously, for our consumer-based businesses, the bigger the population, the better. Romania has a population of over 19 million people, offering a lot of growth potential. Our growth comes from the bigger market. Next after Ro- mania is Greece, which is a fantastic place. It's had its economic issues, but our operations are robust, and we've turned around the business very pos- itively, with our people having done brilliantly there. And I think we have opportunities in Greece in areas over and above our McDonald's operations. It's essential to underline that we are very committed to investing in our business. We don't just open a business and hope it grows – hope is not a strate- gy. We put our money where our mouth is and invest heavily in people, struc- ture and resources, generally through a three-year plan. Can you expand on this concept of having three-year plans? At this time of the year we would have already started looking at our planning going to 2020 and beyond. Every year, between June and September, we put a plan together for the next three years. Now we're looking at the 2020-2022 plan, for each business under Hili Ven- tures' umbrella. e key thing here is to not overcom- plicate. We try to keep things as simple as we can, and we encourage people to come up with ideas. Moreover, we're not in a rush to realise returns straight away. e end game is to grow the busi- ness, but certain business can't grow ex- ponentially in six months. Which is the fastest growing business under your investments umbrella? In terms of numbers, it's the McDon- ald's which grows fastest, as it grows in comparative sales year in year our, and expands in terms of stores. But a lot of our other businesses grow satisfactorily. And if you take our new marine business, this has some very good growth potential. Once we set up marinas in places we've earmarked, the business will start from zero and grow. is year Hili Ventures will post €500 million in turnover across the board. By next year, we'll have surpassed 10,000 employees in the business. From 2019 to 2021, we have a €200 million invest- ment programme, half of which will be invested in existing businesses, and the other half in the new ones which I men- tioned. Is there a decision which your business had made in its long history which you would not repeat today? Yes. I think we had a couple of situa- tions where we had opportunities to get involved in something and we didn't. is is always at the back of my mind. Whether it would have been good or not, I don't know. But there were cas- es when we could have ventured into something but shied away from it. is said, at the end of the day, someone must make the call, and you can't just look back – you have to look ahead. Could you give a one-word reaction to describe the following? • Franchising – (a) system • Burger King – competition • Joseph Muscat – Prime Minister • e EU – framework • Brexit – Boris INTERVIEW strategy second' Melo Hili's mother's uncle started off the family business in 1923, when he had set-up a shipping agency, Carmelo Caruana Co Ltd. He ran it till 1972, when he passed away. In fact, Carmelo Caruana is still operating as a shipping business. The business was eventually taken over by three of Melo's brothers, and from then it evolved over the years to what it is now. Melo joined the family business in 1988 as Managing Director of Motherwell Bridge, then a joint venture with Motherwell Bridge Group of Scotland. He later headed the company's Italian operation. He became Developmental Licencee for McDonald's in Malta in 2005, for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2007, for Greece in 2011, and for Romania in 2016. Hili Ventures, which Melo jointly owns with his brother Beppe, was established in 2012. In all, the group now employs around 9,500 people in Malta and in the nine other countries in which it operates.