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Events 28 maltatoday, Sunday, 1 March 2015 GasanMamo embrace scale modelling as part of their ongoing corporate social responsibility Liquigas asks court to stop competitor's ongoing abuse RE/MAX announces another year of growth Emirates increases capacity on its twice-daily Nairobi service RE/MAX Malta recently hosted their annual general conference at the Hilton Malta's Grand Master Suite where they announced their strategy for 2015, communicated their financial results and ac- knowledged the achievements of the individuals and offices during the business year of 2014. Speaking to the 250 RE/MAX affiliates that attended the con- ference, Kevin Buttigieg, CEO of RE/MAX Malta, described 2015 as "the year of the RE/MAX as- sociate", where each and every af- filiate was asked to believe in what they are doing, be professional, be empowered with the training and continue to be the specialists in their respective fields. He went on to confirm that the company collectively increased their turn- over for the 11th year running, selling over €220, 000, 000 and increasing sales transactions by 28%. He concluded his address by confirming that the company will open another three offices by the second quarter of 2015. Jeffrey Buttigieg, COO of RE/ MAX Malta gave a brief overview of the events, outlined the achieve- ments of 2014 and announced that the company is growing as planned and with solid founda- tions. He said, "Business year 2015 would be a year of further con- solidation, growth and increase in market share. We will be im- plementing new training courses based on the various needs of our team, a multi-channel marketing strategy as well as further enhanc- ing the importance of the compa- ny core values that are in line with our strategy." Edward Agius, Head of Let- ting department said that that although 2014 was a challenging year, the letting team worked well together and due to their persist- ence and dedication they succeed- ed in meeting their quotas with a growth of circa 13% over the pre- vious year. General Manager, Joseph P. Theuma gave a detailed presen- tation of the statistics of 2014 explaining the growth of the com- pany from various aspects. Mr Theuma outlined the fact that in 2014 the number of transactions increased exponentially together with the productivity of the aver- age RE/MAX associate, selling 1.5 more properties per associate than in 2013. He also pointed out that the Exclusive Listing Programme has played a major part in this growth since the company is sell- ing homes listed within this pro- gramme at an average of 53 days. After the keynote talks they moved to a panel discussion where a number of managers were given the opportunity to share their successes throughout the year. The event culminated with an awards ceremony and a cocktail reception where the top perform- ing individuals and offices were recognised for their outstanding achievements in property letting and property sales. In the category of property sales, the top individual was Philip In- corvalja, who took home awards for most service fees generated, most listings sold and most kon- venji signed. Runners up to the most service fees generated were Mark Micallef and Etienne Vas- sallo respectively. Patrick Spiteri won the award for Most Exclusive Listings Sold. The offices that were recognised for their sales achievements were RE/MAX Real Estate Specialist who won the award for top sales per capita per day, whereas RE/ MAX Alliance Tigne won the awards for most service fees gen- erated and volume. The runners up for this prestigious award of sales per capita per day were RE/ MAX Central Attard and RE/ MAX Crown Towers respectively. The winners of the top letting associate award for service fees generated were Michaela Tabone, Gordi Felice and Jeffrey Debatis- ta respectively whereas Mario Caruana won the award for high- est number of listing and Jeff De- battista won the award for highest number of transactions. Alison Lowell, who works in ad- ministration at RE/MAX Alliance, Tigne was presented the "Award of Excellence" for 2014. Recently introduced, this special award has been put in place to recognise an individual not necessarily in sales for being an exemplary role model in his/her dedication on the job. Emirates, a global connector of peo- ple and places, will connect even more people with Kenya's capital, Nairobi, when it switches from the current Airbus A330-200 aircraft used on one of the two daily services to a larger Boeing 777-300 ER from 1 May. The introduction of a Boeing 777- 300ER will boost capacity on the route by 1638 seats a week, and make Nairobi an all-Boeing 777 operation for Emirates. "Our Nairobi-Dubai service is one of our busiest routes in Africa, and it has been steadily growing since we first launched services to Kenya in October 1995 with just two weekly flights. Nairobi is a very popular destination for both business and leisure travellers, and is a gateway to many of the country's major tourist attractions such as the Masai Mara and its east coast beaches. We an- ticipate that our additional capac- ity will stimulate further growth in both tourism and business traffic on the route," said Orhan Abbas, Emir- ates Senior Vice President, Com- mercial Operations, Latin America, Southern and Central Africa. The Emirates Boeing 777-300ER will offer 354 seats in a three-class configuration, with eight luxurious private suites in First Class, 42 lie- flat seats in Business Class and 304 spacious seats in Economy Class. All three cabins are equipped with Emirates' award-winning ice enter- tainment system with more than 2,000 channels of on-demand en- tertainment to choose from, includ- ing movies, television programmes, games, audio books and music from across the world. As with all Emir- ates flights, passengers enjoy gour- met cuisine and the famous service by our multi-national cabin crew, as well as the extra generous bag- gage allowance of 30kg in Economy Class, 40kg in Business Class and 50kg in First Class. The larger aircraft also provides a total of 77 tonnes of additional cargo capacity per week on the route, fur- ther facilitating trade opportunities between Kenya and Emirates' exten- sive global route network. The Boeing 777-300 ER is the backbone of the Emirates fleet, with 102 currently in service. Emirates EK 719 departs Dubai at 1045hrs and arrives in Nairobi at 1445hrs, while the return flight, EK 720, departs Nairobi at 1640hrs and ar- rives in Dubai at 2240hrs. The sec- ond daily flight from Dubai, EK 721, leaves Dubai at 1610hrs and arrives in Nairobi at 2010hrs. The return flight EK 722 departs Nairobi at 2250hrs and arrives the next day in Dubai at 0450hrs. Emirates operates daily scheduled flights between Malta and Dubai via Larnaca, Cyprus. GasanMamo will once again be supporting the annual Malta Soci- ety of Model Makers exhibition that will be held at the Catholic Institute in Floriana from 14 March to 22 March 2015. The main categories that will be exhibited this year include marine, aeroplanes, figures, cars, tanks, dioramas and engineering related models of various scales and eras. "We are delighted to support the Malta Society of Model Makers once again this year. We appreciate that this exhibition is the result of a lot of hard work and commitment by the members. Our support stems from our appreciation that the in- tricate work involved in building these models is, in itself, an artistic expression of a very high standard," said Julian J. Mamo, Director at GasanMamo. Of particular interest in this year's exhibition is the diorama section which contains models exhibited in a specially constructed environ- ment, which not only gives a better presentation of the model but also places the model in its actual sur- rounding environment. This year's dioramas vary in sub- jects from World War 2 to Napo- leonic and Roman eras. As in previ- ous years, this year visitors will also have the opportunity to see model- lers constructing their own models and the techniques used to achieve the desired level of finish and to dis- cuss with the modellers and famil- iarize themselves with the subject. Another section of the exhibition will be dedicated to scratch build models. These are different from the standard models because they are constructed from blueprints or construction plans, with each indi- vidual part of the model construct- ed separately from either wood or plastic. The Malta Society of Model Mak- ers holds regular lectures, meetings and exhibitions throughout the year. Their main aim is to help and support young modellers in achiev- ing better modelling techniques and results. Further information on the Malta Society of Model Mak- ers can be achieved by logging onto www.maltamodellers.org. Liquigas Malta Ltd has filed a ju- dicial protest in court, accusing its competitor, Easygas Malta Ltd, of several offences, including viola- tion of property rights and breach of safety regulations. The protest was filed after Liqui- gas noted that its green and yellow cylinders were being painted dark grey, filled by Easygas, and placed on the market as an Easygas prod- uct. In previous months, Liquigas had filed several complaints with the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) which on its part issued a 'cease and desist' order to Easygas to stop re- painting Liquigas cylinders, and to return these cylinders to Liquigas as their rightful owner. Easygas' action not only violates the property rights of Liquigas but also makes it difficult to identify who is responsible for that cylinder. Liquigas pointed out that tracea- bility of individual cylinders is nec- essary in ensuring safety in deal- ing with pressure equipment being used in the carriage of inflammable products, such as gas cylinders. Liquigas added that each cylinder is individually certified and through this certification, the ownership of the cylinder can be identified. Liquigas said it was suffering damages because of Easygas' behav- iour, including the costs of having to repaint its cylinders in its own distinctive green colour and to re- insert its own distinctive marks on the cylinders. A spokesperson for Liquigas said "This is not an isolated incident but there is a distinctive pattern where Easygas attempted several times to sell its gas in our cylinders rather than invest in cylinders of its own." In November 2011, Liquigas dis- covered that Easygas was sending Liquigas cylinders to Salerno in Italy to have them repainted dark grey, but the cylinders were released by the Italian authorities back into Liquigas' possession. In November 2013, video evidence was produced showing Easygas abusively and illegally filling Liq- uigas green and yellow cylinders. The MRA had sealed off the illegal cylinder filling equipment found at Easygas' yard in Luqa. In September 2014, Liquigas re - ported to the Malta Resources Au- thority that yellow and green cyl- inders were being re-painted dark grey. This was followed last Novem- ber with the issue by the Malta Re- sources Authority of the cease and desist order against Easygas. Liquigas cylinders painted in Easygas' grey