Toly Products has officially opened its new factory housing a state-of-the-art UV lacquering facility at Bulebel industrial estate.
The company, which has invested Lm500,000 in the project, is one of Malta's longest established manufacturing companies.
Starting operations in 1970, Toly was the first company to open on the Bulebel estate and employed just 40 people in one factory unit.
Today Toly occupies seven factory units and employs over 400. It specialises in the manufacture of luxury packaging for the beauty business.
With its own sales offices in London, New York, Paris and Brussels, Toly is well equipped to service a multinational customer base. Over the past 10 years, Chanel has become Toly's largest customer worldwide.
Toly started working for Chanel in 1990 after investing in their first UV lacquering plant. Toly produces fragrance packaging and skin care packaging as well as being the main supplier of compacts for Chanel worldwide.
UV lacquering is a process through which a high gloss lacquer is sprayed onto a plastic surface which is then cured using ultraviolet light. Once cured, the lacquer gives plastic components a high gloss, scuff-resistant finish, creating the image of a luxury product.
Last year, Toly produced over five million compacts for Chanel and this heavy demand for compacts stretched Toly's UV lacquering capacity, creating the need for a second lacquering line.
Toly supplies packaging to both Chanel's manufacturing plants in the USA as well as in France. In addition to compacts, Toly also makes packaging for Coco, Cristalle and No. 5 fragrances, skin care caps for Chanel's high profile Precision line and eyeliners and nail polish packages.
To inaugurate the line, Toly invited Chanel's senior management from both the US and France.
Andy Gatesy, chairman of Toly Products, said that while business levels recently slowed down due to the global economic recession, Toly Products was committed to manufacturing in Malta.
Last month the General Workers' Union said Toly Products had been forced to lay off around 40 employees due to lack of orders.
The union had said the company had started off the year well, with a number of orders, but there was a drop due to a lack of sales by the international companies it supplied.