Several years ago, during an interview, Andy Gatesy had expressed his frustration with the time it was taking to get extra factory space. His family company, Toly, was growing and he needed to expand production capacity.
The years have been kind. Since then, he opened and closed a manufacturing site in India, his China site flourished and new manufacturing sites in South Korea proved to be a huge success.
And yet, when the chance came up for a new site in Bulebel, more manufacturing floor space was the last thing on Mr Gatesy’s mind.
An avid believer in Malta and its economy, Mr Gatesy is a regular speaker in conferences about manufacturing. But he believes that local businesses need to break out of the insular mode and think bigger if they want to survive.
“Toly’s business has evolved over the past 45 years and it has become a world leader. We had to make a huge leap forward with regards to our corporate presence. A world leader needs world-leading offices,” he said, repeating a phrase he had used at the official opening a few weeks ago.
The company makes packaging for cosmetics, and he was well aware of the fact that these are not mere powders, gels and serums, but so much more: “Cosmetics and face care products... these are all about luxury and glamour, even when there is serious medical research which has gone into their creation! We wanted to be able to communicate to our clients that we understand this,” he said.
“Five years ago, we produced items for 10 out of the top 30 luxury brands. That has now gone up to 21. And we have also moved up the value-added chain. This is something that manufacturers in Malta must do as that is where we have a competitive advantage. We have to communicate that move...”
It took time to make his vision a reality but the result is something that is, in his words, the “largest in the industry”.
His dream was to create a corporate centre – in Malta – where new clients would walk in and stop in awe. Rather than ‘wow’ them with manufacturing speed and flexibility alone, he wanted to ‘wow’ them with the capacity for innovation and creativity.
Toly’s business has evolved over the past 45 years and it has become a world leader. We had to make a huge leap forward with regards to our corporate presence. A world leader needs world-leading offices
The first challenge was to find a site which was close enough to the factories so the search was focussed on Bulebel. The original Playmobil factory site had been abandoned for 12 years but it was too large for what he had in mind. The solution was to let Multipackaging take the production area and keep the offices.
“It was ideal. We are only paying factory rates which means we got all this area for what we are paying for just 150 sq.m. in Paris. This has been a great leap forward, not just for us but for Malta as it shows that we understand that there is much more to manufacturing than just actual production,” he said.
The result of the €2 million investment was a reception with a sweeping wall that pays homage to the various brands it has worked for, and an innovation centre that includes a showcase of all the product lines.
“This is a trends wall,” he said, pointing to a series of mood boards and videos with themes such as art deco, black and white geometric patterns, and animal prints.
“We have a team that is constantly monitoring the worlds of art and fashion so that we can propose ideas to our clients,” he said.
The look of the packaging is only one aspect of innovation, however. The company uses new materials such as carbon fibre and new heat transfer printing methods, as well as cutting edge ideas for ways to dispense precious drops of serums, or apply powders with built-in brushes. The creative team came up with a perfume bottle that lights up and dozens of different types of clasps.
Prototypes are made on 3D printers to be able to show clients what ideas would look like in reality – saving considerably on time and money.
“It costs us tens of thousands of euro to create a prototype,” he said.
Packaging is now also being made ‘smart’ and apart from dispensing the product also tells you when it is running out, for example.
“We constantly have to push the boundaries. We want to be the most creative in the industry and we come up with over 100 new packaging concepts every year. We have to think out of the box!” he said, seemingly unaware of his pun.
Many of our European customers are already talking about reshoring, bringing business back to Malta from our factory in China
In addition to its manufacturing bases, Toly has sales offices in the US, Brazil, Europe and Asia but many of the business functions like finance, logistics and sales had already been consolidated in Malta five years ago. These have now all been relocated to the new corporate centre, which now caters for 200 servers, 11 exhibitions and shows every year – “It costs almost €100,000 to take part with a suitable stand” – and sales in six currencies across all the time zones of the world.
Each corridor and corner of the centre reflects the company’s values of people, passion, pride and creativity, whether 1.5m high portraits of its key personnel with their own quotes, a jigsaw-piece shaped table or the original tools and toys made by his father and company founder in the UK decades ago.
Malta now accounts for around a third of the company’s production and is the largest single manufacturing site. It can cope with 15 different lines a day – with a minimum order quantity of 10,000.
He is upbeat about the current year, after having seen business drop some 20 per cent last year, especially since the aim is to take the business from €55 million to €100 million within a few years.
“There is no doubt that consumer demand for luxury products slowed down last year. But the variables are stacked in our favour at the moment with the euro crashing and now worth 15 per cent less than last year. And the electricity costs will go as from April,” he said.
“This will make the Maltese factory much more competitive. Many of our European customers are already talking about re-shoring, bringing business back to Malta from our factory in China. These are such exciting times,” he said.
“I hope you can see how passionate we all are about what we do.”