Express Trailers, a company within the Luqa-based Express Group, has taken delivery of 10 bio-thermic trailers under a major group-wide investment drive to broaden its ­service offering, general manager Johann Vella toldThe Sunday Times.

The group has its eye on developments across the Mediterranean

The specialised trailers enable the logistics group to better service clients in the pharmaceutical and food industries, while improving Express Trailers’ flexibility to accommodate requests from small clients. The trailers are able to transport two separate loads of cargo, each at different maintained temperatures.

The acquisition of the new trailers is part of a wider, ambitious plan under which the group is preparing for considerable business growth.

Its corner headquarters on Qormi Road have been doubled in size with an additional two storeys over the past 18 months after the operation outgrew its original space. The finishing touches are now being made to the imposing block, and furnishings and fittings are being installed on the bright, open plan interior, decked out in the company’s corporate white and orange colours.

The premises now also incorporate a temperature-controlled warehouse geared for pharmaceuticals storage with a capacity for 600 pallets. A similar facility with moving aisles for 700 pallets is currently being completed adjacent to it.

Major investment has also been directed into IT systems and human resources and training. Mr Vella explained the family business was also undergoing change from within as it readied itself for long-term challenges.

Established in 1945 by Mr Vella’s late grandfather Emmanuel, a customs clearing agent, the company evolved into a major local player. As they slowly joined the business, his eight sons eventually set up Express Trailers, now the group’s foremost company.

Today the group, with a staff complement of more than 160, incorporates Emmanuel Vella and Sons, Express Trailers, Express Freights, and Eyre Cargo, offering customers a seamless one-stop shop for air, land and sea logistics. The Vella brothers, all shareholders, each head a different unit. The third-generation Vella family now boasts more than 20 cousins, some of whom are following in their parents’ footsteps.

Mr Vella attributes the group’s growth to a reputation for “genuine” customer centricity and client loyalty over the years. Many of the businesses which once enquired about their first import options have grown into considerable operations and have remained loyal to the Vella firm.

As the family and business grew, the extended Vella family recognised the complexities involved in separating the two and established a number of working groups with a view to drafting a succession plan to ensure continuity and growth.

Business strategist Franco Azzopardi was recently named the group’s non-executive chairman to realise the aims of this succession plan, already drafted with the input of several working groups.

Mr Azzopardi, who is also non-executive chairman of 3a Accountants and Innovative Architectural Structures and holds several directorships with listed companies, brings many years’ experience in corporate strategy, risk management, and people and knowledge development to his role at Express Group.

“The shareholders felt it was important for the board to be led by a person with an outside view, who would bring different perspectives to the table and not be conditioned by emotion,” Mr Vella said of the decision to appoint a non-family member to the board.

“In these few weeks, he has examined the group’s operations and is very present.”

The group, he added, was not only striving to be a wider-known general logistics group, but was gearing up for the latest challenges in the local and global industry.

Express Group’s major achievements over recent years have included partnerships with such names as DHL and Kraftverkehr Nagel, the European food logistics specialist, to service the more demanding corporate clients.

“We are constantly talking to our clients and studying the trends overseas to be the first on the market with innovation,” Mr Vella said. “The growing pharmaceutical industry’s requirements and e-commerce have necessitated a remodelling of our offering so that we are able to service all customers. We also strive to balance our pricing structures with a quality offering so that we are accessible to the smallest customer.”

With Malta’s industry moving out of textiles over the years and further into pharmaceuticals and delicate cargo, the group invested heavily in refrigerated trailers to win business from the new sectors.

Additionally, EU legislation has imposed increasingly stringent conditions for food transportation in many categories from ambient, to chilled and to frozen. The partnership with Kraftverkehr Nagel now gives Express Group access to numerous depots across the continent for moreefficiency.

Although road transportation was Express Group’s forte, it was necessary for the group to specialise in all areas of logistics, particularly as it was constrained by the size of the local market.

The group, however, has its eye on developments across the Mediterranean, where business opportunities could be significant.

“Express Group is gearing up to accommodate the expected wide range of requirements of Maltese and overseas clients,” Mr Vella added.