The backbone of the domestically-owned segment of our economic activity remains the family business. These are businesses which in the main are now around three generations old, in some cases, such as that of P. Cutajar Ltd, going back quite longer than that. Many still exist in their original form. Others have changed. Some more have diversified. Few have done that more significantly than the multi-faceted Corinthia Group.
The traditional family business was made up of importing and distribution. It grew out of a periphery of smaller businesses made up of agents and commission agents, while foreign men of commerce used their access to scarce capital to rule much of the roost.
The Maltese people learn quickly and soon moved into primary commercial and shipping activities themselves. The first domestic businesses were made of brothers, rarely - if ever at all - sisters too, or by fathers who included eventual space for their sons - never for daughters.
Traditional names, therefore, were XXsurname Bros., and XXname and surname & Sons. In time some of these businesses moved into manufacturing or tourism, at times both. Names like Sunny Borg, an importer turned industrialist and hotelier, Joe Gasan, car importer and property developer, Albert Mizzi, who moved into importing nowadays of practically everything, as well as into manufacturing and tourism, and now retail, and the other Mizzi Family, mostly car importers, with the second generation still represented robustly by Maurice Mizzi, alongside his brothers' offspring.
And there were people like Tumas Fenech (property and tourism) and Bart Attard (importing, contracting and servicing) who grew from practically nothing into relative magnates.
The family business, though, did not change much in terms of ownership. Families were jealous to retain their birth rights. Non-family partnerships were and remain rare. For a long time private companies could have up to 50 shareholders, but family companies rarely reached ten, even with cascading fragmentation as new generations and their offspring came along.
Another economically limiting factor of family businesses was and remains that they rarely ventured overseas. Bart Attard and a few others did that in the Middle East; the Tumas Group went into travel in the UK and Germany and touched the hotel sphere in France; Albert Mizzi, along with others, is venturing strongly into retailing in North Africa. There are others who are looking that way, at Libya in particular. The leader in this innovative field, though, is without doubt the Corinthia Group.
The second generation, led vigorously by Alfred Pisani, threw the traditional business model aside to replace it with one that makes it international and continues to grow. Early on they took on strong Libyan partners for their Malta ventures. Like the Tumas, Gasan, Mizzi and other groups they tapped and continue to tap the bond market, but ventured further afield with a limited offer to local investors to take an equity participation in one of their pillars, an example which is now being followed by the Island Group.
More tellingly Corinthia burst beyond the breakwater and our airport to start building an amazing portfolio of ventures overseas. That includes operating hotels for others, as well as a bold initiative in mixed-purpose property development in Libya, scheduled to come on stream soon. But, to my mind, the content which stands out most is their growing portfolio of owned top-notch hotels.
Aside from being well represented in Malta, Corinthia are to be found in the forefront of the cities of Budapest, Lisbon, Prague, St Petersburg and Tripoli. On business or for leisure I have stayed in all of those hotels bar that in Lisbon. A common thread of luxury and efficiency sews them firmly together. The scale continues to grow, with increasing impact.
The Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel in St Petersburg is the last hotel I've visited in the Corinthia chain. It already enfolds the visitor the moment one steps into its sumptuous foyer, yet so much more is planned and being executed. It is going to be a complex of leisure attraction, with a spa set up on the its top, conference, serviced offices and retail complex that will have no peer in the area.
Elevated parking will be included in the complex right in the busy pulse of that lovely city which Peter the Great so determinedly established in his strenuous efforts to Europeanise Russia. Work is also on to create another strong presence with the development of a property acquired in the heart of London.
In time this model will expand. Entrepreneurs who want to grow meaningfully will also realise that it can only be done by venturing along a well-planned route outside of Malta. It is not an easy model or route. Nevertheless the Corinthia Group is leading those who demonstrate that, with the right sort of planning and human resources, it can be done.
More than financial resources, the ability to attract and retain good managerial and other motivated staff is the key to this and similar models.