FXB, the Gozo furniture manufacturing group, is to open a retail showroom in Tripoli the first half of next year, managing director Joseph Borg told The Times Business.
The two-floor showroom will be geared towards retail customers but will also help to consolidate the firm’s business presence in the market.
“We intend the showroom to feature our higher end retail lines and FXB’s own collections,” Mr Borg said. “We have furnished a couple of privately-owned villas there and the customers were highly satisfied with the results. We are now better known among Libyans who have seen our work in the country and who know us from Malta.”
The group has been heavily involved in the Libyan market for the last 10 years and has undertaken major projects at Corinthia’s five-star Bab Africa hotel in the Libyan capital and the Palm City Residences in Janzour, among others. Earlier this year, it participated in the LibyaBuild trade event.
FXB returns to the Bab Africa next month to start work on its part of a refurbishment programme for the 10-year-old property.
On home ground, Mr Borg said the group was investing heavily in additional machinery and a new spray department while constantly developing new lines of furniture.
FXB has been in the joinery business for 120 years and is now one of Malta’s largest furniture manufacturers.
Although the original company was incorporated in 1970, the origins of the family business can be traced to 1890. Mr Borg’s grandfather Francis, then just 16, began commuting to Malta to train as a master-carpenter but retained his own small workshop on Gozo. He moved to the US for a few years but soon returned home to develop his original business. It was taken over by Mr Borg’s father Francis Xavier and his uncle George after World War II
In 1970 Francis X. Borg Co. Ltd began construction of its first factory in Gozo and in just over 10 years was able to export kitchen cabinet doors to the UK while maintaining a solid local market base. It continued to expand and became known by its FXB trade mark on the local market by the 1980s.