Alhambra Trading Company Ltd last week announced it has improved its gross profit by 3% over budget for its first full year of operations as a public company.

Alhambra operates the Zara franchise from a state-of-the-art outlet within the Alhambra complex at the heart of Sliema. The company first started trading in November 2002 and went public in December 2002 with a bond issue.

Business, according to a company statement, has been booming in these past 12 months. Turnover was 7% more than that budgeted by the company.

At the same time costs and expenses were kept well within budgets decided previously by the company's board of directors.

"We have been running our business by the maxim that quality need not be expensive," a company spokesman said in a statement. "Location, of course, matters and we have one of the most modern and visible shops on the island.

"But our overall objective is to remain a cut above the average in the genre of product we specialise in. All told the Zara brand and our style of management have proved profitable to shareholders and bondholders."