For me it was a treat to actually see Chanel compacts being made at the factory of Toly Products at the Bulebel Industrial Estate recently. There they were, black and lacquered, having the famous CC carefully hotstamped in white on each one. I was mesmerised. Had I been younger I would say it was perhaps one of the coolest moments of my life.

I met Andy Gatesy in the boardroom – tall, smiling and clearly, a man with an alpha mind. Imposing and handsome he has a refreshingly open intelligence which, I suspect, can prove quite restless. You can almost see his mind ticking away and planning the next project…or two. (Does he ever stop thinking?) Toly’s is of operatic dimensions and at the leading edge of the global beauty industry and it is right here in Malta.

When Dr Zoli Gatesy, Andy’s father came to Malta to set up a factory in the early ‘70s, Malta was a low cost manufacturing site at the time and he committed himself to employing 40 people. But it soon became expensive. “We had to make up our minds. I realised we had to automate. We could have gone to Tunisia or China for cheap labour but if we wanted to stay in Europe I knew we had to do things differently. So we did. We are now as advanced as any in the field and, better still, don’t have a head office telling us what to do.”

Mr Gatesy is impatient with entrepreneurs who say that they are going to lose business to countries where manufacturing is cheaper. “I say get off your butt and see what you can do. Our competitors are multi-national companies. We are competing with enormous organizations and we are succeeding. Our clients come to us because we are a

one-stop shop. We are focused. We are a small family business…”

He continues: “We focus on innovation and creativity. The products we make are a fancy box and everyone believes they can make a fancy box.” But of course it is not so easy and I was taken round the factories and shown one process after another to prove it. Mr Gatesy says that everyone is selling commodities. “We are selling commodities too but we want our customers to feel that not only can we serve them well but we can exceed their expectations.” This ‘exceed their expectations’ becomes a leitmotif that morning.

Needless to say, Andy Gatesy knows everything that is happening in the world of cosmetics. “If I go to Tokyo and pick up a compact, I know exactly who has made it!”

I ask about their customers. Boots and its successful No 7 range, remains Toly’s No 1 customer in the UK market.

Toly were very pleased to be awarded the entire suite of compacts when The Body Shop recently repacked their colour cosmetics line. Competing against an international host of competitors, Toly tooled up four separate sizes of compacts and supplied over 6 million compacts for The Body Shop’s launch in August 2002. The compacts are all environmentally friendly products; all hinges snap together eliminating the need for metal hinge pins.

Today Toly is the exclusive supplier of compacts to Body Shop. (So next time you buy one remember: they are made here).

Then there is Chanel. One of the turning points for the company was in 1989. Toly Products were approached by Chanel in America to supply them with compacts. “So we invested a million dollars and won a long term contract and made 100 per cent of their compacts.” As Mr Gatesy points out: “Chanel is a reference on its own.” As we go round one of the factories he explains that compacts are complicated to make and Chanel have uncompromising standards. We admire the understated elegance of a black Chanel compact, whether it is for eyeshadow, rouge, mascara. “The benchmark is always Chanel.” Chanel compacts have plenty of detail. The lacquer is dried using U.V. Light. “It’s a high speed process which has to be free of dust. We make thousands of pieces in an hour,” he tells me as we watch the girls at the high-tech laser machines through a window. They are all wearing protective clothing, including gloves. Standards have to be high. “We have to satisfy the discerning marketing people at Chanel,” says Mr Gatesy as if reading my mind.

He is clearly an inspiring and inspirational force in that area of the business world he inhabits. As we move from one block to another changing protective clothing, he points out that they have built a factory within a factory. He shows me round the factories with the enthusiasm of a man who has found his métier.

In 2002 despite falling business levels, the company continued to invest. In Malta, the highlight was the opening of a brand new U.V. lacquering facility and the company continued to invest in its strategy of flexible automation.

I learn that Chanel make-up products in Japan are white and not black, as we know them in Europe. For Japan, a concealer product was produced in a small compact, all in white with the distinctive Chanel logo hotstamped in black.

Toly also won the contract to develop a new mini Chanel compact, incorporating a push button into a sleeker package whilst still maintaining Chanel’s unique look, hidden pin holes, engraved logo and U.V. lacquer protection.

Toly have just won the contract for Sothy compacts. “This contract took some time to come to fruition but now that economies are starting to move people want to do new things. Sothy’s compacts are spray painted,” says Mr Gatesy showing me one that had just been lacquered.

We then look at some delicate Yves Rocher compacts which are U.V. spray painted too.

Andy Gatesy explains: “My father built his own business with his hands. He started by making moulds for toys and then went on to specialise in compacts.” (The more I talked to Gatesy, the more I was impressed with the qualities required to build such a business). He further explained that every commodity in the beauty business is different and needs specialised machinery and skills. ‘Take lipstick for example. A lipstick supplier needs to make the swivel and that requires a different technology to making compacts. It is the same with mascara where brushes are involved.” In fact Toly have a strategic association with Geka-Brush of Germany. Revlon’s popular Colorstay is but one commodity made by Geka-Brush in collaboration with Toly.

Then there is Metapack S.A.S. (France) a member of the Toly Group of products. The company is based in Paris and was set up in 1998 with the aim of designing and marketing promotional products in metal for the luxury beauty market in France. “We bought 49 per cent of the company. All products are however, made in China under our control but the concept design, sales and project management are based in Paris,” Mr Gatesy explains. The range includes perfume candles, solid perfume compacts, refillable purse sprays and fragrance packaging. Metal caps for perfumes, or metal parts, are made in China. There are also solid perfume boxes, bottle holders – I pick up and admire the attractive bottle of Lolita Lempicka fragrance in a bottle holder pictured above. He points out several bottles in a show case of the products produced by Toly and its associated companies. The variety is astonishing and impressive. All the big names in perfume are there: Cartier, Dunhill, Bvlgari, Chanel, Gucci, Trussardi, Nina Ricci… a veritable fest.

The caps are made of Zamac – a combination of zinc, aluminium and manganese which is copper-plated and polished in China and then returned to Europe. For some years this kind of product had stopped being produced in Europe as it became far too expensive to make.

But then China opened up and hence Metapack S.A.S.

In October 2002 Toly diversified into Cognac packaging with the supply of a premium cap and collar of A. De Fussigny Cognac XO for men (pictured overleaf).

Mr Gatesy shows me a bottle – and it looks like a large and elegant perfume bottle.

But that is not the only connection Toly have with China. They now have a factory in Shenzhen, the first city across the border from Hong Kong. “There is 100 square miles of nothing but factories. This is a joint venture with the Chinese. We opened there because there’s a huge market in China and prices are very competitive. Their approach to manufacture is also different to ours,” he explains.

It is instructive to recall that Andy’s late father Zoli, started off as a toolmaker, ‘making kits, boats and things.’ Having escaped from Hungary in 1956, he landed in England as a refugee and borrowed Lm1 from a coach driver.

In 1998, for the first time, Toly sold more than £20 million worth or products from its portfolio of products. “As I told you already we have a strategic alliance with Geka-Brush of Germany for example for the manufacture of mascaras. But we still retain an entrepreneurial strategy. We also cooperate with the Japanese and make mascara, nail polish, caps and brushes.”

He points out to me that the Japanese focus a great deal on packaging. “Their attention to detail is unbelievable. I go once a year to visit Japan just to see and observe their latest techniques in packaging. To them the art of giving a gift is important. They also believe in loyalty schemes. For example Shisiedo give away beautiful gifts to loyal customers.”

And his latest venture? “We have now opened a small factory in Malta filling cosmetics for Isadora. It is the Number 1 brand in Scandinavia.” The factory has just started operating with the help of an experienced Belgian entrepreneur. I found it fascinating to watch these girls fill up these make-up boxes with great precision. Toly products are international players indeed.

Mr Gatesy tells me: “The world is becoming customer-oriented. It is the tiny little things that matter. The best customer experience…The reception of any office is the most important place. We have to customise the reception area. We need to create an emotional bond with our customers. Harley-Davidson for example have done it. Our companies cannot be faceless. Customer experience is important and becoming increasingly so.

“We want our customers to feel that not only can we serve them well but we can exceed their expectations.”

In order to maintain continuous growth, the company has also decided to allocate substantial resources to marketing, creativity and innovation.

“Innovation is the currency of the future and will make the difference between the winners and losers in the next 10 years. Toly believes strongly in innovation and has a key aim to develop unique products that can set us part from our competitors such that it will remain a winner. The company is firmly committed to its Maltese base and is encouraging other companies to invest alongside it with a vision of creating a cosmetics valley in Malta.” Mr Gatesy believes that Toly and its partners is a group with tremendous potential. “By harnessing the pride, the creative spirit and the ambition to succeed together, we have created a strong weapon to challenge our competitors head on.” And as I walk out to my car I know that Andy Gatesy must have other projects waiting in the wings.

Our islands need three or four entrepreneurs like Andy Gatesy to catapult our ailing economy and create employment for out young people.