Sixty years ago, Victor Gilson from Sliema believed in the future prospects of Maltese brewing company Simonds Farsons Ltd – as it was known then – and its management led by the late Maltese entrepreneur Lewis Farrugia, and when it went public in 1948, the then 22-year-old Mr Gilson became one of the company’s first shareholders.

Since then, Mr Gilson has attended all 60 annual general meetings of the Farsons Group, as he revealed to Farsons Group chief executive Louis A. Farrugia at last February’s opening of the new packaging centre for soft drinks and the new Logistics Centre at The Brewery in Mriehel.

At the invitation of Mr Farrugia, Mr Gilson visited The Brewery, where he was presented with two publications on the history of Farsons as a memento, in the presence of Farsons Group chairman Bryan A. Gera and company secretary Arthur Muscat.

When the company went public in 1948, one of the first public companies in Maltese commercial history, it offered 140,000 one Maltese pound shares at two Maltese pounds per share, and the issue was heavily oversubscribed. This year the Group is marking the 80th anniversary of its foundation in 1928.