Can you give a brief overview of the history of Express Trailers?

Emmanuel Vella started what would ultimately become Express Trailers, back in 1954, and purchased his first truck in 1960. However, it was only in 1978 when the company Express Trailers Ltd was officially set up, mainly to take advantage of Malta’s growing imports industry by sea. In 1991, Express Freights Ltd was established in a bid to offer a broader range of deep-sea logistics services.

The secret was adapting to the changing needs of a country whose economic activity was constantly changing. At first we were big in textiles, with trucks specially adapted to handle finished clothing, but today, a strong pharmaceutical industry required new heavy investment for us to be able to store and transport pharmaceuticals in a temperature-controlled environment.

From our first truck in 1960, today we are the proud owners of a fleet of 98 tractor units and vehicles, 254 trailers, five cranes and 42 “reefer” units (refrigerated container units), to which we are about to add another 10. Besides, as our main depot and head office in Luqa, we have eight large warehouses in Qormi and Luqa and we also operate from bonded stores in Hal-Far. Apart from Malta we operate through five main hubs in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Sicily. This organic growth has been constant and we consider this as a main factor in the success of this business.

What are your key areas of operation and what are the challenges?

Our core area is in transportation by land, sea and air. We are considered leaders in this sector so much so that we have also been entrusted during a number of very important national events. Two of these worth mentioning include the logistical support to international media crews during the Bush/Gorbachev talks held in Malta in 1989 and the transportation of the euro currency to Malta in 2007. We are also entrusted with sensitive jobs such as local and overseas diplomatic relocations and with the handling of valuable and delicate items such as musical instruments, works of art and classic cars.

Malta being in the middle of the Mediterranean and at the periphery of Europe is at a disadvantage since everything that goes through Malta, or which is consumed in Malta needs to be imported by sea or air. However, over the years, Malta has cleverly carved its own competitive advantage through a flexible and advantageous fiscal regime through EU membership and thanks to the Bolar exemption which allows pharmaceutical firms to manufacture another company’s drug before the expiry of its patent, ostensibly for testing and regulatory purposes.

The latter has proved to be a significant opportunity for us. Pharma companies choose to store their products in Malta using our sophisticated temperature-controlled warehouses. When the patent for pharmaceuticals expires, we roll a complete transport and distribution operation of the products around the EU.

Government is also promoting Malta as a hub for the physical movement of goods. In the industry we now speak of “Third Party Logistics”, which means that businesses can outsource all of their logistics and warehousing activities to us, leaving them only to focus on the sales channels. When businesses are then importing non-EU goods to the EU we convince them to warehouse temporarily in Malta before then shipping to each individual country. The advantage to the firm is that they save money on shipping since they have now one destination, Malta. They also save on cash flow due to VAT deferral.

So our current strategy is to leverage this use of Malta as a hub for Europe and North Africa. Certain costs along the line remain high and this is a hurdle which we need to see to and overcome. This is why we are feeding our ideas to the authorities concerned because we feel that if certain areas are improved, these can make Malta even more competitive.

Another important area of growth at the moment is low-cost business-to-consumer shipping. The current trend is seeing the household become the direct importer of certain products through online shopping. We saw an opportunity in this and we leveraged on it by launching www.ShipLowCost.com. Through our five hubs across Europe, people can shop online and have their items delivered to our hub’s address and then, for a small fee, we transport this product to Malta up to the customer’s door.

Our competitive advantage over other similar services is that there are no size or weight limitations; we have brought over items ranging in size from smart phones to boat engines. This may sound a fairly low-technology operation, but it is also backed-up by a sophisticated web-based back-end that took a year to create and is still being developed. In every hub, those responsible know what needs to be loaded by whom and to which destination these items need to be transported.

What do you feel gives Express Trailers its advantage?

It is true that we are highly equipped and we have a sound and fully-fledged technical infrastructure. However, there is more to it than that. A competitor might replicate the investment in tangible assets, but no one can replicate the architecture which is built on knowledge and experience that only a company built up over time can provide.

We also know that we are doing things right when we experience a very low staff turnover. We have a certain pride in the company and our employees share this pride with us. Therefore, this too becomes a competitive advantage. Our employees are one of our greatest assets and we place great emphasis on training and standards. We also invest a lot in driver training and responsibility. Our drivers are our ambassadors on the road. They are the ones directly in contact with the consumer and who take direct responsibility for handling their valuable goods.

We also place great emphasis on respect for vulnerable road users. Our drivers know that no matter what, cyclists, walkers, runners and yes, even a mother with a push-chair, they are all vulnerable. Our drivers know how important it is to be sensitive on the roads.

Our company is also outstanding from a corporate social responsibility aspect. We regularly sponsor and support activities and events; mostly those that involve more vulnerable groups of road users. Last year we started sponsoring the Zurrieq half marathon and 10km run, which we will again be sponsoring this year and next year. This year we supported the logistics during the Malta marathon held in February where we transported all the athletes’ belongings from the start to the finishing line and more recently, we supported the expedition by four Maltese currently climbing Mt Everest, an initiative which is also raising money for Id-Dar tal-Providenza. The Vella family originates from Qormi so we also like to support activities and sports teams that hail from the locality.

Any family business needs to give serious thought to continuity planning. How has Express Trailers handled this?

Currently from about 160 employees, only 20 people are family members, while of the original eight brothers two have retired and six are still working. Moving from the second to the third generation is the most difficult part in continuity planning.

This is why the family was bold and recognised that it needed to introduce non-family personnel at senior management level. The first non-family chairman, and my predecessor was Joseph F. X. Zahra, (a founding partner of Misco, and former chairman of BOV). While I am now the chairman and CEO, my first appointment was as a non-executive chairman when the companies were merging all its operations under Express Group.

When I came on board, my challenge was to make the family members understand that there is a difference between owning and managing. I was brought in to structure the corporation, finalise the family charter and the various committees, which are all chaired by an outsider. The good thing about the Vellas is that because of their experiences, they all realised that if the company is to survive, it was in the best interest of all the shareholders to bring in outside experience. From a governance perspective we do seek to replicate industry best-practice, recognising though that governance is an art and not a science. I’m a forward-looking person; in my DNA I’m a visionary.

So what is your vision for Express Trailers?

My vision and dedication is for Express Trailers to be recognised out there as being the undisputed number one. For Maltese logistics it has to be us.