The Nationalist Party said it wants to ensure Malta provides the right environment for businesses to continue investing and expanding, as Opposition leader Alex Borg highlighted the need to address labour shortages and unfair competition during a visit to local furniture company Bond's Ltd, the PN said.
The Nationalist Party said it understands the challenges facing companies, including those importing products from overseas for sale on the local market, and is committed to ensuring Malta offers the right environment for such businesses to continue investing and expanding.
The remarks were made by Opposition and PN leader Alex Borg during a visit to Bond's Ltd, where he met the owners, directors and employees of the furniture company, the PN statement said.
Borg was welcomed by Alex Aquilina and his son Lee, who showed him around the company's three-storey, 1,200-square-metre showroom in Attard and introduced him to a number of its 22 employees, the majority of whom are Maltese and work across its various departments.
The company, a family business now run by the third generation of the Aquilina family, began as a household goods shop in Sliema in 1964. It later developed into an established local business importing furniture from Italy for the Maltese market.
The statement said that after Alex Aquilina opened a DIY shop in the early 1990s, and as Malta moved towards European Union membership and the import market opened up, he invested in expanding and diversifying the business. His children, Lee and Gail, later joined him and today run the complex, which sells a wide range of furniture, including kitchens, bedrooms, living room furniture and other household furnishings from several established Italian brands.
These include Colombini Casa, Febal Casa, Materassi e Materassi and OIKOS paints. Since 2014, the company has been ranked almost every year as the best annual performer among companies selling these Italian brands across Europe, the statement said.
The company's owners told Borg that, following various investment projects undertaken over the years, they are now exploring the contract furniture market for hotels and tourism establishments.
Alex and Lee Aquilina said visits of this kind allow business owners to explain to politicians the challenges and opportunities they face. They said discussions focused on improvements that could ease the day-to-day realities of running the business and enable companies such as Bond's to invest further, benefiting both employees and customers, the statement said.
For his part, Borg said such visits help the Opposition better understand the challenges facing businesses that import products from overseas, including labour shortages and unfair competition from other imported products, particularly through parallel trading.
He said these realities must be addressed and that the Opposition is committed to working towards a level playing field in Malta to ensure companies such as Bond's can continue to grow, invest and create more jobs for Maltese and Gozitan workers, the PN statement said.
Borg was accompanied during the visit by PN MPs Graziella Galea and Justin Schembri.