16 · MONE Y
ISSUE 54
COVER STORY
MONEY interviews Edward Hili, executive director of Hili Company, on the company’s roots and the various sectors it operates in today both locally and internationally.
Hili Company has been operating since 1923. What explains its longevity? The company’s roots do indeed date back to 1923 when my father’s uncle, Carmelo Caruana, set up his namesake company in commodity trading before venturing into ship brokering and chartering. He was intent from the start on rooting the business in a solid reputation with enough flexibility to explore opportunities. Much has changed in the century since then. The company has evolved with the opportunities it embraced, both in Malta and overseas, as well as the challenges that came about. What remained constant throughout were the key principles. And I believe that this was key for us to build an organisation for the long-term. We remain steadfast in our belief that reputation and credibility take years to build but can be lost in an instant. We put a lot of energy and thinking into the trust we nurture in our relationships with clients and stakeholders. This is what makes our clients come back to us again and again.
1 We are also true to our heritage of remaining nimble and flexible, ensuring that we give timely responses to an ever-changing environment. To do so we have crafted, and maintain, lean structures with a hands-on approach. Your shipping terminals and logistics operations have now spread to various parts of Europe. How have you kept up with the advances in this sector? Despite the shipping industry’s long history, the sector is by no means immune to change and, particularly, technological advances. In the terminals and logistics business, technology is a key driver of our competitive advantage. It increases the efficiency of our operations and facilitates the quality of service that clients have come to expect from us. For these reasons, we have a vision and a rolling plan in place which guides our longterm technology strategy at all levels of our operations. We have invested heavily in order to ensure that our operating companies are leaders in the regions where they operate. At BCT in
Latvia, for instance, we were the first container terminal in EMEA to implement the latest Navis terminal operating system. We are now in the final stages of implementing that same system at our terminal in Venice and plan to go live in the next couple of months. One way local companies look for new beginnings is to venture beyond our shores. Although a few succeed to some extent, their core business remains in the local market. Hili Company, on the other hand, has become truly global. What's your secret? When the baton was passed on to my father and his brothers in the 1970s they soon recognised the need to expand beyond Malta’s shores. The firm gradually diversified, developing a portfolio of businesses in port
