Vassallo Group is celebrating its 70-year anniversary. What were the company’s biggest achievements?

The group blazed a trail when it opened its first home for the elderly in 1993, at a time when this sector was considered the responsibility of the Church or the State. Now, thanks to a project called HILA, Nazzareno Vassallo intends to achieve yet another very important milestone for a group that has never held back in contributing to the country’s welfare.

Seventy years is a long time. But what I consider one of the first great achievements was the building of the Danish Village Project back in the 1970s. Up to that day, it was the biggest contract ever awarded to a single contractor. It was also the first turnkey project and back then it was a new concept for Malta. Later, we worked on the Airport terminal in the late 80s. That was one of the first consortiums and Vassallo Group was chosen to lead it.

The group also expanded into the hotel industry and important restoration projects. I can recall the restoration of Mosta Dome and the Cathedral in Mdina. We have been trusted with challenging projects, all of them considered as a one in a lifetime experience. The American Embassy and the huts in Salina were all very unique projects. These that I just mentioned are the ones related solely to construction.

One very important milestone for us was when the group became a pioneer in the care for the elderly sector. No one in the private sector ever dreamt of having a role in this sector. Before, care for the elderly was only provided by the Church and the State. But we were the first, back in the early 90s, to set up a home specially designed for the elderly – Casa Arkati in Mosta. This paved the way for nine homes for the elderly which are run by the group and are home to more than 1,500 people.

Vassallo Group kept growing and eventually also entered the IT sector. that our family was introduced to construction. After collecting debris, my father and two of his nephews started to build a number of houses. Eventually they were even building schools. In fact, the polytechnic in Msida was one of their first big projects. It was a partnership between three people and the projects employed more than 150 workers. That same partnership was responsible for the building of City Gate in Valletta in 1963, which was demolished some years ago.

Later, in 1965, my father together with his five sons, decided to end the partnership. The other party formed Gatt Brothers and we formed our very own Vassallo Builders.

For this anniversary, you chose the theme of Tradition, Innovation and Diversity. How important do you think these elements are to the group?

All of them are very important. First of all tradition, because I believe we always build on our history and traditions. The company has 70 years of history during which we have worked on all kinds of projects. From construction to hotels, from catering to homes for the elderly and now even IT and waste management among others. There is no business aspect we have never explored.

We also chose innovation for this year’s theme because the group always had its eyes open on how we can improve our service and to see if we can get involved in new sectors. Even as a group, we had to advance. If you look at the work we used to do before and the way we work now, it is very different. The group was also innovative in being the first to get involved in turnkey projects.

Ultimately, we have been successful because we did not try and copy what other companies were doing. I wanted the group to lead, not follow.

As for diversity, I think we are a very diverse group. We’re into construction, real estate, joinery, hospitality and so on. The group was a pioneer in the care for the elderly and today we are still the leaders in this field. Our group does not depend on one business and this is why we included diversity in this year’s theme. strategy, which will take us to 2020. We know there are new businesses segments we need to dwell on and we plan to increase the group’s consolidation to make it even stronger.

We hope that the home, Casa Apap Bologna in Mosta will be opened in June. The project will fall under our new concept – HILA. We decided to come up with this name for two reasons. One of them is that in the Maltese language, HILA represents one’s ability and will, but it is also an acronym for Homes to Independence and Limitless Abilities.

This is a project which excites us as a company and me personally. After 25 years working in the care industry, I think that our next step should be to widen our services to those people with disability. The country needs these types of projects and I believe we can contribute a lot.