A century of achievement

1915-2015 100 years of enterprise The History of Alf. Mizzi & Sons Ltd

Author: Julian Sammut Publisher: The Kite Group / 2016 Pages: 416pp

This is one heavy book – big as a coffee-table volume with glossy pages, lots of pictures and a pleasant display.

It tells the story of one of Malta’s foremost companies all the way from its humble beginnings, originating in the Maltese diaspora in Tripoli and now blossoming in companies such as The Point, Midi, The Atrium, Homemate and The Plaza.

Alternatively one can look at this century of achievement as encapsulated in the life and times of Bertie Mizzi, one of its prime movers who died a short time after the glittering century celebrations.

One must understand where this company came from. Angelo Mizzi was born in Malta in 1857. He studied medicine at the Royal University of Malta and later at the Institute Pasteur in Paris.

Then he moved to Tripoli, got married to a Maltese Tripolina of Maltese (actually Senglean) descent, Eleonora, and set up as the first European doctor in the territory, then still under the Ottomans. He kept his post when the Italians took over from the Ottomans in 1911.

After the death of his wife in 1922, Angelo returned to Malta and took up residence at 18, Strada Zakkarija in Valletta. He remained active as a doctor and acquired The Original English Dispensary round the corner in Strada San Giovanni.

Together with his son Arturo, Angelo began importing pharmaceutical and allied products, foremost among

Ovaltine.

For the last years of his life (he died in 1937) Angelo moved next door. His grandchildren still remembered him rocking slowly in his chair, a book in his hand and a tasseled fez on his head.

His son Alessandro (Sander) seems to have been quite a character. He set up a printing press, the Mercurius Press, in the basement of the house which printed the Nationalist Party papers, Il-Poplu and The Mid-day Views or any other name they would get when the paper was sued for libel.

Heavyweight Nationalist politicians like Nerik Mizzi and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici (Il-Gross) could be frequently seen rushing into the kitchen for a plate of pasta or couscous prepared by Kelina, the faithful family cook who had been in Tripoli with the family and followed them to Malta, while they frantically wrote the editorial for the next day’s edition.

One other son, Alberto, (Bertu) contested the general elections, first with the Nationalist Party and then with the Malta Labour Party, without any success on both occasions.

On 20 March 1892 in Tripoli, Eleonora gave birth to her fifth child, Alfredo, the Alf still honoured in the Alf Mizzi name. At that time the family formed part of the quite sizeable Maltese community in Libya, living in the Tripoli Medina around the church “of the Maltese” Santa Maria degli Angelo.

The Mizzi boys got their primary education at a school in Tripoli run by the Christian Brothers. But for their secondary which was education they were sent to the Lyceum in Malta. Their father rented a house for them at 52e, Strada Zekka (Old Mint Street).

After completing his studies at the Lyceum, Alfred returned to Tripoli and joined the Banca d’Italia next door to the Santa Maria degli Angeli church. He then moved back to Malta towards the end of 1914.

On 1 June 1925 he married Mabel Dunbar Vella. The two families lived next door to each other in Strada Zakkarija. Her father, Dr John, was the former vice president of the Bank of Malta.

The Dunbar Vellas were staunch Stricklandjani while the Mizzis were fervent Nazzjonalisti. Those were the hot days of the language question and two sets of invitations had to be made for the wedding, one in Italian and one in

English.

The newly-weds took up residence at 344, Strada San Paolo, Valletta, two doors down from the Castille Hotel, later incorporated in The Times printing press.

During the Second World War, as the bombardment of the Grand Harbour and Valletta intensified, Alfred moved the family and the office to his summer house in Balluta.

The first letter to be found in the company’s archive is dated 13 September 1915, a letter of introduction to Spettabile Ditta Anonima Manifattura Reggiani e Sonnino, Bergamo about the bleaching of cotton.

As was the custom at the time, Alfred first set up in business as a commission agent. He would visit several clients with his samples, collect the orders and then pass them on overseas to the relevant companies. The profits were not substantial but the risk to the agent inexistent.

Although the company states it was born in 1915, 1917 was Alf. Mizzi’s first full year of sales activity. In that post-war time of poverty only 34 sales were registered that year and the following year with fighting intensifying only two sales were made. But when the war ended in 1919, 123 sales were made.

At first the company branched into the haberdashery business and later items of clothing. But by the mid-1920s the company was looking around and established its famous link with Dutch Baby, also establishing the first of its many gift schemes.

Later on, Dutch Baby led to Frisian Flag brand of milk which the company still represents.

The company was also the first representative in Europe of Seikosha clocks, later to become Seiko watches which the company still represents.

Life was slower back then. Many Valletta families had holiday homes, small houses and mezzanini mostly in St Julian’s and Sliema where the family would move for the three months of summer. The working men would commute to the capital daily, returning home for lunch.

Alfred Mizzi was a serious man by nature and disposition, extremely conscientious in all he did. He was a deeply religious person, never missing his daily Mass, regularly attending the 9am Mass at St Francis church just round the corner. In the evening the whole family would gather for the Rosary.

After the war Alfred worked very hard to re-establish the business after the stagnant years of the war but in summer of 1948 he suffered a heart attack and thereafter his involvement in the company decreased and slowly became practically inexistent.

However his children took over and the company grew and grew – as we shall see in the next article.