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e Business OBSERVER | July 2, 2015
INTERVIEW
From litres to square metres It is not hard to understand the rationale behind the Farsons Group’s decision to hive off its property to another public company. Perhaps one of the things that might be overlooked, however, are the ties that the founding families still have to the building and its surroundings. “We – myself and the board – have strong emotional ties to the original brewery built in the late 1940s– and not just because my father built it. When I started working here, there were no other buildings either in front or behind us!” group chairman Louis Farrugia said. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the group bought most of the land to the south and eventually decided to rethink the production site. “The plant and machinery layout in the 1950s were set in a linear mode, starting with the empty warehouse to the west side of the building; the production area occupied the centre of the building and the full product warehouse to the east side. In the late 1980s, we commenced a renewal programme with a new fermentation block development that took place to the south of the main building,” he said. Eventually, the time came to find a new use for the original building, and the board did not take their responsibility lightly. “It is an inspired place of art deco architecture we are justifiably proud of. We have always recognised its architectural importance and we always knew that we would be challenged to find a use for an asset like this. Knocking it down was obviously never an option and in 2011, quite understandably, Mepa scheduled the façade and old brewhouse,” he said. The group first looked at what other retired breweries in town centres abroad had done. It then launched an international competition for design ideas from architectural firms based on using the building and space in a commercial
FARSONS’ NEW BREWHOUSE
ARCHITECT’S PLAN AND DETAILS IN COLOUR
“e targets are ambitious: exports currently represent about 10 per cent of the brewery turnover and the group’s aim is to treble this within five years”
role – anticipating the growth of the services. “We attracted some very-wellknown international firms. Finally we awarded the work to Ian Ritchie, who is a very-well-known UK based architect with an outstanding international reputation,” Mr Farrugia said. The business park stretching along the main road represents a €42 million investment, and will result in seven blocks of five storeys each, with six gardens in between, retaining the impressive facade. The net result will be 18,000 sq.m. of office space, with a mixed use area, food and beverage outlets, offices, a ‘sky bar’ and a visitors’ attraction – not to mention over 700 car parking
spaces. The group also intends to create a green building, maximising the possibilities of using natural ventilation. There are two important aspects to the development: the group will be looking at various financing options, as well as the spin-off to another ‘plc’; and its role in the context of Mrieħel. The spin-off of this project and other property assets into a separate ‘plc’ is scheduled to take place around June 2017 and the shareholders will receive the equivalent number of shares in the new entity that they own in SFC plc. It will be up to them whether they retain or sell them. The group is also considering a rights issue as well as other methods of funding.