Companies to fight sale of Air Supplies

A number of prominent Maltese companies have described the proposed sale of Air Supplies to a consortium of a foreign majority investor and two local firms as anti-competitive and not beneficial to the Maltese economy and its consumers.

Air Supplies is an Air Malta-owned company that owns the duty free spirits and perfumes outlet at the airport.

The prominent companies include Paolo Bonnici, Francis Busuttil & Sons, C&M Marketing, Chemimart, Alfred Gera & Sons, Albert FS Manduca, Master Wine Holdings, Ta' Xbiex Perfumery Ltd and Xtreme Co.

They issued a statement yesterday signed by the former president of Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise Reginald Fava, although the statement has nothing to do with the chamber.

The sale of Air Supplies was the subject of a call for tenders issued by Air Malta. Last October it was announced that the winning bid was that of Mediterranean Nuance Group Limited, made up of Nuance Group AG, an international duty free operator based in Switzerland, and the Bianchi and Demajo group of companies.

The group of opposing companies objected immediately to this sale, saying that the deal would be in violation of Maltese competition law.

A spokesman for the Competitiveness Ministry said the Office for Fair Trading was looking into the issue. This was standard procedure since such sales or mergers need clearance from the office, he said.

Neither the Bianchi nor the Demajo Group wished to comment on the matter yesterday.

It appeared Air Malta intended signing the contract with Nuance next Thursday but this would have to depend on the clearance of the Office for Fair Trading, the ministry spokesman said.

The companies' statement said: "If the decision of the Office is to clear the acquisition by Nuance without conditions, the Maltese suppliers intend to appeal to the Commission for Fair Trading and to resort to legal action in court as necessary."

The gist of their objection, Mr Fava explained when contacted, lay in the fact that Nuance Group would probably be purchasing products directly, bypassing the Maltese suppliers and therefore cutting them out from one of Malta's major markets.

"Some 2.5 million people go through the duty-free mall," he said, "and everyone knows that many tourists do their shopping there".

"Nuance Group, with its purchasing power, can get better prices for the products offered by Maltese suppliers, however, they will not offer them at a better price but the price accepted locally," he claimed.