Marble products firm wins €1.3m contract

Hal Mann International has been awarded a €1.3 million contract for works at the new Corinthia Towers Hotel under construction in Tripoli, Libya.

The firm said it has won the contract despite fierce competition following an international call for tenders late last year.

The project involves the supply and installation of 7,000 square metres of 14 types of natural and resin-based agglomerated marbles. These marble floors will be laid in the hotel`s various public areas including restaurants, reception areas, staircases and the business and conference centre.

The contract includes the construction of 11 "mosaic carpets" - some measuring up to six metres by two metres. Hal Mann explained that each "carpet" was hand-made, using tens of thousands of tiny cubes of different coloured marble blocks to create colourfully striking stone tapestries for the floor.

"We sincerely believe the marble works being produced in Malta will be a worthy reflection of the five-star superior deluxe standards that the hotel will achieve," Hal Mann Group chairman Nazzareno Vella said.

Mr Vella, accompanied by Hal Mann International`s managing director, Aldo Vella, was addressing members of the Corinthia Group`s board of directors, including chairman Alfred Pisani, who recently visited the various production units at the Hal Mann factory in Lija where works for the Tripoli Hotel project are already underway.

Although Hal Mann International was a well-established exporter of marble-based products, the Corinthia Tripoli Hotel represented the largest single project it has ever handled, a spokesman said. The job involves both the processing of the marbles being used and their installation on site.

Forty of the company`s 120 employees are currently engaged on the project and installation is expected to start this month.

Hal Mann has been in business since 1954.