The challenges forced on businesses by the COVID-19 pandemic were like a computer restart, a company director told a public discussion on Wednesday.

The discussion, between business operators and the Chamber of SMEs heard how businesses had to, practically overnight, change business models they had followed for years, and see precious investment go to waste as they changed focus to new activities. 

"We could either choose to see it as a five-year setback, or an opportunity to speed up our portfolio by two years in new and unexpected ways,” director Gianni Zammit said. 

The discussion focused mainly on efforts to safeguard the employment and health of staff, investment in technology and digitisation and the creative reuse of company assets.

The panel consisted of company leaders working in event organisation, gaming, retail and transport and logistics.

Zammit from Jugs Malta and Jonathan Pace from Nrgy Concepts Ltd represented the event organisers. Vasileios Kasiotakis represented Maltco Lotteries, whilst Matthew Bezzina represented eCabs and the transport and logistics sector in general.

Despite being from different sectors, the entrepreneurs faced similar challenges.

“Our first priority was safeguarding the health of our staff, along with shifting their roles around according to the company’s new needs,” Matthew Bezzina said.

He explained how frugality and a concerted effort to invest in technology and diversify the company portfolio were key to maintaining a good turnaround for their company.

“One of the worst moments was having spent €60,000 on refurbishing our very first office, only to eventually realize that we needed to scrap the project altogether to better adapt to the present circumstances. It was a sentimental moment, but sacrifices had to be made,” Bezzina stated. 

Matthew Bezzina, eCabs CEO.

However, Bezzina was quite optimistic about the company’s future.

He pointed out that they had successfully diversified their portfolio by fast-tracking technological upgrades such as a ride-hailing platform and the development of an app that connects merchants to logistics partners such as themselves.

Arguably one of the worst-hit sectors was event organization, with mass events in general being banned for most of the year.

Gianni Zammit, founder and director of Jugs Malta, said his company had found creative solutions to optimise the skills of its team.

“We tried to adapt to our strengths and figure out our weaknesses. For example, we ended up getting into customised carpentry because it turned out that some of our staff were able to divert skills used for stage-building for this purpose,” Zammit explained.

Gianni Zammit, founder and director of Jugs Malta.

“We did the same for traditional events and conferencing. Events went online and conferences became webinars. We wanted to build resilience and ensure long-term survival, no matter what. We really had to go into alternative thinking mode,” he added.

Jonathan Pace, director and co-founder of Nrgy Concepts Ltd, explained how they faced similar issues, particularly since financial burdens for start-up companies could be very unforgiving.

Jonathan Pace, director and cofounder of Nrgy Concepts Ltd.

“Our main business is events, so we had plenty of expenses in a zero-income scenario. We were forced to look into new markets and analyse digital trends,” Pace said.

The panelists explained how their immediate concerns were about making sure their operations could continue without any undue risk being placed on their staff.

“Our first reaction was to close down all our outlets. In fact, by March 18, all Maltco lottery outlets were closed and then reopened on May 4,” Kasiotakis said. 

Maltco’s CEO explained that since they operated in retail style, the risk for spread of infection was deemed too great at first.

It didn’t take Kasiotakis long to figure out alternatives, however. The company  launched an online version of their usual money-makers. 

“Eventually, we saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to accelerate projects which were planned for the next two years and had to suddenly be reprioritised. We expanded our games and introduced new ones, and made sure that our agents were covered through wage supplements.”  

Vasileios Kasiotakis, CEO of Maltco Lotteries.

Maltco Lotteries also made it a point to cover agent expenses by ensuring they received a commission from online games.

“We are one big group consisting of hundreds of operators, and we could not survive these circumstances without taking care of each other,” he explained.

Zammit succinctly summarised the mindset which all four businesses had to adopt - it was like a computer restart, he said.