New Farsons CEO pours record profits as Malta’s favourite brewery looks to next 100 years
Farsons names new CEO and announces strong results
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The island that gave the world Cisk has a fresh captain at the helm. Simonds Farsons Cisk plc yesterday unveiled Norman Aquilina as its new Chief Executive Officer while posting record-breaking figures for the year ended 31 January 2024 – a double shot of news that has set Malta’s business and hospitality circles buzzing.
Aquilina, 52, steps up after 27 years inside the Farsons group, most recently steering the company’s brewing, beverage and franchising divisions. The promotion, approved at yesterday’s board meeting in Mrieħel, sees him succeed his mentor Louis A. Farrugia, who will remain Executive Chairman and – in true Maltese family-business style – “keep an eye on the fermenting tanks”.
> “This is not a changing of the guard; it’s a passing of the pitcher,” Farrugia quipped to shareholders gathered at the Farsons Visitors Centre, the converted 1950s brewhouse whose limestone arches echo with decades of clinking glasses. “Norman understands that Farsons is not just listed on the Malta Stock Exchange – it’s listed in people’s memories: festa nights, beach barbecues, grandma’s rabbit stew with a tin of Cisk.”
The handover comes as the group announced a 14 % surge in pre-tax profit to €18.7 million on turnover that topped €121 million – the strongest set of numbers in its 99-year history. Dividend-holders from Valletta to Victoria will pocket a total payout of €7.8 million, money that, in a very Maltese feedback loop, will likely be spent in the very bars and restaurants Farsons supplies.
Local context: more than beer
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To outsiders, Farsons is the brewery behind Cisk and the franchisor of KFC and Pizza Company. To Maltese, it is a national institution whose fortunes track the island’s own. Founded in 1928 by Giuseppe Scicluna and the Farsons family, the company survived Luftwaffe bombs, 1970s import restrictions and 2020’s COVID shutdowns. Its share register reads like a who’s-who of village festa benefactors; its delivery trucks are as familiar as the yellow buses once were.
The results show every island sector raising a glass. Beer volumes grew 7 %, lifted by the citrusy Cisk Chill and retro-styled Farsons Traditional Shandy beloved by older drinkers. Soft drinks fizzed 12 % higher, boosted by Lanzani sparkling water and the return of cruise passengers guzzling Kinnie on sun-baked decks. Even the food-import division, which brings in American chicken destined for Marsaskala takeaway boxes, posted double-digit growth.
Cultural significance
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In a country where “ħobż biż-żejt and a Cisk” is shorthand for summer, the CEO appointment is front-page news. Aquilina hails from Senglea, a fact not lost on social-media commentators who joked that the Three Cities now control both Farsons and Festa fireworks. He read economics at the University of Malta before joining the brewery as a management trainee in 1997, the year Kinnie was first canned in slim-line format.
> “I started counting kegs in the Marsa warehouse,” Aquilina recalled yesterday, his voice cracking slightly. “Back then we worried about Italian lager flooding the market. Today we export Maltese beer to 25 countries – from Toronto to Sydney – because the Maltese diaspora wants a taste of home.”
Community impact
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The ripple effects are already visible. Farsons has pledged to maintain its €250,000 annual community fund, underwriting village festa bands, beach-clean-ups and the L-Għanja tal-Poplu music contest. The group’s new €20 million chill-storage complex in Ħal Far, due to open in 2025, will create 80 jobs, many earmarked for young people from the southern harbour area.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, welcomed the company’s promise to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 – a tall order for a business whose flagship product is shipped in heavy glass bottles. Farsons says it will install another 2,000 sqm of solar panels on the Mrieħel roof and trial returnable kegs for Paceville bars, cutting single-use plastic by 30 tonnes a year.
Looking ahead
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Aquilina takes the reins as Malta braces for another record tourist season. Hoteliers report minibars already stocked with Kinnie, while Ryanair flights from Manchester land laden with passengers who have pre-booked Cisk brewery tours. Analysts at Bank of Valletta note that Farsons’ share price has outperformed the MSE Index by 18 % over 12 months, but warn that inflation-linked excise hikes loom in next month’s budget.
Still, shareholders leaving yesterday’s meeting seemed bullish. “My nanna bought 100 shares in 1965 so she could get the dividend and buy Christmas beer,” laughed Claire Borg from Żabbar. “Today that investment paid for my son’s university books. Farsons isn’t just Maltese industry – it’s Maltese heritage in a bottle.”
As the sun set over the Mrieħel silos, painted in the colours of the national flag, Aquilina raised a toast – Cisk Excel, the low-alcohol variant marketed to gym-goers. “To the next 100 years,” he declared. On an island where business, culture and community ferment together like hops in wort, Malta will drink to that.
