Where angels fear to tread | Melo Hili

Premier Capital plc has been a developmental licensee since 2005, operating McDonald’s restaurants in Malta, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and has now taken ownership and operations of the 19 company-owned restaurants in Greece.

As a developmental licensee it will be key in the future development of the McDonald’s brand and the business in Greece.

Run by the Hili family, Premier Capital plc generates revenue in excess of €52 million in 30 restaurants, employs over 2,400 people and serves 24 million customers annually.

“It is true that Greece is facing serious problems, but McDonald’s is a brand that gives value for money, and in times of crisis, it also becomes the affordable meal,” Premier Capital plc managing director Melo Hili told MaltaToday.

“For us, investing in Greece is equal as investing anywhere else, including Malta. We focus on what we want to do and what is to be achieved,” he said.

Melo Hili prides his 2,400 workforce, with a senior management that is mostly Maltese.

Investors respond with almost blind trust to the Hili family and their overseas projects, as bond issues are over-subscribed upon issue.

Last March, Premier Capital plc announced the closure of its bond issue due to over-subscription. In view of the strong demand for the bonds, the company exercised its over-allotment option and increased the amount of the 10-year bond issue to a maximum of €25 million.

The €25 million bond issue was raised principally for financing the expansion and development programme over the coming two years.

The Premier Group intends to acquire  eight new McDonald’s restaurants in Malta and the Baltic states while a number of existing McDonald’s outlets are intended to be re-modeled through conversion into hybrid restaurants and McCafes.

“We respond to the investors trust by working harder and harder,” Melo Hili says, adding that “producing results will always remain the main goal.”

Greece in fact represents a huge opportunity for the group. With a population of 11 million and   millions of tourists that visit the country every year, the challenges are enormous.

“We have managed to reap successes in managing Malta’s market with 400,000 inhabitants and approximately seven million more people in the Baltic states where we operate,” Hili said.

The stores in Greece are spread across the territory. From a flagship store in the main Syntagma Square in Athens, just a stone’s throw away from the Parliament building which was the centre of unruly protestors who clashed with the police during the past few days, to stores in idyllic Crete, Rhodes, Corfu and Zakinthos.

While Melo Hili shuttles between Athens, Riga, Vilnius and Talinn, he is concerned however at his expansion plans for Malta.

“We want to expand and it is of particular concern to us that we have permit applications taht have been pending for quite some time,” he explains.

A permit for a state-of-the-art McDonald’s outlet on the Tal-Barrani Road in Zejtun, instead of the eyesore of a scrapyard and service station, has been pending before Mepa since 2009.

Since2005 when Premier Capital Ltd became the development licensee for McDonald's in Malta, the company had immediately embarked on an extensive programme which included opening new restaurants and remodelling existing ones, starting with the McDonald' restaurant at the Plaza in Sliema followed by the store at the Malta International Airport, then St. Julian's, Valletta and Bay Street.
"Our guiding philosophy behind this investment is to continue offering customers an excellent environment, service, value for money and quality food,” Melo Hili concluded.

While all this was developing, during last year, the company also saw to the opening of another eight new restaurants in the three Baltic countries bringing the total in this part of Europe to 39 restaurants - all owned and operated by Premier Capital Ltd.