Paul Stoner, now Chairman of the TCC Group, recalls the early entrepreneurial days of TCC in this address to esteemed guests during the 10th Anniversary of RS Components in Malta in 2004. The company has grown from its humble beginnings, yet the same entrepreneurial spirit remains at the core of its strategic endeavors.

"We are so pleased to be able to share this evening with people who have contributed in many different ways, in helping us make RS Malta the success we hoped it would be when we started back in 1994.

If I had to be honest, I don't recall exactly how we became the Maltese Distributor for RS Components. Ron Denny (Mr Denny is today a retired Director of the company) and myself founded this business on his eminent wisdom and my boyish good looks, and somehow it worked!

During the planning stage of our new venture, with Ron imparting volumes of knowledge by the minute, I remember thinking "I hope this guy realises he's going to have to tell me all this info again tomorrow - and every day for the next ten years!"

And so it began.

The first job was to go home and explain to my heavily pregnant wife, that we were now in the Catalogue business and don't expect me home much for a few months..talk about lead balloons!

And so off to RS in the UK.

If my memory serves me well, our original brief from RS went something like this - "All you need to do boys, is 'put the right product, in the right hands, at the right time' - It's that simple!"

Well, in true entrepreneurial style, I quickly remembered what Theodore Roosevelt once said: "Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly, I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

So we did just that, and boy did we learn quick.

We soon learnt that like all businesses, RS is a people business, so we went out and got some of those.

We learnt that the business is customer driven, so we got some of those too.

We learned very fast that you need reliable and efficient logistics partners, so we got some of those as well.

And we had ourselves a business - and a nice business at that.

But not everyone in Malta wanted to buy from an Electronics Catalogue - some wanted to buy from a clothing catalogue, so we got one of those also. Today, La Redoute is the leading home shopping premier brand in Malta.

We soon learned that we needed IT to drive our business - so we got loads of that by starting our own software company.

Catalogue Solutions today supplies software and e-business solutions to a diverse range of Catalogue retailers in Europe and the Middle East, and of course to its parent company TCC.

Today, 73% of The Catalogue Company's orders are received via the internet - either via our websites or via specialist call centre software owned and coded by our own IT company.

Our call centre operation with the Maltacom Group is a market leader, dealing with upwards of 3,000 calls per month, offering the Maltese public true 24/7 shopping. Our email based marketing initiatives go from strength to strength, and our website traffic has double in the past four months.

Yes, IT - we definitely got a lot of that!

Our RS business has flourished because of a multitude of people, not all work directly for the company but all play a vital part in the RS Service in Malta.

Earlier I talked briefly about the right reliable and efficient logistics partners.

Back then, of freight we knew nothing, of air freight - even less, and as for the ‘black art’ of customs clearance - well, it’s still very much a black art today!

Companies like Air Malta Cargo Systems and Thomas Smith, have been our Logistics partners for the entire time we have been in business, and have mastered logistics to a fine (black) art.

Truly better partners (and advisors) you will not find.

'Put the right product, in the right hands, at the right time' - they are certainly the contributing factor to the right time.

Which just leaves the hands

There are two sets of hands in this equation - one set gets paid, and the other set does that paying.

People I said earlier, we got some of those.

I firmly believe that those people, our staff, are the very best people for the job we do. Without them, we have no business - I thank each and every one of you.

And what for tomorrow ?

We firmly believe that Malta's entry into Europe will enhance the business opportunities outside these shores.

With Malta as an integral part of the world's largest economy, we, as a company, fully intend to take advantage of this, and have made the necessary plans to use Malta as a hub for RS Components into Northern Africa.

Libya is our big goal, and although certain trade barriers still exist, we are confident that with our principle's guidance, we can establish the RS Components name in a market that has been 'starved' of such products for many years.

So, to recap, it was really just like the man said Ten years ago: "All you need to do boys, is 'put the right product, in the right hands, at the right time' - It's that simple!"

Thank you for listening to my little story - it's one I am very proud of."