Zammit Group

Zammit Group is a Maltese family-owned group of companies with diversified interests spanning the motor industry, property and the marine and shipping sector. The business traces its origins to the early 20th century, when founder Michael Zammit began trading foodstuffs and livestock in Malta and expanded into commerce with nearby markets such as Sicily and Tunisia. During the First World War he built a reputation as a reliable trader, and in the late 1930s and 1940s the family became one of the island’s leading importers and traders of cereals, foodstuffs, fodder and livestock, as well as a key supplier to the British forces stationed in Malta. The group also organised the importation and distribution of seed potatoes for cultivation and re-export. Under the leadership of Michael’s son Eucharist, the business was reorganised as E. Zammit & Co. in the 1950s and expanded into transport and marine activities. The company operated the passenger and car ferry service between Malta and Gozo until this service was transferred to the state-owned Gozo Channel Co. Limited, in which the group retained a substantial shareholding until 1998. The Zammits were also contracted to supply daily requirements and port services to the US Navy’s 6th Fleet during its Mediterranean deployment, and over time acquired, managed, chartered and traded various vessels, including freighters, passenger carriers, dredgers and tugboats, at one point running a passenger ferry service in the Middle East. From the late 1960s, with the involvement of the third generation, Zammit Group diversified into motor vehicle import and distribution. It secured the Honda motorcycle franchise, later extending to Honda motor vehicles and all Honda products, and separately developed a long-standing distributorship with Isuzu Motors covering diesel engines, light commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles. These brands are imported, distributed and marketed through wholly owned subsidiaries Associated Motors Co. Limited and Mira Motor Sales Limited. Following a restructuring in the early 1990s under a holding company, Mira Holdings Limited, the group continues to derive its core activities from the motor sector while maintaining interests in property and marine and shipping.