The Head ( MD ) of Malta's PM Factory is a very talented Lady indeed...
Helga Ellul is well known in Malta as a very successful, determined and shrewd business woman, who is at the helm of the largest German factory in Malta – with 850 employees also the third largest employer in Malta. Yet, as she told me during her interview, she also finds time to cook and knit, paint and write poetry, play golf and enjoy at leisure the view from her house in Naxxar. Amongst others, she also holds honourable positions like Governor of MCAST, Vice-President of the Malta Federation of Industry, Past-Vice-President of the Rotary La Vallette Malta Club and Vice-President of the National Council of Women. She was the first foreigner who employed young Maltese workers straight from school offering them a proper vocational education or apprenticeship with training in Germany. For her efforts as an outstanding employer and for her continuous engagement in business and industry, she was also the first foreigner to be awarded the Maltese National Order of Merit by the President of Malta in 1993.
Who exactly is this lady, spending her working hours in the spacious office building of the newly erected factory in Hal Far? It is this enterprise and product success of Playmobil which is closely interwoven with her own personal accomplishments and professional career. Let us see how it all began:
Helga Ellul was born in the small town of Zirndorf near Nürnberg, Bavaria. Together with her younger brother she was brought up by very conservative and bourgeois parents of protestant faith. Her mother did not pursue a profession, but gave the grand old house always a welcoming atmosphere for every body living there including the numerous friends of the children. Hikes in the surrounding hills and skiing in winter were natural pastimes enhancing the children’s love for all living creatures. As her father could only afford a University education for one child, this – according to the trends of the times – had to be the boy, who actually was not keen on studying at all. Consequently, father arranged an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk in Nürnberg for the brighter daughter. She had to leave school at the early age of 15, having completed her “Mittlere Reife” (approximately equivalent to O-Levels). She successfully absolved her three years as an apprentice and added another year in the accounts department.
However, getting homesick, she wanted to return to Zirndorf, and applied for a position in the sales and export department of the only private company in town, belonging to a certain Mr. Horst Brandstätter. The factory with approximately 200 employees produced toys, such as kids’ telephones, scales and cash registers as toys. She was accepted and started in 1968 making also much use of her fluency in English and French. Talking about this period, Mrs. Ellul says: “Mr. Brandstätter was and still is my mentor”, - admiration and gratefulness obvious in her voice. He had the reputation of furthering his female employees, particularly when he sensed special talents, professional knowledge and an open mind. He introduced her to the factory processes and taught her the analytical way of taking decisions including their realisation with perseverance. He systematically built up her self confidence, encouraging her to never to drop her dynamical attitudes.
In the times of manual typewriters, carbon copies, and wax stencils, he gave young Fräulein Helga her first project: to carry out a market analysis of printing machines - comparing office time of conventional methods against the speed and prices of this new investment. She obliged, and the printing machine suggested by her was acquired. This filled the female heart of the budding entrepreneur with pride, still detectable today.
Due to rising costs and lack of workers in the Germany of the late sixties a transfer of the production into a country with more suitable resources was envisaged. It was a German friend producing artificial Christmas trees for Canada in Malta who praised the island and mentioned the high local unemployment rate. Consequently Malta was chosen, and the factory was inaugurated in 1971. The new staff members were trained for some months in Zirndorf, where it was Helga Ellul’s duty to look after these young people, all of them first time away from home. Some of them are still working at Hal Far! Originally the factory produced various toys made of plastic, until it was decided in 1974 that little people should excite the children’s imagination. The choice fell on a red Indian, a knight and a builder. It was a Dutch trader who discovered and marketed these first figures in Holland. The breakthrough was made also with the introduction of the name PLAYMOBIL, a brainchild of Mr. Brandstätter.
While this happened in Malta, the young and head-strong Fräulein Helga from Zirndorf wanted to gain some experience on this “distant” island and asked for re-location for one year which was granted. She drove alone (!) with her tiny Volkswagen beetle - which was painted with colourful flowers - all the way through Italy, arriving in Malta one fine day in February 1974, after which she never ever re-settled in Germany for any length of time. Her duties in the Maltese factory comprised the setting up of a managerial administrative department with accountancy, payroll, banking, production planning etc. After some years the original technical manager left and when Bernd Ritschel took over as Head of Technical Department and Operations in 1976, Helga Ellul was installed as Managing Director of Playmobil Malta Ltd, a position she enjoys whole heartedly to this very day.
Helga Ellul also cherishes a private life, which - one may say – started while playing tennis at the Marsa Sportsclub during her first Maltese year. There she met this interesting and internationally open minded Maltese gentleman Joe Ellul. Though she actually considered herself a career woman not wanting to be bound by marriage or children, she eventually gave in, got married in 1977 and a few years later first Christian and then Chiara were born. A very harmonious family life unfolded. “But”, so she says, “this would not have been possible had my husband not very willingly shared with me all responsibilities, even with the young babies. Because I was – and still am – obsessed with my professional scopes and the workforce of the factory depending on me.”
For Helga Ellul it is essential to have a goal which can be reached by development and with responsible strategies. It is important to show the youth of a country that it is of lesser consequence which work they carry out, as long as they follow an aim and are in themselves satisfied with their achievements. “We as adults have to supply them with an environment on solid pillars”. She concludes quoting her father’s words written into her album of poems: ”Alles, was Du sagst, muss wahr sein, aber nicht alles, was wahr ist, musst Du sagen”. – Everything you say has to be true, but not all that is true has to be mentioned by you.
And for the reader with quantifying inclinations: At the time of writing the 100.000.000.000th little plastic figure had left the factory at Hal Far to travel into the world.
For your diary
Wednesday, 2nd April 2008
Gesprächsrunde „Verkürzung der Schulzeit in Deutschland - Verlängerung in Malta“
Diskussionsleiter: Klaus Koch
