COVID-19 speeds transformation of Evolve to solutions provider

Luqa, Malta: – Having become Malta’s fastest-growing science company, offering services such as designing, equipping, and maintaining scientific workspaces and training industry professionals, Evolve Ltd. has ambitious plans for further growth and transformation based on a new post COVID-19 identity as solutions provider.

The company’s vision has been set out by its CEO Christopher Busuttil Delbridge in an interview with Malta’s leading business magazine, Malta CEOs.

Mr. Busuttil Delbridge has led Evolve’s growth and transformation into a leading life sciences environmental and regulatory specialist within the Attard & Co Group. That in turn has helped to establish Malta as a life sciences cluster, with 14 other companies now having joined Evolve on the Mediterranean island.

Introducing new technologies

“We have helped to establish the pharmaceutical industry in Malta, taking it from one company to 15 companies today. We were there at the forefront, upping our game to match the expectations and requirements of a highly regulated industry,” Christopher Busuttil Delbridge affirms.

Evolve is now playing a similar pioneering role in establishing Malta as a center of the rapidly growing  medical and ethical cannabis sector, having designed and built on Malta one of the EU’s very few GMP-certified medical cannabis processing facilities.

Noting that a company’s growth is measured in stages, Mr. Busuttil Delbridge notes that Evolve’s most significant milestones center on introducing new technologies, such as molecular biology, to the market.

Significant milestones

He singles out two achievements for particular mention.

The first was refining the company culture through a year of training and workshops on positive psychology, leadership, communication and mindfulness, through which “we defined our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) into what became our mission: to be an internationally-recognized award-winning thought leader in the scientific and healthcare markets. This is something that inspires us every day because we, as a team, came up with it,” says Mr. Busuttil Delbridge.

The second milestone he cites as significant was an international breakthrough in becoming the first company in the world to design and build an EU standard pharmaceutical laboratory in West Africa. “Nowadays we consider ourselves a local and international company, and we already have a number of prestigious projects abroad,” says Evolve’s CEO.

COVID challenges and opportunities

The coronavirus pandemic has brought both problems and opportunities for Evolve.

On the down side, the crisis and business disruption caused worldwide has translated into orders delayed and projects postponed by 10 months to a year.

“COVID-19 has primarily affected us when it comes to timeliness,” says Mr. Busuttil Delbridge, citing several orders in Ghana which should have been completed in 2020, but had to be put on hold.

However, on the positive side, the pandemic has also accelerated a business evolution for Evolve with opportunities to market products to a wider audience.

“Operating in such a niche market, you have a very limited number of customers locally. So, for the first time ever, COVID-related products opened a door which we had never knocked on before – the B2C market,” he says.

New focus and identity

This has coincided with a new emphasis on marketing, enacted in a corporate rebranding and launch of a re-engineered, as well as engagement of external marketing specialists.

“This has had a huge impact on how people perceive us, and it’s been a great experience,” says Mr. Busuttil Delbridge.

He describes the biggest opportunity to come out of COVID-19 as “space for introspection”, allowing Evolve to embarked on a business process re-engineering exercise to prepare for its next phase of growth.

He says the coronavirus crisis has also precipitated a mentality shift, placing new value on collaboration and shifting Evolve beyond being an importer to become an innovative solution provider.

“What got us here won’t get us further. It’s been good, but we now need to unite our strengths to be more successful and competitive, especially in international markets,” Mr. Busuttil Delbridge declares.

“We used to sell products, now we do projects. To us, that also means that we have to change our mindset as employees of Evolve, and bring in additional skillsets which we require,” he affirms, adding that the company’s biggest challenge for 2021 is making sure that the leadership team in particular is aligned with the strategic needs and opportunities for the company.

About Evolve Ltd.

Evolve Ltd, is a Malta-based solution provider and project integrator operating in the European, Mediterranean and sub-Saharan African region. Servicing all scientific workspaces Evolve offers a holistic service that draws on four principal areas of expertise, in the design, equipping, personnel training and maintenance of laboratory and research facilities and equipment.

Evolve Ltd. is part of the Attard & Co. Group of Companies and traces its origins to Attard’s setting up in 1956 of Medical and Scientific Equipment and Supplies (MSES) to cater for its scientific products. During the 1990s, under the leadership of Christopher Busuttil Delbridge, Evolve’s current Managing Director, MSES changed its business model, centered on a vision to become a recognized, award-winning, world-class thought leader and influencer on the international scientific and healthcare laboratory market.

In 2006, following Malta’s accession to the EU, MSES Department was rebranded as Evolve Ltd., an independent  Attard subsidiary tasked with serving the scientific community. Within five years, it had developed three operating departments: Medical & Diagnostics, Scientific & Industrial and Technical Services.

Evolve currently employs some 30 people, mostly scientists and technical experts.

Further information at: www.evolveltd.eu

Resources

Click on Christopher Busuttil Delbridge, CEO, Evolve to see original Malta CEOs article.
Click on Evolve Newsroom to see further news and events from Evolve Ltd.