Great twitter thread by BugM.
Everyone loves a rags to riches story.
1/ Meet Ikona Artworks, a #Maltese “boutique” (aka small & unknown) design firm owned by Joel Saliba and Margaret Pace, of crumbling jablo #V18 statues & friends in #Malta Gov fame. pic.twitter.com/Fbv9XYdzMR
— BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018
2/ In 2012, Ikona Artworks, who surprise surprise use NexiaBT’s services, was loss making & had accumulated losses of €26k, negative equity (more debts than assets) and a balance sheet value of just €45k.
Those were sad times doing odd jobs for the Msida & Gzira councils. pic.twitter.com/jaH0OFsUpC
— BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018
3/ 2013 (Labour being elected), surprise surprise, marked a change in fortune for Ikona
It started off slowly (amounts not disclosed):
2013
‘Gvern li jisma’ Campaign
Budget ’14 campaign2014
Budget ’15 campaign
MITA Digital Malta Strategy
MITA Innovation Hub Website— BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018
4/ Work slowly picked up pace for Ikona:
2015
‘Gvern li jisma’ campaign
Ads for “dawl u ilma”
Arts council “consultancy”
CHOGM
Malta migration summit
Budget 2016 campaign2016
€73,614.97 for Planning Authority “re-design”
Public Service Week ads
Budget 2017 campaign— BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018
5/ By end 2016, Ikona had reveived more direct orders than a rookie soldier at bootcamp – this search gets you all mentions: https://t.co/XuaLvM14mk
Business was booming. Its sales & balance sheet grew 10x to €500,000 not including salaries and wages.
A magnificent turnaround pic.twitter.com/BgyrWC7OeD
— BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018
6/ 2017 was an even better year:
Arts council “consultancy (€36k)
Third Year Government ads (€19k)
PR for https://t.co/FEIPaaw6Z2 (€34k)
Media Buy campaign (€40k)Which brings us to Ikona’s magnum opus:
How much did they get paid for this crap? pic.twitter.com/HDl0dfXMa5
— BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018