Joe Cachia joined Bortex in 1979 after 15 years as a print media journalist and, later, with Malta Television, where he served as head of the news and current affairs department. His Bortex career spanned 33 years, during which time he was intimately involved in the group’s entire operational spectrum – from planning, production control and outsourcing overseas, to the procurement of raw materials, sales and marketing. Joe was a pioneer in the group’s marketing division, which was expressly set up early in the 1980s by the group’s founder, Sunny Borg, to develop market strategies that would diversify the group from a manufacturing operation solely supplying a partner company to a market-oriented enterprise. As director of sales and marketing, Joe spearheaded the sales drive to attract clients and new business in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. Towards the end of his time at Bortex, Joe was actively engaged in the group’s branching-out into retail trading and in the marketing of the house brand. On retiring from Bortex in 2013 Joe joined the public service, first in the Finance Ministry and later in the Ministry for Social Policy and Children’s rights, where he is still serving as adviser to the ministry’s permanent secretary.