About us
Gormina bakery is renowned for the freshness and highest quality of bread making, thanks to generations of family experience, commitment and passion for what is considered to be one of the island’s most loved traditions. Today, george mifsud is ensuring that this tradition remains a family trait and is the founder of what has become one of the island’s most popular bakeries.
The gormina story goes back to the mid-1900s when george’s parents, francis and josephine, both originally from qormi and who were affectionately known as the ‘village of bakers’ opened a bakery in sliema where george was born. In this bakery all the family members including george’s older siblings used to help their father and worked endlessly. This, is how george’s passion for the art of bread making began.
From a tender age, george showed great dedication and love towards the profession and art of bread making. His father, who knew the challenges and constraints of this profession, did not wish that george continues the family tradition and encouraged him to seek a career which would give him less strains and hardships. Yet just like his father, george’s passion, persistence and commitment continued to intensify as time progressed and contrary to his father’s wishes, george remained loyal to this local tradition. George’s father passed away when george was only fifteen years old, and while he missed learning skills from the person he considered to be ‘master breadmaker’ he continued learning the family business from his brothers.
On the 21st july, 1991, george decided it was time to launch his own bakery in mosta, and later on moved to his family home town qormi launching a bakery in the heart of malta’s bread making village. The ovens found in this unique bakery were known by all as the “forn tal-ħatab” and remained a landmark for many years. During the start of his business venture, george used to personally visit the streets of qormi and deliver bread door to door, this is part of what made the locals start to understand george’s great talent, skill and love and is certainly what made george become one of the island’s leading bread makers. During these years the demand for george’s bread products continued to increase rapidly until the size of his very own qormi bakery became too small. George understood that if he wanted to continue to develop his business further he would have to move to larger premises, increase the production line and invest in modernized and improved technology. Throughout his business career, there was never a moment when george stopped thinking of his father, the skills that he so lovingly passed on to him and the family tradition he was so blessed to continue.
From qormi, to sliema, back to qormi and mosta by now, george had established himself as a leader in his profession and on the 7th june 1997, malta’s sette giugno national feast, george made the bold decision of launching a bakery in st. Paul’s bay and decided to dedicate it to his own family, particularly his supportive wife. He called this bakery gormina (a name derived from his name george and his wife romina). Gormina has now become a meeting point for people buying bread and high quality confectionery items from all over the island.
The gormina popularity and brand name continued to grow and also became popular all over the world. Some of the world’s movie blockbusters filming in the maltese islands, including the production teams of the award winning gladiator, u571, munich and troy appointed gormina to supply them with bread and pastries during their production time in malta. Thanks to george’s constant effort, dedication and commitment to this local custom, george personally accomplished two guinness book of records titles namely the ‘biggest bread in the world’ for his 2tonnes bread, and the ‘longest baguette in the world’ which was 9metres long. The gormina team lead by its founder george was also invited to represent the maltese islands as part of malta’s joining the european union prestigious celebration events.
While the brand name gormina became one of the leading names in the maltese islands with worldwide recognition, success and popularity, george firmly believed that he had to continue to strengthen his presence and in april 2013, gormina team decided to invest in the refurbishing of their main shop while also extended their range of products to ensure that their clientele would enjoy the highest quality products at the most affordable prices. The family also expanded their portfolio of bread types to make sure that they were offering a vast range of bread varieties, some of which are unique to the maltese islands.
After decades of bread-making and continuous success and memories, the company led by its founder george, continues the island’s bread making tradition and acknowledge and thank their loyal customers for believing in their products, encouraging them and being such an essential part of their success
