The Bortex Group

The family-owned Bortex Group (the name an anagram of ‘Borg’ and ‘textiles’) has been making apparel ever since 1964.

Founder Salvatore ‘Sunny’ Borg launched the firm, specialising in men’s suits, jackets and trousers, while also being renowned for manufacturing for other labels and tailors, along with various high profile customers around the world.

The Borg family started Gagliardi based on the founder’s nickname and life story…

Salvatore Gagliardi

Salvatore Gagliardi had always wanted to see the world. However, as the first distant hints of war approached, he joined the military ranks as a young lad, eager to contribute towards safeguarding his beloved Mediterranean islands.

With a very slim wad of banknotes in his wallet, some pennies in his pocket and his rucksack on his back, he set off to his destiny along with a few hundred other young men, aboard an army truck driven over rubble roads towards the barracks – which would be their home for many months to come.

He wriggled in his new uniform, making sure everything was just so, the way his mother had always taught him. “Being respectable starts from the way you dress,” was her motto. The commander in charge of his battalion must have had a mother sharing the same ideology and seemed to take the same motto to heart. Salvatore enviously eyed the man’s sharply creased trousers, immaculate shirt and spotless jacket, making a mental note to press his own trousers a bit harder next time round.

The military experience proved to be an eye opening one for him. He learnt a great deal, observed everything and anything that seemed worthwhile of observation.

Three generations of Gagliardi – Salvatore (aka Il Gagliardi), his son Peter and his grandson Samuel

He made his first travels to nearby Italy, and he learnt fast. Eventually he used his natural aplomb and enthusiasm to stand out from the crowd, quickly scaling the ranks within the forces as his innate prowess at leadership came to the fore.