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Trade with Greece
62
PIRAIKI MICROBREWERY
Alexandros Koumandos, Managing Director & Founder
Brand-name Product Award
MEDIA STROM SA
Media Strom has been the leader in the mattress
market for more than 44 years, and has turned its
name into “a byword for good sleep”. Since 1967,
millions of consumers have been showing their trust
in the company, thanks to the reliability, unrivalled
quality and hygiene of its products.
The MEDIA STROM brand-name is well-known and
very attractive, not only to the public, but also in busi-
ness circles. In a recent quantitative survey that cov-
ered the whole of Greece, 96% of the population
stated that Media Strom is a familiar name (Source:
METRONANALYSIS, May 2011), while, at the same
time, the company managed, despite the adverse
economic situation, to attract new entrepreneurs who
invested in it, creating a total of 26 franchise outlets,
for which it won 2 awards in two consecutive years:
the Best Concept Re-design Award and the Best
Marketing Campaign Award. Media Strom knows
how to make efficient investments in knowledge,
experience, people, quality and, above all, the future.
This is why it has been recording spectacular sales
growth rates in the past few years, which exceeded
329% in the period 2000-2010.
The company deals with the economic crisis by
growing even more. So, today, despite the tough cir-
cumstances, it continues to invest in Greece, creat-
ing new jobs, while it has already completed its most
ambitious project, the construction of a new state-of-
the-art plant, on an area of 42,000 m
2
at Markopoulo,
Attica.
In the past few years, Media Strom has been ranking
high in Statbank's list of “Diamonds of the Greek
Commerce and Industry”, while in 2008 it received
the National Entrepreneurship Distinction by the
Greek Ministry of Development!
In 2010, it was ranked by ICAP as one of the
Strongest Companies in Greece, and in 2011 it
received the award for BEST WORKPLACE.
MEDIA STROM SA
Ioannis Niarchos, President
Environment and Green Growth Award
PIRAIKI MICROBREWERY
Enthusiasm, entrepreneurial perseverance and con-
sistency, faith in the quality of organic products, as
well as the belief that the Greek gustatory approach
to a foreign product can be an interesting and
dynamic venture, led Alexandros Koumandos to
establish the Piraiki Microbrewery in Drapetsona,
Piraeus, six years ago.
Although at first it seemed Utopian for a simple phar-
macist and beer-lover to embark, with very limited
own funds, on a venture involving an organic prod-
uct, in a sector where Greece has no tradition and is
dominated by multinational or local big investors, the
acceptance of “Piraiki” beer by consumers proved
that this was not the case at all.
Although keeping a low profile, the company utilized
its distinctly good quality in order to establish for the
first time in Greece the gustatory and organic dimen-
sion of a reasonably-priced beer, and to grow slow-
ly, but surely, during the past few years.
Traditional and unhurried brewing for six weeks,
state-of-the-art facilities, certified organic raw materi-
als and a traditional recipe, according to which beer
is strictly produced by water, barley malt and hops,
can produce a unique and competitive product. “Our
principle is to be honest and respect consumers; our
strength is their preference” is the motto of
Alexandros Koumandos, who, following a strategic
partnership with the Alpha TANEO VC Fund two
years ago, invested in new facilities at the Industrial
Zone of Lamia, enabling the company to respond to
demand without compromising quality.
In modern, environment-friendly facilities, using high
quality water from Mount Oite and with increased
capacity, Piraiki continues its honest and “clean”
effort in wholesaling, both in Greece and abroad.