The interwar years were difficult. And hard. Particularly for the world of work – including illegal but de facto “legal”, poverty-stricken, child labour.

At that time, there was one category of workers, who were derogatorily called “buck cats”.

The “buck cats” of Athens and Gerasimos Vassilopoulos

They were poor children who came to Athens to a relative or a patriot of theirs, who had a job and had a grocery store. Grocery otherwise. And their poverty was such that they could not afford to rent a room and they lived inside the store – in a room behind the trading hall.

A little boy in short pants, who at the age of 13, in 1930 found himself in Athens working in his uncle’s grocery store.

In fact, the Association of Grocery Store Employees that existed at the time – according to the newspaper “Private Employee” of the Federation of Private Employees – had as a request to stop the derogatory reference of the “grocery cat” to employees of this category!

The beginning at 29 Voulis Street

Gerasimos Vassilopoulos, the creator of one of the largest supermarket chains on the Greek market, whose name continues to exist as a trade name, came from this environment.

A little boy in short pants, who at the age of 13, in 1930 found himself in Athens working in his uncle’s grocery store.

About ten years later, in 1939, they bought the store where he and his two brothers worked as an employee, at 29 Voulis – near Mitropoleos. And so the business activity of the young Gerasimos Vassilopoulos begins.

Getting to know the commercial intelligence of the time

After the occupation “he met Bergeletos, a commercial genius of the time” says an old associate of his. And it won’t be long before he becomes active in import and wholesale trade in general.

The establishment of some of the most well-known “brands” of foreign consumer products in the Greek market is due to him – Zwan ham, Argentine Universal, Uncle Ben rice, Colgate Palmolive products and several others.

The deal with Colgate Palmolive

In fact, the successful activity with the placement of these products is such that foreign companies buy his agency. In fact, the last one, Colgate Palmolive obliges him in the contract they sign to completely withdraw from the wholesale trade! He accepts it.

But he has managed to accumulate enough funds. And he “retires” to the company “Xenia”, which he had already created.

In the mid-1960s – Greece’s association with the EEC had already been signed – several foreign companies began to “look” seriously at the Greek market.

The retail sector was dominated by grocery stores – of all sizes – with the exception of the “Thanopoulos” chain, which was essentially the only supermarket chain in the Greek market at the time.

The Marinopoulos…

In 1965, the brothers Dimitris and Yiannis Marinopoulos, in 1965, created the company “Niki SA”, which cooperates as shareholders with the French Printemp, which had the Prisunic chain.

And the first Marinopoulos supermarkets open as PM. Then, around 1970, all the subsequently known chains began to take their first steps slowly (Sklavenitis, Veropoulos, etc.).

…and the family civil war in Psychiko

Two of Gerasimos’ brothers, George and Yiannis, had already opened their first supermarket in the Psychiko Lighthouse. For inexplicable reasons, Gerasimos decides to open his first store on the exact opposite corner! Competing with his two brothers.

It was the scandal of the time. The whole market was discussing it, looking to find the reasons for this choice. To no avail. Rumors upon rumours. However, since then the relations of the brothers broke up for good!

Working with the best

Having traveled the world himself, in Europe and the United States, he had acquired enough stimuli for the type of store he wanted to create. And he succeeded – “he had money and he was working with the best” says an old associate. And he knew where he wanted to go. In the urban world.

The “godfather” of the famous slogan

To those who had the ability to spend. One store led to another. After Psychiko, Glyfada, Filothei and Kifisia. And “…bird’s milk”?

The famous slogan – which today functions rather as a “weight” because it gives the misleading image of the price – was an idea of ​​the old advertiser Takis Theofilopoulos, of the “Alektor” company, one of the historical advertising companies.

Conservative development

At that time, in the 1970s and more so in the 1980s, the big players in the market were opening one store after another, with extraordinary speed. On the contrary, Vassilopoulos was not at all interested in the many shops.

It is typical that when the company was acquired by the Belgian Royal Delhaize Le Lion, the network of stores consisted of only 11 stores – ten in Attica, with the “freshest” Mega in Hellinikon and one in Pyrgos, from the area of from which Gerasimos Vassilopoulos came.

The Belgian takeover of Delhaize

However, one of his competitors, referring to the acquisition, said that “the Belgians bought the fillet of the Greek retail trade”! Indeed, because one of the ways of a chain’s efficiency is to divide its turnover by its total number of square meters.

In this “exercise” AB Vassilopoulos was for many years the first, longer than the second. Gerasimos Vassilopoulos remained the company’s front man for another three years, until 1995. That was the deal. Then he left. And he got involved with the Food Bank he had created.

The entrance of Kostas Machiras

However, the new president and CEO was Patrick Knight. But it did not prosper for long. And his place was taken by a demonic executive from the Greek market, Mr. Kostas Machiras. The development of the company is due to him. It opens stores at a “machine gun pace”.

Expansion at a machine gun pace

He leaves Attica and “goes” from one city to another. And he begins to star in the “game” of takeovers. His first acquisition – and ultimately his biggest – is of “Trofo” of the Spanou brothers – with which he also sets foot in wholesale, with ENA. The two sides struggled for quite some time in the courts.

The first acquisition

However, the new network is integrated into the company. And for a long time he had targeted the eponymous company of Mr. Diamantis Masoutis, with whom as soon as they reached the “engagement” their relationship was dissolved. In the end, AB Vassilopoulos entered the Thessaloniki market, but again, no matter how much pressure it exerted, it did not manage to buy it.

He remained somewhat repulsed. However, he made other acquisitions, from Acritic Thrace to Crete.

In the end, he was promoted to the international leadership of the group. And the company was one of the leaders in the Greek market.

The dark period of the Memoirs

In the years of the prolonged crisis, the retail map changed. Consumption fell, large and once powerful companies (Marinopoulos, Veropoulos, Atlantic, Arvanitidis) collapsed.

Others were bought out, another “went down” and its network was sold in pieces, many small chains were sold at a dead end.

But others also stood out – they gained share, sales and were at the top of the industry, such as Sklavenitis and Metro. AB Vassilopoulos faced problems, but not serious ones that would cause a shake-up.

The baton to the Dutch of Ahold

In 2015 Delhaize was acquired by the Dutch Ahold. The management of the Greek company changed two or three times, the executive force changed – a large part of it – and the company entered a “new era”.

In the period of the deep crisis in Greece, AB managed to cope despite the difficulties

Meanwhile the collapse of Marinopoulos strengthened all the others. AB was one of the winners.

In a period of shrinking consumption, its growth rate was 15% per year. Until Sklavenitis bought the Marinopoulos network. The next year everything changed.

The Sclavenitis the rival awe

The company Hellinikes Hypergores Sklavenitis was at the top and at a distance from the second, which was AB. In the last years when the “boss” was Mr. Machiras, the company, trying to change its profile, emphasized the development of a large number of private label products.

It was the years of crisis and the poverty of a significant part of the population was great.

A few years later the next management changed it by trying to reaffirm its famous slogan “… and the bird’s milk”! Later again things changed.

The new administration and the opening in PL

Attempting to reach a larger segment of consumers, the new management led by Mr. Nikos Lavidas is again emphasizing private label products and offers.

He wants to eliminate the wrong impression that – in his opinion – a significant part of consumers have, that this is an expensive chain. But it seems that her new policy is finally having results…

Source: ot.gr