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Article by the President, Mr. Athanasios Papapanagiotou
PUBLICATIONS
Ath. Papapanagiotou (DROMEAS ABEEA): We Offer Solutions for the Ideal Workspace
Athanasios Papapanagiotou, President of DROMEAS ABEEA, discusses the company’s international orientation as the official supplier of office furniture to the European Commission, the differences between domestic and international procurement processes, and the challenges that the banking sector in Greece poses for businesses.
Q: For 15 consecutive years, Dromeas has been the official supplier of office furniture to the European Commission. Additionally, in the last decade, you have won consecutive contracts with the German Army, supplying hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture. What factors contributed to this major success?
During the onset of the economic crisis in Greece in 2008, when the domestic office furniture market collapsed, our company had just completed investments of around €40 million to enhance our production capacity. This could have been disastrous for us. However, by leveraging the capabilities and flexibility provided by these investments, we won the European Commission tender in 2009, worth €25 million over 4 years. The combination of our detailed approach to their needs, the quality of our materials, the certifications we achieved for our products, and the competitive pricing we offered, was the recipe for our success in that tender.
This first contract was a milestone in our history and an important “learning experience,” as it pushed us to look outward and provided us with the experience and organization to pursue future projects of similar scale.
From that contract onward, we were recognized as major producers internationally, and this reputation made subsequent tenders easier to secure. Completing projects successfully further strengthened our credibility.
In the following European Commission tenders we won (2015 and 2020, totaling over €50 million), our positive prior experience with the Commission was also a decisive factor. We have been supplying office furniture exclusively to the European Commission from 2009 until today and will continue to do so at least until the end of 2025.
A similar process occurred with the German Army. Once they learned to trust us, each subsequent tender was slightly easier. However, the rest of the market knows your capabilities, so in every new tender you must differentiate yourself to maintain the element of surprise.
The German Army tenders we have won from 2013 until now amount to €71.5 million, covering roughly 500,000 pieces of furniture.
Importantly, the ongoing projects with the European Commission and the German Army amount to around €50 million, with completion expected over the next two years.
Q: Your company has also won several tenders in Greece with major organizations (Piraeus Bank, PPC, OTE, etc.). Are there differences between domestic procurement processes and those of European organizations?
Unfortunately, there are significant and negative differences. While our company wins many important domestic tenders, which should be natural since we are the only remaining manufacturer of professional furniture in Greece, we have also lost many significant contracts for at least suspicious reasons.
Many domestic public tenders lack the certifications required by European standards. This allows companies to offer products of dubious origin with no quality certifications. Such practices harm public interest: cheaper products may need replacement or repairs multiple times over five years, fail to provide employees with adequate comfort and safety, increase environmental impact, and ultimately cost more than certified products that offer safety and longevity.
Additionally, “under-the-table” agreements by procurement officials with suppliers are widespread, favoring pre-arranged bids and leading to rejection of more suitable offers. These chronic issues hold Greece back compared to Europe.
Q: As an active entrepreneur, what obstacles do you encounter in Greece regarding business development, especially regarding energy issues?
It is true. Greece’s primary electricity generation relies on gas, which is decreasing while renewable energy sources (wind and solar) increase.
Investments in wind farms are high-cost and limited to a few providers who have evolved into energy suppliers with overlapping investments to ensure stable output. This oligopoly has led to a refusal by the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) to license solar power plants for 6–7 years, causing the country to lose tens of billions of euros in potential solar energy.
HEDNO claims the transmission network is saturated, but the reality is a lack of transformers that they should have installed. The oligopoly prevents small producers from benefiting from net metering, harming thousands of businesses and concentrating profits among a few providers. This monopolistic system borders on national disservice and must be reformed.
Q: How do you assess the banking system in Greece? Does it contribute to investment growth, or does it create obstacles?
Greek banks set lending interest rates uncontrollably, often more than double those in Central Europe. With EURIBOR rises, banks add the entire percentage to the existing spread, doubling already high rates.
The EURIBOR adjustment by the European Central Bank to combat inflation should not automatically be added fully to the spread. Unfortunately, Greek banks do exactly that, making business growth non-competitive.
The Federation of Hellenic Enterprises (ΣΒΕ) should urge the government to cap spreads and EURIBOR rates to levels comparable to EU countries. Excessive bank profits do not contribute to national development.