He is the furniture maker who, a few years ago, entered the European “salons.” The Serres-based office furniture industry Dromeas, which runs at full speed on foreign projects, supplying its products to the services of the European Commission, the German army, while recently it also undertook the three-year-long project of furnishing the CERN facilities.
With “code” extroversion, Thanasis Papapanagiotou managed not only to put his company in the international “frame,” expanding his client portfolio, but also to offset losses in the Greek market since the “storm” of the economic crisis broke out. A… storm that has dealt a blow to the furniture sector, with turnover falling by more than 40% in recent years.
The export strategy… paid off, significantly increasing Dromeas’ turnover speeds, which in the nine months of 2015 rose to 5.69 million euros (from 4.47 million euros in the same period of 2014). However, the group still faces uphill struggles. First of all, despite increased sales, it “produces” losses after taxes, which at the group level amounted to 1.5 million euros.
Also, despite operating abroad, in Balkan countries and the European Union with increased turnover in both geographic sectors at 442,000 euros (from 402,000 euros) in the former and 2.4 million euros (from 1.058 million euros) in the latter during the difficult nine months of 2015, pre-tax losses are produced. In the neighboring Balkans, these amount to 105,000 euros, and in the European Union to 572,000 euros. Small compared to other groups, but they remain losses.
Another “headache” for Thanasis Papapanagiotou is the difficult Greek market. Sales in Greece fell to 2.8 million euros (from 3 million euros), while here too pre-tax losses reached 648,000 euros — although reduced compared to a year earlier. With forecasts remaining gloomy for the economy and the new harsh measures of the third memorandum bringing a new “cut” in family incomes and thus purchasing power, the furniture sector is not expected to “pick up” pace immediately, with companies operating in it following suit. Add to this the intense competition from multinational powers, and the situation remains difficult.
Dromeas is running “uphill,” however, even on the Athens Stock Exchange board, where its stock price reached 0.101 euros (on January 5, 2016), falling 11% compared to the previous day, while in the summer of 2009 — before the recession fully showed its… teeth in the economy — it ranged around 0.930 euros.
Despite adverse conditions, Thanasis Papapanagiotou continues with a dual strategy: on the one hand, playing “strong” abroad and, on the other, seeking new collaborations domestically. Regarding the first part, a few months ago he opened a large store in the “heart” of Europe, Brussels, while a major collaboration is about to begin with a large German company that has a wide sales network in the office space.
Domestically, a notable collaboration made in 2015 was with the Marinopoulos group, according to which a large collection of Dromeas furniture is available from 14 Carrefour stores.
Over the course of the years, in any case, Dromeas has established its position, while a milestone year for the company was 2000, when it was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange and the year in which it furnished all the stations of the Attiko Metro with waiting seats and the Eurobank stores with corporate identity furniture.
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