Freskoulis: The ruler of salad in Greece

One can rightly recognize in the person of Makis Mavropoulos, founder of the well-known company of ready-made salad products, “Frescoulis” or Eurocatering as its corporate name, a pioneer of this particular manufacturing industry.

The entrepreneur’s journey began in 1999 when he started his activity in the field of restaurant distribution and catering, then maintaining a small workshop in Renti, which had some small processing lines, while the production was 70% based on manual labor. The intense competition, however, prompted Makis Mavropoulos to think pioneerly, proceeding to the production of ready-cut vegetables.

Gradually his business began to grow, gaining more and more market share. The creation of “Frescouli” in 2004 and the construction of a new modern industrial plant with high production potential in Acharnes Attica were pivotal for him and the company. Today the company has production units in addition to Athens and Livadia, logistics, distribution and sales centers in Thessaloniki, Larissa and Patras.

Setting the pace as a pioneer in the ready-to-eat salad category

Eurocatering or more widely known as Freskoulis, is the company that essentially created the category of ready-made, cut salad in Greece and put it in the grocery store refrigerators of supermarkets. The head and founder of Makis Mavropoulos, is the person who managed to develop this specific activity, maintaining close cooperation and sometimes personal relationships with producers throughout Greece, with whom he works.

Today, the company is dominant in the field of ready-made salad, constantly increasing its profits and actually growing its shares year after year. The investment of EOS Capital Partners, the fund led by the experienced and insightful former banker, Apostolos Tamvakakis, cannot be considered a mere coincidence. After all, we will remind you that Tamvakakis was the one who invested in a minority stake in Cosmos Sport and as a result came out a winner, selling his share a little later to JD Sports and exiting earlier than expected due to the explosive course of the business he had invest the fund.

Freskoulis is a dominant force in Greece

The company today is particularly strong financially and may be looking at new investments. Makis Mavropoulos’ philosophy is to maintain partnerships of many years. Something that can be seen from the cases of employees, producers or suppliers with more than 20 years of common path. It is his deep conviction that nothing would be possible without the contribution of his company’s employees and partners. Eurocatering’s strategy, as Freskoulis’ corporate name is, is to invest the money that enters its coffers, either from its business activity, or from the investment funds of EOS Capital Partners, a fund led by Apostolos Tamvakakis and has acquire a minority of the shares of M. Mavropoulos’ company. Eurocatering is currently available in all supermarkets in the country, either with a branded product or with a private label product. In 2022 Freskoulis managed to increase his turnover by 13.5% reaching 56.2 million euros however the bottom line of the balance sheet changed sign as it wrote losses of 770,619 euros at group level from profits of 2.9 million euros in the financial year 2021.

The acquisition drive in the organic sector

But we will remind you that Mavropoulos made a new business move in the fourth quarter of 2022. It was then that he proceeded to acquire part of the shares of the organic products trading company, Viugeia EPE, with the acquisition price reaching the level of 10 million euros. Participants in this project include the Tamvakakis family, the former CEO of Goody’s and former vice-president of Palirria, Sotiris Seimanidis and the senior partner of EOS Capital Partners, Yiannis Papadopoulos.

Nikos Milios, an executive with many years of experience in well-known companies such as Lion Rental and Teomoto, also participates in the scheme. Viugeia is the company created several years ago by the visionary entrepreneur Leonidas Stratidakis, who retained 20% of the business.