Coco-Mat: The course from the mattresses to real estate and hotels

By Matina Harkoftaki

From its inception in 1989, Coco-Mat wanted to promote a different philosophy in the Greek market, recommending the use of natural materials, such as coconut, wool, rubber, cotton, silk, horsehair, and even seaweed. found in abundance in the Greek seas. From the beginning, it adopted a strategy firmly opposed to the use of plastic, which it applied to both the packaging of its mattresses, pillows and duvets. For more than thirty years, this philosophy has seemed more modern than ever as it keeps pace with the global drive for sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. A reasoning that stems from the very creators of their business, brothers Paul and Mike Eumorphides, who hold the same attitude in their lives.

Paul Eumorphides is more extroverted, during his many years of travel he has mentioned a few times his love for Greek nature, simplicity and creation. Of Pontian origin but born in Sparta, in Harakia, he left at 15 away from his paternal home because, as he had said, “the place did not fit him”. He completed his studies at the gymnastics academy and then worked at Civitanideio as a teacher, while at the same time working as a salesman in Monastiraki in a tourist shop to supplement his income.

The starting point

And somewhere there is born the idea to create the “best mattress” with a starting point a small space of 200 sq.m. in Patissia. The company will gradually begin to grow and the next stop is to establish its own production unit in the industrial area of ​​Xanthi, where all products bearing the CoCo-Mat brand are manufactured.

The natural materials used to make the mattresses and then the rest of the products such as quilts, pillows, sheets and furniture, make the company acquire its own identity, crossing the Greek borders. As Paul Eumorphides had previously said, the inspiration to make a mattress, which, among other things, contains algae, came to him when he slept one night on the beach of Harakia on a natural mattress of algae, having made “the best sleep of his life. of”.

Today, the company presents an expanded chain of stores with 42 points of sale in Greece, 9 stores in Europe, including in Nicosia, Madrid and Amsterdam, 3 stores in New York, one in Korea and one in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. has a presence with 7 stores in Germany, 2 stores in Italy and 9 stores in China.

In terms of financial performance, according to the latest published results of Coco-Mat in Greece, the company saw its sales in 2019 increase by 6.7% to 19.381 million euros, an increase due to increased sales to overseas customers. In terms of net result, losses widened to 5.9 million euros compared to losses of 384,624 euros in 2018 due to the impairment of intangible assets. During the two years of the pandemic, Coco-Mat tried to focus on the retail and e-sales segment, putting B2B and hoteling in the background.

The opening to real estate through Blue Cedar

However, apart from Coco-Mat, the Eumorphides brothers created in 2014 the real estate investment company (AEEAP) Blue Cedar, in the board of which he previously participated as an Independent Non-Executive member, the businessman and climber Antonis Sykaris, who recently he breathed his last at the age of 60 on Mount Daulagiri.

Blue Cedar in the first year started with the contribution of Coco-Mat stores and gradually expanded its portfolio, which now includes 34 properties, from hotels to offices and plots. Important is the opening it has made in the field of tourist accommodation, which are currently located mainly in Athens. Among them are 3 located in Kolonaki in Patriarch Ioakeim, Ypsilantou and Herodotus, the Coco-Mat Athens BC in Koukaki and the Coco-Mat Hotel Nafsika in Kifissia, which are leased to the hotel company Hotel Cluster. In the recent additions of the company is a listed building at 96 Asklipiou Street, in Exarchia, which won an auction at the beginning of this year, while in the next period it is planned to start the construction of the new hotel of Blue Cedar in Koukaki, in property which passed into its portfolio about 4 years ago, offering the price of 1.38 million euros in the context of a compulsory auction. At the same time, Blue Cedar has intensified its efforts, which will lead it to the threshold of the stock market, having already received an extension for the listing of its shares by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission until the end of next May. We remind you that according to the regulations, if a real estate company has not succeeded in listing its shares in a regulated market within the deadlines, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission revokes its operating license and the company is liquidated. It should be noted that the turnover of Blue Cedar in 2021 came mainly from rents and amounted to 4.755 million euros compared to 3.469 million euros in 2020, increased by 37.1%. In addition, the group’s net profit amounted to 20.601 million euros in 2021 against losses of 2.714 million euros in 2020, while based on the latest data, the market value of all its tourist properties is estimated at 52.88 million euros.