Deloitte’s role in Greek salt and the Hellenic Salt Flats

By Giorgos Lampiris

The sector called Greek salt presents a strong growth prospect, in the perspective of creating a strong national label for the 12 facilities of Hellenic Salts, which belong to the Superfund’s portfolio. A step in this direction was the recent recognition of Messolonghi afrina as a PDO product, which shows the intentions of the executives of the Superfund to provide added value to this product, which travels in bulk and is sold to industries in Greece and abroad , whose main activity is salt.

At the moment, however, we are informed and according to what was reported to Capital.gr by the sources of the Superfund, Deloitte has been appointed as a consultant, in order to draw up a strategic plan that will lead the company Hellinikes Alykes S.A. on the next day. In this framework, the interest of Kalamarakis SA remains active. which produces Kalas salt and retains 25% of the company’s shares, in order to acquire a larger percentage, which is a stated intention of the company in the past.

At the same time, the Superfund holds 55% of the shares in Hellenic Salts and is the one that manages its fate, while it proceeds with strategic planning by creating a financial model that moves according to the standards of the private sector. For this reason, he appointed Leonidas Vrettakos, former CEO of AB Vassilopoulos with extensive experience in business and in the private sector, as the company’s managing director, making him what is commonly called a market person.

Creating a national brand for Greek salt

The aim of the Superfund is to gradually create a national brand around Greek salt, starting with packaging initially in large packages – for example in 25 kg bags – which will be directed to the market with a branded label and not in bulk as is the case today . However, this move will not be extended to smaller packages for now, so as not to conflict with the company’s potential salt-packing customers.

The evaluation by Deloitte appointed by the Superfund for the preparation of the strategic plan in the Hellenic Salts, is expected to be completed next autumn. According to officials of the organization, all possibilities are open, from the utilization – sale of shares and the granting of a majority percentage to a private person, up to the expansion of the participation percentage of the Superfund in the existing scheme.

“Any move we make in relation to the salt flats, we will discuss it with our board. What we are seeing is that the company has been solidified, the management is on a positive path. However, the company continues to be active in the wholesale of of salt, while there is a product brand related to Greek salt and Messolonghi afrina. We are considering all possibilities. We also have a meeting with the Kalamarakis company regarding the possibility of selling a percentage to it. This does not mean that we will move towards one or the other direction. It is within our scope to increase our percentage, as long as a value is created overall. Correspondingly, in OKAA we want to look at the markets more carefully and investigate some elements, because we have two central markets in Athens and Thessaloniki and we are looking at the largest possible streamlining of their operation”, commented on the matter the managing director of the Superfund, Grigoris Dim ytriadis.

In any case, it is indicative of the image currently presented by Hellinikes Alykes SA. is that when they joined the portfolio of subsidiaries of the Superfund, its turnover was only 3.5 million euros, recording losses, while now it is at 8 million euros with profitable results.

We remind you that sales in fiscal year 2021 for Hellenic Salts amounted to 8.02 million euros and increased by 1.9 million euros, a percentage of 31.61%. The increase is due to favorable weather conditions for the company (snowfalls – frost) and the sale of previous years’ stocks from the Lesvos salt flats. The net results after taxes were profitable at 362 thousand euros, against a loss of 547 thousand euros in 2020.