Green light in the deal created by the supermarket of 1.1 billion.

By George Lampiris

With a strong majority received the approval of the shareholders of the Cretan cooperative chain, SYNKA, the spin-off of the retail sector and the simultaneous creation of the company “SYN.KA. Crete Supermarkets SA”, under which they will merge business in the near future Masoutis and SYNKA with a participation of 50-50 In essence, the partnership with Masoutis currently brings the creation of a group with a turnover of 1.1 billion euros. levels of turnover in 2020, when it “wrote” 882 million euros and SYNKA for its part in 2021 235 million euros.

Following the general meeting, the official announcement of the agreement by Masoutis is expected within the day, while the plan to split the retail sector, the creation of the newly established company and the agreement will soon be put on the Competition Commission.

The acceptance of the agreement with Masoutis is universal

Despite the fragmented reactions – objections raised by a small portion of SYNKA shareholders, the acceptance of the management’s proposal to split the retail sector and the creation of the new company was almost universal, which essentially paves the way for the completion of the agreement with the Masouti. According to the report, 433 shareholders participated in the meeting – 400 was the minimum participation – while more than 300 people participated remotely, via the internet. The general assembly took place in the Diocese of Agyia Chania, in the specially designed storage facilities of the Cooperative, while the voting took place with a ballot box and a screen.

The expected benefits of the agreement

As Dimitris Alexakis, Vice President of SYNKA, stated during the general assembly, “the three largest supermarket companies in Greece hold 70% of the market. We are about 2%. We must shield ourselves and this cooperation will allow us to “We buy the products cheaper. The cooperative will not only maintain 50% of the share capital, but will also maintain the management. The company remains in Chania.”

It should be noted that SYNKA is currently preparing a new supermarket in Livadia, Chania, while it is considered quite possible based on what Mr. Alexakis mentioned, that another one will be created in Rethymno.

Participation in the decision making of the new company by the shareholders of SYNKA

Among other things, he mentioned that the shareholders – more than 8,000 – of SYNKA will continue to participate in the decisions of the new joint venture formed with Masoutis, as the cooperative will retain the responsibility of its management. He also announced that the products of the local suppliers of Crete will be found in more points of sale, through the wide network of Masouti.

Extension of life for SYNKA

For his part, the president of SYNKA, Apostolos Alexakis referred to the fact that the cooperation with Masoutis will enable the continuation of the presence of the supermarket cooperative of Crete, in a market which is characterized by strong concentration trends. In essence, he spoke of a step that enables SYNKA to survive in the highly competitive domestic organized retail market. “The cooperation with Masoutis will give us the opportunity to survive in the coming years. It ensures us for at least 10 to 15 years”, noted among others Apostolos Alexakis.

“In the two years ’79 -’80 the Cooperative had 27 million drachmas turnover and 2 million loss. The share had 30 euros. Today the share has 450 euros, the Cooperative has allocated 25.8 million euros, of which 11 million euros as a dividend to the shareholders, 9 million euros through the bonus card and 6 million euros in meals and social units in Chania “, said among others Apostolos Alexakis.

The creation of ELOMAS in response to Marinopoulos’ expansionist tendencies

“At one point we found five chains at the Kapsis Hotel in Thessaloniki. This is how ELOMAS was created, which was the solution to the difficulty we were facing with the Marinopoulos company, which was acquiring one chain after another. Then we accepted a proposal from Atlantic, from the late Mr. Apostolos, where we collaborated again for the good of us all, we all benefited, but there is also the issue of the Greek mentality and so after two years 99% of SYNKA members wanted to stop cooperating with the Atlantic. “I was the only one who did not agree. However, the majority did not agree and decided that I would take over as president of ELOMAS, as has happened until today”, added Mr. Alexakis.

“We made efforts to cooperate with the king of retail, Veropoulos and Sklavenitis. However, in Greece we did not learn to cooperate. I believe that we are one of the few chains that had the will to cooperate. And now after a proposal we accepted, we cooperation with Mr. Masoutis that will enable us to survive up to 15 years “.

Re-election of the executives of the current administration

It is noted that in the context of the general assembly, the election of members who will form the board of directors took place, where the stay of the already existing administration was voted in favor, namely Apostolos Alexakis, Dimitris Alexakis, George Baourakis and George Koukourakis.