Hellenic Dairies acquired AGNO for 7.7 million euros

LAST UPDATE: 17:43

By George Lampiris

According to information, the Hellenic Dairies group acquired the trademark and the factory of the dairy industry, AGNO in the auction that was completed today. This development comes after repeated attempts to sell the assets of the troubled company, which until recently belonged to the dairy industry Kolios.

This development comes eight years after the final padlock on AGNO and after previous auctions in November 2019, which was barren and two more that preceded the end of 2017 and September 2018.

According to the same information, the Hellenic Dairy group was the only bidder of AGNO. The movement concerns the property, the mechanical equipment and the trademark of the AGNO dairy industry.

More specifically, the auction concerned the sale of the area of ​​132,239 square meters in the areas of the municipal communities of Perivolaki, Lagyna and Kavallari, together with the buildings and equipment, the trademark AGNO and all other trademarks registered by AGNO.

From now on, the money that will come from this move and after the signing of the contracts with the new buyers, will be used to satisfy the privileged debtors such as insurance funds, employees and banks.

Established in 1950 as a Cooperative Enterprise

AGNO was founded in 1950 in Thessaloniki as a cooperative enterprise of the Union of Cow Breeding Cooperatives of Thessaloniki, while five years later it became the first pasteurization and milk bottling industry in Greece. In the mid-1980s, the construction of its new factory in Langadas began, while Nikos Galis starred in its advertisements at the time, still being a player of Aris.

However, in 2003 the company came into the possession of the partner of the Northern Helladic dairy industry, Kolios, which was the only one that had submitted a bid in the tender implemented by the Agricultural Bank. In fact, AGNO passed into the hands of Kolios without any burden of debts, while the businessman, Nikos Kolios acquired it then with an advance payment of 1.2 million euros and borrowing another 10 million euros from Agrotiki. The company, however, never managed to stand on its own two feet.

The last attempt to save the historic dairy industry was made in 2012 with the submission of an application for inclusion in the provisions of Article 99, which, however, was not accepted. As a result, the company went bankrupt, retaining debts of 50 million euros.

It is noted that the last balance sheet of AGNO, in 2012 states that its turnover was 6.5 million euros, with net losses after taxes of 7.7 million euros and accumulated losses of 38.75 million euros. Its total liabilities were 49.4m euros.

A series of barren auctions

Several auctions took place along the way, in 2017 with a minimum price of 18.28 million euros, in 2018 when the price was reduced by 3 million euros, to 15 million euros but also in November 2019 with the price being set at 10 million. . euro. However, they were all barren. In the end, the price set at today’s auction at 7.7 million euros, was the one at which the ball ended up with the Greek Dairies acquiring AGNO, closing an extended chapter of adventures for the company and opening a page for her next day at the market.