How the Masouti – Sklavenitis dipole was created in Skiathos

By George Lampiris

Masoutis sealed its entrance to Skiathos, with the acquisition of the Skouras company, which until recently maintained a Spar store on the island. The interest in this case is that the company acquired by Masoutis, in 2019 had a turnover of 4.79 million euros with profits after taxes of 63.9 thousand euros, while in 2020 in a year when tourism was severely affected by pandemic the turnover decreased to just 2.78 million with losses after taxes of 151.4 thousand euros. For its part, Sklavenitis opened its second store in the area in 2021, which was developed by TenBrinke, but initially encountered obstacles from local authorities, who initially cited “reasons for defending local entrepreneurship”, justifying the effort. to stop the Sklavenitis project. Currently the reality is completely different, with the two big chains having made their entrance on the island of Sporades.

As for the former Skoura store acquired by Masoutis, it marks her entrance to the island, where until recently she did not have a presence. The factors that seem to have led to the sale of this business to Masoutis were multidimensional and are related, among other things, to the strengthening of the presence of the Greek Sklavenitis Supermarkets on the island and a second store in the airport area in 2021, which came to be a as well as a pressure factor in addition to the shrinking tourist flow and consequently its sales due to a pandemic. The pressure of the financial results was another point that led to these developments. The new store will have 4 cash registers and will employ a staff of 15 people with ready-made food sections and a bakery.

In addition, according to information, the supermarket chain recently acquired three of the total five stores of the company Spar Mazi Markets Hatzimasouras in Larissa. Thus, in the case of both Skiathos and Larissa, the already weakened Spar network in Greece has been further weakened, while it should be noted that the specific stores were part of the Asteras shopping group.

Masouti’s plan for this year is the inclusion of at least 30 new stores in its network, while at the same time the area of ​​Peloponnese where it has already opened with stores in Patras, is also a geographical area of ​​interest for the chain based in Thessaloniki.

The Sklavenitis project also in Skiathos and the obstacles that were subsequently overcome

On the other hand, the attempt of Sklavenitis to build a second store in Skiathos – before the arrival of Masoutis on the island – encountered several obstacles, as the local municipal council had issued in 2020 a rejection decision at the request of the Sklavenitis side for the development of this store. In fact, the local authority claimed that the development of another store from the Greek Sklavenitis Supermarkets would be contrary to the “strengthening and maintenance of local entrepreneurship” invoked by the municipal council.

Both Sklavenitis and the construction company, TenBrinke, had appealed against the specific rejection decision of the board of directors, resulting in their justification and the opening of the specific point of sale during the last year.