Kastelorizo ​​Group: The disinvestment from fish and the food bet

Of George Lampiris

An activity that generates a turnover of about 2.5 million euros is for the Kastelorizo ​​group of fish farms, as it maintains production units in Crete and Sounio with a production of 500 tons of sea bass and sea bream per year and an additional 5 million fish per year, part of which is available for own needs in the group restaurants, while a significant part of them is available to fish farming companies.

At the moment, as stated by the head and founder of the group, Antonis Stavrou, he is looking for an investor in order to divert from these units, as he wants to focus exclusively on the catering sector, an industry with which he is associated. integral in recent years.

As he noted, the activity of fish farming started for him when he became a shareholder of Selonda, with a percentage of 49%. He then withdrew from fish farming when Selonda, who had recently merged with Perseus, Nereus and Andromeda, was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.

The burden of the activity with overdue obligations of the past is a deterrent factor

In the process, Antonis Stavrou reinvested in fish, acquiring the two production units mentioned above, however their business development was not as expected, as the fish farms that are consolidated together with the catering activity in the company Kastelorizo ​​SA, were over-indebted on loan, The company also opened abroad, losing money from debts of its customers in Spain and Italy.

The businessman looked for an institutional investor, who according to Mr. Stavrou never took on debt, as he was obliged under an agreement he had signed with the then Agricultural Bank, while producing fish in fish farms for a decade and benefiting from this production.

In fact, the unit of Crete was put into bankruptcy and then reorganized. A debt of 4 million euros is currently pending, while an amount of 4.7 million euros has already been repaid by the businessman from 2009 until today.

The rest of the debt has been referred to the special liquidator of Agrotiki, PQH, while there are also notes of real estate against debts.

Gravity in new investments in catering

The declared intention of the businessman to divest from fish production, shows in essence the way for new investments in the catering sector, where he recently created two new meat-eating restaurants in Kifissia, the first one called Don Moschio, a meat restaurant, while the second This is a grill called k-grill, investing a total of 300 thousand euros for both.

The peculiarity that the businessman was called upon to face during the establishment of the first of the two restaurants was that despite the fact that it was ready to operate from September, it finally happened around the end of October, as due to the pandemic the staff shortage was severe and as Antonis Stavrou said, he was waiting for the end of the tourist season to recruit staff. As for the k-grill, its operation is imminent within the current month.

At 6.5 million euros in the nine months of 2021

Currently, the Kastelorizo ​​group, together with the two new stores added to its umbrella, has a total of 15 restaurants, with sales in 2021 moving quite satisfactorily as the nine-month turnover amounted to 6.5 million euros, while the total cycle 2020 was 6.7 million euros (profits of 100 thousand euros), compared to 11.7 million euros in 2019 (profits of 1 million euros).

During the Covid-19 period, the group significantly increased its sales through delivery, as this channel covered about 10% of the group’s total turnover in 2019, to double to 20% by 2020.

The most dynamic points of the overall network of restaurants of the group are Kastelorizo ​​Kifissia during the winter months and Kastelorizo ​​Varkiza during the summer, as both were the ones with which the businessman was basically introduced to the restaurant several years ago.

In the plan of Antonis Stavros for the next period of time is the establishment of a company with the object of holding receptions. This is an activity that he intended to develop even before the pandemic, however the developments were such that in fact the business plan was temporarily suspended until further notice.