When will AGNO’s products reappear on the market? The factory in Lagadas requires an investment of up to € 100 million.

At the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, the products of AGNO are expected to reappear in the refrigerators of Northern Greece, after an absence of years, as Dimitris Sarantis, president of the group “Hellenic Dairies SA” points out, speaking to APE-MPE. “, which recently acquired the facilities, mechanical equipment and the trademark of the historic dairy industry of Thessaloniki, in the context of a public tender. Mr. Sarantis clarifies that the course of the products in the market will largely judge the next moves of the new owner regarding the “awakening” of the AGNO factory in Langadas, which requires, as he says, an investment of 50 million . -100 million euros, to be put back into operation, after its abandonment for a number of years (s.s. the machines went silent in March 2013 and have not worked since).

“We believe that the AGNO brand has a place in the market. We will test it by placing products on the market of Northern Greece, and it will be up to the people of Northern Helladia to confirm their preference. The products will be produced in the first phase in the factories (of the group) in Larissa or Trikala or Rodopi and from the response of the consumers will depend a lot on the factory in Lagadas.We believe that the brand of AGNO, with very good support from the group, can regain market shares in Thessaloniki and Macedonia in general and if then there is demand in Southern Greece and we will not spoil anyone’s fate “notes the president of the group” Hellenic Dairies SA “, which gathers under the roof of brands such as OLYMPUS, TYRAS and RODOPI. When asked about the percentage of milk from the region of Macedonia, which will be absorbed in the production of these products, he clarified that, anyway, the group currently draws 40% of the milk from Central Macedonia, an equal percentage from Thessaly and 20% from the area of ​​Xanthi.

As for the AGNO products, which will enter the market of Northern Greece in 2022-2023, Mr. Sarantis clarifies that the beginning will be done with codes of some basic products (in total the codes of AGNO, which pass to the group are about 15) and specifically with milk, yogurt, cheese and butter. The group is also interested in ice cream (a product in which it does not currently have a presence in the Greek market), but as its president points out, speaking to APE-MPE, the Greek ice cream market has changed a lot compared to the 80’s , when AGNO with its characteristic red and white label was in the middle, so the expansion in this field requires careful planning and will be explored at another time.

When and how will the investment be made in the factory and how much will it cost

The group’s entry into AGNO took place recently, “closing” the cycle of barren auctions for the historic dairy industry, for which, it should be noted, TYRAS had expressed interest since “distant” 2003. In addition to the brands, the group receives the large plot of land, with an area of ​​over 130 acres, where the AGNO factory is located in Lagadas, Thessaloniki, as well as the mechanical equipment. “Of course, the facility is obsolete, because it is closed for years. Anything that is there, practically does not work. In the past, we estimated that the remaining value of the mechanical equipment does not exceed 2 million euros. to use the milk silos, which can also be moved wherever the group needs them, but the scrap must be removed and the damage repaired. with nothing less than 50 million euros, although it is likely to reach 100 million. Once we have the data on what is the acceptance of the products in the market, we will need about three years to restore the factory, which should become super automatic and meet all the necessary specifications, which is why it requires a high investment “explains Mr. Sarantis, while when asked if he estimates how will the mobility that is finally observed in the Greek food market continue, in terms of acquisitions, he answers that yes probably, and it will mainly concern medium and large units. He adds that this mobility is not bad, since the competition is stimulated and the ideas are renewed.

Memories of Thessalonians from AGNO

For the businessman Nikos Pentzo, president of the Association of Industries (then Northern Greece) until 2013, the year in which the padlock entered AGNO, the end titles for the historical industry were a very negative development, emotionally charged. “Our intervention (as SVE and then SVBE) over time is to try, to the best of our ability, not to close any industry, especially historical one like AGNO. To close such an industry is always a sad situation, which beyond all of others has a significant social impact, as many people lose their jobs.As our company, ZANAE, will soon complete a century of life (founded in 1930), to see the closure of a historic industry It also has a personal emotional charge, as we are a historical company. Besides, in Northern Greece, AGNO was intertwined with everyday life. Today I am 51 years old and I still remember the plastic bottle with the red aluminum cap that had cocoa milk I drank as a child. AGNO was for many people something like a “neighborhood” of everyday life. I do not know exactly what happened and AGNO closed, because you can never know what is happening I was in a business, but surely when it closed I felt that I could no longer visit a place I used to go to often “, says Mr. Pentzos characteristically to APE-MPE.

According to George Kougiounis, a former employee of AGNO (since 1989) and a member of the board of directors of the last dairy union, the company has gone through many waves. “In 2013 (when the productive activity stopped) the climate was very heavy, but we had experienced a heavy climate in 2003, before Mr. Kollios took AGNO from ATE. In fact, the company had recovered quite well then. market share, both in milk and cheese, but unfortunately the dream did not last long. In my opinion, such a brand has never existed before. de Sport etc. They say that the consumers had an erotic relationship with AGNO, but I think that this also applied to the employees, who had turned their backs on the company and the creditors’ meeting “, says Mr. Kougiounis to APE-MPE and adds that , In the initial auction for AGNO, the price exceeded 18 million euros, and in the last one, which finally took place, it fell to 7.7 million.

Inextricably linked to the municipality of Lagada was the dairy industry AGNO, as the mayor, Ioannis Tachmatzidis, points out in APE-MPE. “For a while, our dairy farmers almost all gave their milk to AGNO, our citizens worked in the factory … The name AGNO was associated with Lagadas and the fact that a historic industry is reopening in our area is very positive,” he said. Sources from legal circles also explain to APE-MPE that the positive outcome of the auction paves the way for the former employees of the company to receive part of their accruals and compensations.

The story of AGNO

AGNO was founded in 1950 as a cooperative milk industry (of the Union of Cow Breeding Cooperatives of Thessaloniki) and just a few years later, in 1955, it developed into the first milk pasteurization and bottling industry in Northern Greece, with the machines working at full capacity at its factory in Stavroupoli. In fact, in 1987, the year in which the national basketball team triumphed in Eurobasket, the fame of the dairy industry crossed the northern Helladic borders and spread throughout Greece, when Nikos Galis advertised its milk. In the mid-1980s, the construction of the factory in Langadas began, which was then state-of-the-art and required an extremely high investment, which – in combination with other factors – created strong financial pressures on the company. The result; The Agricultural Bank put AGNO in a special liquidation regime in operation in 1999.

In 2003 the company was privatized, passing into the “hands” of the highest bidder in the ATE tender, namely the “Kolios” industry, based in Kilkis. In the end, however, the cooperation did not succeed: in an announcement in 2014, the Labor and Employment Center of Thessaloniki claimed: “In June 2003, KOLIOS acquired AGNO SA debt-free. Its financial situation was good (absence of debts, brand recognition and support from the consumer public). Over the years under the management of KOLIOS SA its financial situation deteriorated. From August 2012 AGNO began not to meet its financial obligations to its creditors (… “Someone took this debt-free dairy and in less than ten years led it to ruin.”

AGNO was bankrupt and eventually locked up. Two auctions were held for the factory, mechanical equipment and brands, in 2015 and 2019, which were declared infertile, before the third turned out to be “lucky”, creating a prospect for the rebirth of the historic dairy industry.

Source: AMPE