Sarantis brothers: The investment and acquisition barrage of the milkmen from Grevena

In June 1985, a small family cheese factory just outside Trikala, on the road to Pyli, took its first steps, with just five employees. Stergios Sarantis, his wife Zoe, their two sons, Takis and Michalis and a worker, who worked even on Easter day so as not to lose the milk of the day.

This was the whole workforce of the TYRAS (Cheese-making firm Brothers Sarantis).

Fast forward to 2022. The total number of employees currently employed in the company of the Sarantises, which has become a group and since 2016 has been renamed "Greek Dairies", amounts to 1,590 people in Greece and abroad, while the once small cheese dairy, apart from cheeses, produces yogurts, milks, feta, sour cream, butter, kefir, juices, mountain tea, herbal drinks, soft drinks and bottled water, while in a short time it will also produce ice cream.

With a turnover of 427 million euros in 2021 and exports to 50 countries globally, in the last two years the portfolio of the Sarantis brothers grew even more, as next to the brands, Olympus, Tyras and Rodopi, Kliafa soft drinks, and Doumbia carbonated water were added and recently the facilities and brands of the emblematic dairy Agno.

Kliafa soft drinks turns a page

Shortly before the end of one century of existence (founded in 1926), the Trikala soft drink company Kliafa was acquired in 2020 by Hellenic Dairies for 1.3 million euros.

Now having a new production and bottling plant in Trikala, an investment of 18 million euros, the new owners of the historic brand aspire that in three years Kliafa soft drinks will gain a double-digit market share, from the low single-digit percentage they maintain today in the domestic retail and by also expanding their presence on the HoReCa sector. At the same time, the...