Mastihashop: 'A star is born'

3 December 2007

Mastihashop, the innovative and trail-blazing venture that launched a bare five years ago by the Chios Mastiha Growers Association (CMGA), has just garnered its 17th award.

The company was honoured with the Retail Business Rising Star award at an impressive ceremony organised by Retail Business magazine and KPMG at the Glyfada Golf Club, beating out ten competitors, including a number of large multinational companies and chains.

Mastihashop, which recently joined the list of Greece's 10 most innovative companies, alongside corporations like the Hellenic Bottling Company - Tria Epsilon and Intracom (Panteios School of Economics survey), currently operates a chain of 11 outlets in Greece and abroad. It has also developed a new line of mastihashoptherapy products, sold exclusively through pharmacies.

Since March 2007, when this series was launched, its wholly owned distribution network has placed these products in more than 900 pharmacies across Greece. The mastihashoptherapy line of products, which is available exclusively from pharmacies and includes toothpaste, mastiha water, mastiha powder, "ELMA"� chewing gum, soaps and honey, won the first pan-European EBGE award for its packaging and innovative idea.

In addition, with the completion last January of its factory in Kallimasia, Chios, the company made a dynamic entry into the field of specialised gourmet products, winning awards for, among other things, its delicious mastiha chocolate and mastiha mustard.

The company has also recently launched, under the "Cultura Mediterra"� label, a line of products that do not contain mastiha, but are typical of the Mediterranean diet. The first of these products are already being marketed through the company's own shops and other selected outlets. Major contracts with large Greek business groups have apparently been concluded recently and will shortly be announced for the promotion of both these lines (mastihashoptherapy and Cultura Mediterra) in specialist markets and networks in Greece and abroad, further boosting the company's growth and expansion.

Both these new activities are part of the strategic development programme that the company has been implementing over the past two years, with investments in excess of €6,000,000. Mastihashop, which is owned by the Chios Mastiha Growers Association, Attica Ventures (which manages a venture capital fund with the participation of the Bank of Attica and of TANEO) and the Tsakos Group, is expected to be the first company to be listed on the Athens Alternative Market, a move that should support its innovative strengths and foster its further growth with new products and markets.

ATTICA VENTURES in brief:
Attica Ventures SA (http://www.attica-ventures.gr) was founded in September 2003 as part of the Bank of Attica Group, the first specialised venture capital fund management company created by a Greek bank. Today it manages the Zaitech Fund, worth €30,000,000, underwritten by TANEO and the Bank of Attica, which has to date invested in 5 new and innovative Greek companies, including mastihashop, Doppler and e-Global.

FROM THE ATTICA VENTURES PRESS DESK