World Report

Lavrentis Lavrentiadis
Chairman and Managing Director of Neochimiki
‘There is vast potential for expansion in these markets’

xports of chemicals from Greece have been steadily rising in recent years and the emerging markets in the Balkans represent a major opportunity for the industry to expand.
“From the Greek market of 11 million people, we are now targeting a market of 200 million people,” says Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, Chairman and Managing Director of Neochimiki, the leading trader and distributor of chemical products in Greece.

Mr Lavrentiadis, whose father founded the firm 30 years ago, has transformed the company since taking over its management in 1996. Today, Neochimiki is a group of 11 affiliated companies with an annual growth rate of 30 per cent. It floated on the Athens Stock Exchange in May 2003.

Neochimiki is one of the Greece’s leaders in the production of detergents for multinationals and supermarket chains. Its plant in Atalanti is one of the largest detergent manufacturing factories in the Balkan area, with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes.

The company is investing substantially in developing a logistics plant and extensive wharehousing in Thessaloniki, where there are excellent railway links to the Balkan countries. “There is vast potential for expansion into these markets,” says Mr Lavrentiadis.

Neochimiki is the leading trader and distributor of chemical products in Greece

There are also plans for Neochimiki to build its own port at Lavrio or outside Athens in the next three years.
The company is actively seeking foreign partners. “It is very important for us to have partners who have the right know-how and who recognise our real potential for expansion both in size and in profit.”

Neochimiki has plans to expand its business to the UK, where it aims to produce private label products, especially detergents for baby clothes and organic material detergents.

“One of our biggest targets is to produce detergent for the United Kingdom market,” says Mr Lavrentiadis. “We are planning to sell our first detergent in the UK in the last quarter of 2004.”