How Giorgos Gerardos made Plaisio “future ready”

Giorgos Gerardos has been at work for 52 years. Since 1969, when the young student of the Polytechnic with loans of 80,000 drachmas (235 euros) and rich in dreams created his first store with drawing and office supplies in an area of ​​12 sq.m. on Stournari Street, until today, when Plaisio has managed to become the first choice for Greek consumers in the field of technology, the unstoppable Giorgos Gerardos is always one step ahead of the competition.

Being an influential retailer was not Giorgos Gerardos’ first choice, since he gave up the high social status that a doctor’s career offers (before entering the Polytechnic he had studied Medicine), deciding to test himself in the business arena.

The idea for the creation of Plaisio was born in Thessaloniki, when, as a student, George Gerardos, discovered that the prices of  items used in design in the co-capital were dramatically cheaper than on the Attica market.

Considering it as a business opportunity and having now transferred to Metsovio Polytechnic School, he borrowed money and opened a shop next to the School of Civil Engineering.

Trying to supply directly from manufacturers, it bypassed intermediaries and managed to provide much lower prices on products used by civil engineers, architects and related industries.

This model was unprecedented for that time in 1969.

Despite the difficulties (in 1976 he ran Plaisio, a small and medium-sized enterprise with 13 employees, from his unit’s commissary only telephone in Evros, where he served as a draftee) and the growing competition, Giorgos Gerardos continued to build what he calls “customer loyalty capitalization”.

After all, immediate adaptability to market conditions (agile management) and real-time management are key features of Plaisio’s innovative business model and structural components of the Giorgos Gerardos’ personality.

This was followed by the entry into IT in 1985, the opening of the mail-order business with the first Greek directory and the innovative department for direct sales, the first technology site in Greece with product delivery the next day, the entry into categories such as mobile telephony and television, investments in state-of-the-art logistics centers, until the recent “entry” into the home appliance market and the management of the health crisis, which it approached “aggressively”, with an increased marketing and commercial budget, the period that the demand was extremely dubious.

Half a century after τηε “shop” on Stournari Street , Plaisio’s sales reach 350 million euros, while it employs 1,500 people and has 24 physical stores throughout Greece as well as an e-shop.

Strong financial data and investments

Always focused on innovation that is in the DNA of Plaisio, the company not only leads but shapes the market, starring in the restart of the Greek post-covid economy.

Despite the adverse business conditions due to the pandemic, it recorded impressive financial results in the first half of 2021, continuing its dynamic course by raising the bar.

In the financial results of the first half of 2021, there was a significant increase in sales to 199.2 million euros from 148.6 million in the corresponding period last year and a net liquidity of 21.8 million euros, which shows the healthy financial situation of the company.

At the same time, with investments that were not just profitable, but favored the company in many ways, such as the semi-automatic logistics center 22,500 sq.m. in Magoula (30 million euros), the warehouse in Mandra 10,000 sq.m. (8 million euros) and the Enterprise platform for e-commerce (1.8 million euros), the company has the necessary flexibility, know-how and infrastructure to deal with difficulties in a timely manner, so as to strengthen and grow.

The company’s people are the catalyst for success

With a high level of know-how, readiness and flexibility, Plaisio has invested in its people. This is a close-knit group of people who are mutually-inspired in their daily collaboration and form a highly productive culture of collaboration. Daily decisions are made based on the values ​​of the company: Immediacy, Innovation – Vanguard, Teamwork, Transparency, Merit, Evolution-Development, Continuous training and Emphasis on the result.

The structural part of Plaisio is the contribution to the society as a whole

At the same time, the company, over time, implements actions that give access to infrastructure and tools, which promote the strengthening of the educational process, ideally through technology.

Remarkable actions are the establishment of the robotic racing team Plaisiobots, by children of Plaisio partners, which won the Gold Medal at the International Robotics Olympiad (IROC) in 2021 and the group of volunteers of the company, “Plai sou” (“By your side”) , has created the first STEM Library in a public school in Attica.

At the same time, Plaisio is a helper in the constant needs of organizations, charities, and initiatives, such as the Prolepsis Institute and the NUTRITION Program, the Association “Together for the Child”, the Make-A-Wish Greece, the Smile of the Child and the Ark of the World.

In case of emergency social needs, Plaisio remains present, as it recently did, covering the school supplies of the 3,089 students affected by the devastating fires in Northern Evia and contributing with technological equipment that aims to strengthen the actions of the Fire Brigade. It also contributed to the work of the Greek Red Cross by making a donation to meet the needs of the humanitarian crisis that has arisen in Ukraine.

“Entrepreneur of the Year” 2021

For his career in business, his innovative way of thinking, his insight, his business excellence, his strong courage in decisions and his constant effort to improve, the eternal startupper Giorgos Gerardos was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” 2021 in the recent competition of ΕΥ.

In June, the “captain” of Plaisio will represent the Greek colors in the international competition in Monte Carlo, where, together with the winners of the respective national award from about 60 countries, he will compete for the title EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022.

Whether Plaisio’s success story will move the jury remains to be seen.

Plaisio in numbers

In 1986, when the first tailor-made Turbo-X computer was assembled, Plaisio Computers from a micro company made the leap into the new era, expanding by now to 24 stores and service points throughout Greece, with over 180 specialized technicians and 1,500 employees. .

The first catalog sales in the Greek market were made by Plaisio catalogs in 1995. A Plaisio Computers catalog in every home and office with delivery of items in 24 hours.

In 1999, Plaisio was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, with a 393 times record overdraft. The company raised 460 million drachmas (approximately 1.35 million euros) and has not made another share capital increase since then. In the same year, www.plaisio.gr was launched, the first online store of technology products in Greece, which had the ability to send the order the very next day.

In 2008 it created a semi-automatic distribution center of 22,500 sq.m. in Magoula, Attica, which allows Plaisio to reduce the cost of managing and sending each order and at the same time to break the barrier of the potential limit for collecting and sending products, enabling it to prepare and send a huge volume of orders en masse.

Turbo-X computers are the only brand name of the 80’s that has survived to this day.

In 2005, the first Plaisio store was established in Bulgaria, marking a new era of multinational action for the company.

For 8 consecutive years, Plaisio won a place among the 500 fastest growing companies in Europe.

Within 3 years since the company entered the home appliance market in 2019, Plaisio’s share has reached 10%.

Plaisio has been investing steadily in the omni channel model for the last 25 years.

During the first lockdown period, 230,000 customers were served with an average delivery time of the order of 2-3 days compared to 15+ days which was the average delivery time for the transport companies.

In the second half of 2020, amid the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, Plaisio achieved the highest consolidated sales in the last decade.