The Hindu Business Line : Mediterranean flavour

When a group of international journalists invited by the International Olive Oil Council was being taken around Greek companies and table olive and olive oil producing facilities, she stood out as one of the rare women top honchos in an industry dominated by men.

Kyriaki Papageorgiou, Export Manager of Sativa S.A., that produces, packages and exports Kalamon table olives in the Molaous region of Lakonia in Greece, smiles when you comment that it's nice to see a woman heading a company, and says, "Well, I too was surprised to find six women in a group of seven international journalists!"

But she agrees that on gender issues, in many ways the Greek can be as conservative and orthodox as Indians, "though things are changing fast. In my generation, things were different from the previous generation. As we grew up, in my family my brother and I were treated equally. We got the same treatment and similar education; my father saw to that. So today I have the confidence and strength to follow a career where I have to travel all over the world, deal with all kinds of people, mostly men."

Hard work pays

Sativa was established in 1997 at the initiative of Kyriaki and her brother, who is the production manager in the company.

After graduation she was sent to study in France "but somehow I didn't adapt well there so I came back to Greece and decided, along with my brother, and with help from my father, who was earlier in a different job, to start this company."

Even though the annual turnover of Sativa, which mainly produces table olives, has grown from 700,000 euros in 1997 to 3 million euros at present, putting the company in the SME segment, competition in the export market — the company exports table olives mainly to the US and other European countries — is tough, and "we constantly have to explore new markets. Next week I'm going to Jordan to open the market there, as the prospects are very good in that country. Starting a new company, particularly in an environment and area where most of the companies are three to four generations old is a big challenge... to me it is like giving birth to and bringing up a child; and because our company is doing well, we have to work harder to make it grow faster," she says.

Family interests

Kyriaki is also the mother of another child... her nine-year-old son. This is no less a challenge because she is divorced and her son lives with her.

"But fortunately the Greek society is a bit like Indian society and our family ties are rather strong and we always help one another. I stay very close to my mother so when I travel abroad my mother helps with my son. But when I'm home I try and spend a lot of time with my son. I often think that if I had a daughter I would have brought her up to be strong, independent and self-reliant, just as my father brought me up!" On whether there is pressure from her mother to get married again, Kyriaki shakes her head, "No, even when my first marriage failed, nobody said anything, but my biological clock told me it won't work."

Was it a love marriage?

"No, perhaps that's why it failed," she reasons, adding quickly, "but right now I have a very good relationship with a person in a similar job. He is an export manager to another company, so we have similar interests."

Is marriage on the cards?

"Who knows? ... but it's not very important for me right now," she shrugs.

Kyriaki loves to read books and devours them; "history, novels, everything... I love to read." Music is another passion and among other kinds of music she has an ear for Indian music too, but she quickly clarifies that "it's not only Bollywood but classical music too. I tune into a specific radio station which broadcasts world music and it also has a lot of Indian music."

But dancing is a passion and she is serious enough about it to take classes. "I take regular classes and do the mambo, tango, cha-cha-cha and all the European and Latin dances. I attend dance classes three times a week. But dancing is an expensive hobby and classes cost 3,000 euros a year."

India matters

On the perception about India in Greece, Kyriakisays, "The feeling is very positive. People are aware that we have similar cultures, ancient cultures, and I have the feeling that you are the most clever people in the world. You work very hard. I've met some India people in Dubai and have found them to be very competent and hardworking."

So is her company looking at the Indian market?

"Certainly, I'm very interested. But I also feel that it is a very big market... I need to find a good distributor there."

Sativa supplies olives in bulk to restaurants, bakeries, pizzerias and wholesalers and in small packages for the retail market.

"We specialise in the production of chopped olives in round slices and in the creation of various olive-based blends, especially for bread and dough," she says.

Her dream

Her dream for Sativa is to "really expand and make it a very big company... but my brother is conservative," she smiles. But she is determined to leverage on the company's unique location — right in the middle of the Kalamata olive-growing region.

"This gives us an advantage in sourcing the best quality products, and we have dynamic and modern processing and packaging facilities, so there is no reason why we cannot grow big if we really work hard," she adds.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Entrepreneurship | People | Gender

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
A biogas kitchen

Know your stress threshold

Wild with excitement...

Outside IT hours

Mediterranean flavour