The path of Panos Germanos, businessman which, from a seven-square-metre store, was found at the heart of three major transformations – retail networks, mobile telephone and energy.
There are business routes that look like a straight line. And others referring to a series of bets with uncertain results. The story of Panos Germanos, founder of Olympia Group It is undoubtedly in the second category. And not unfairly, considering that the multi-shafted businessman, who started from a seven-square-meter battery store, managed to find himself in succession at the heart of three major transformations of the Greek and European markets – retail networks, mobile telephone and energy.
For his continued contribution to Greek business, Alba Graduate Business School, The American College of Greece recently awarded the 8th Business Unusual Award. Indeed, the path of Panos German is unusual (unusual).
Born 1950 in Milies Ilias, a child of a large family, Panos Germanos belongs to her the generation who left the province early looking for opportunities. At thirteen years of age he found himself alone in Athens, working on what he found the day and attending night school at night. It was at that time that the characteristics that accompanied him to this day were formed: prognosis, reading, constant (this) observation.
«I wasn't planning anything. I was working from 7:00 in the morning to 12 in the evening and I didn't feel tired, I felt successful.. The secret isn't just the strategy, it's to inspire people around you to see what you see, to believe what you believe. This is the unusual in entrepreneurship: do something with all your soul and then have the maturity to leave it and go to the next»He says about those years. At nineteen he was admitted to the Economic Department of the University of Athens, while in parallel with his studies he continued to work.
Harry Pezoulas, founder of Shannon Chase Athens, met him in those student years and remembers a young man hiding «a passion and a life force» – and always a dream of improving its educational level and personal culture.
The 1980 Mr. German opened in the center of Athens a tiny seven-square-metre store, specialized in special batteries for electronic devices that were only then beginning to appear. From the very first day, however, the store sold more than batteries: it sold solutions.
As Dimitris Lolis, general manager of the German network from 1999 to 2008, describes, the client entered with a broken watch, an earpiece or a small device and dated his problem solved. «You were in trouble and out without a problem.».
The big challenge was not the first store, but the following: to be able to operate everywhere with the same quality of service and the same customer experience. P. German believed in the franchise and adapted it to his own type of store. He experimented and overcame the model's childhood diseases, while investing in communication with the charismatic slogan: «Batteries for a watch as a helicopter, only to the German». Within a decade the network reached 40 stores and the German name was identified with batteries.
Turning to mobile phone
In the early 1990s, mobile telephony took its first steps. Panos German quickly realized that the network he had built was the ideal selling point for a purchase hundreds of times greater than that of batteries. In 1994 he made the critical decision: full focus on mobile telephony.
The difference in his approach was fundamental. While the suppliers' stores offered an individual service, involving the placement or replacement of the SIM card, the German provided a comprehensive solution involving not only the device but mainly the service. «We had the largest and best service in Greece», notes Mr. Lolas.
In order to meet this market, however, more stores, different structure, better executives and, above all, capital was needed. Here was one of the most important turning points of his career. As Mr. Pezoulas recalls, Panos German asked him to find him a general manager – a move that marked his separation «creator» by the technocrat businessman.
In 1996 the search for investment funds was a one-way street.Angel Plak pie, founder of Global Finance, had already identified the German as an ideal investment profile. The business plan had impressed him: the German wanted to become the leading mobile distribution company in a short time, two or three years. The figures exceeded the possibilities of Mr Plak pie himself, who requested a four-month mandate to secure funding. But he responded in nine days. Eurobank was among the investors. As Nikos Nanopoulos, CEO of the bank from 1996 to 2013, explains, through Global Finance they took part in the investment risk.
The result justified the risk: Within 3 years 40 stores became 400. A group of enthusiastic and determined executives was formed, and mobile telephony was identified in the minds of the Greeks with the brand German. Research recorded the network as a number one option for 78% of consumers, while about a third of Greeks became mobile subscribers through his stores.
Entrance to the stock exchange and international expansion
In 2000 the German was successfully admitted to the Athens Stock Exchange. As Nanopoulos observes, timing has always been decisive: it entered early on mobile telephony, at the beginning of the cycle, and early on the stock exchange, the period of flourishing and optimism. The strategy has now turned to the development of the network within and outside Greece. Over a five-year period, over 1,000 stores have developed abroad.
2006 came the end of an eraThe sale of German stores in Cosmote, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and North Macedonia, marked the beginning of a new chapter. Michael Chamaz, former president and CEO of Cosmote, estimates that the company did not just acquire a network, but the best point of contact with the client and a whole service culture – why, after the acquisition, everything that had already been built was retained.
The Polish bet
Polish stores remained in Panos German in 2007, and these They were the dowry for his most ambitious ventureHaving already developed 500 stores in the country, He took the risk of creating from scratch the mobile phone company Play, in a mature market with three powerful multinationals. He did not go completely blind as a provider: he had already gained experience with the acquisition of Unitel in Uzbekistan in 2004 and participation in the second operator of Cyprus, MTN.
Play started as a fourth player, without a network of antennas and without a client base, but with one of the best stores in the country. Within about ten years he won the first place, with over 15 million subscribers – a unique event in the global history of mobile telephony. In 2017 Play was introduced to the Warsaw Stock Exchange, one of the largest capital increases (IPO) in the telecommunications sector after 2015 and the largest in Europe that year.
Sunlight
Along with telecommunications, the German had laid the foundations of a completely different project early. In 1991 he bought a small two thousand square meters factory in New Olvio Xanthi, marking the birth of SunlightGradually the company expanded to industrial batteries, from electric forklifts to more critical sectors. Her expertise in submarine batteries has reached such a point that today two thirds of Western world submarines are moving with Sunlight batteries.
The path of industry was hard tested in May 2018, when a fire struck within two hours 97% of the company's turnoverOlympia, by a clear decision of Mr. German, proceeded to fully reconstruct the plant. He maintained all jobs and normally paid every employee throughout. Within a year and a half, Sunlight acquired one of the most modern battery factories internationally. Today it has 13 industrial facilities in Europe and America, turnover exceeding EUR 1 billion, 3,500 employees and over 5,000 jobs in total. It holds a leading position in the lift batteries, opening roads to energy storage and electric motion.
The Public Group
Τα τελευταία χρόνια η στρατηγική του πολυσχιδούς επιχειρηματία επεκτάθηκε δυναμικά στο business software, πρώτα με την εξαγορά της SoftOne και έπειτα της Entersoft. Από τη συγχώνευσή τους γεννήθηκε η ESONE, ηγέτιδα στο επιχειρησιακό λογισμικό. Στην ίδια λογική εντάχθηκε και η επένδυση στη Sleed, στον χώρο των digital services και των εφαρμογών τεχνητής νοημοσύνης.
Η επαφή με τη λιανική, ωστόσο, δεν χάθηκε ποτέ. Όταν η γαλλική FNAC σχεδίαζε είσοδο στην Ελλάδα, ο Γερμανός, αντί να αναλάβει-όπως του προτάθηκε- την αντιπροσωπεία του γαλλικού ομίλου λιανικής, είχε ήδη αποφασίσει να δημιουργήσει το δικό του δίκτυο λιανικής. Έτσι δημιουργήθηκαν τα Public, τα οποία αριθμούν 63 καταστήματα σε Ελλάδα και Κύπρο, με περισσότερους από 2.000 εργαζομένους και πάνω από 100 εκατομμύρια επισκέψεις τον χρόνο. Γύρω τους δημιουργήθηκε ένα ολόκληρο οικοσύστημα: η Westnet στη διανομή προϊόντων τεχνολογίας ενώ, από το 2022, η Γερμανός προχωρούσε σε στοχευμένες επενδύσεις σε εταιρείες όπως οι Box Now, Svuum, irepair, Klarna και Bookvoice.
Πίσω από τα νούμερα
Πέρα από τις επιχειρηματικές ιστορίες επιτυχίας, εκείνο που ξεχωρίζουν οι συνεργάτες του Πάνου Γερμανού είναι το ήθος του. Ο κ. Νανόπουλος υπενθυμίζει ότι στην κρίση του 2012, όταν άλλοι άφηναν τις επιχειρήσεις τους να καταρρεύσουν, ο κ. Γερμανός έβαλε εκατοντάδες εκατομμύρια για να στηρίξει τις δικές του. Ο κ. Τσαμάζ μιλά για έναν άνθρωπο που, παρά την επιτυχία, παρέμεινε ταπεινός και πιστός στις αξίες του, στηρίζοντας διακριτικά ανθρώπους και κοινότητες.
Τα τελευταία χρόνια η έμφαση στρέφεται στη διαδοχή και στη διασφάλιση της συνέχειας πέρα από τα πρόσωπα – μέσα από ισχυρές ομάδες, αποτελεσματικά διοικητικά συμβούλια και σύγχρονες πρακτικές εταιρικής διακυβέρνησης. Ιδωμένη από απόσταση, η ζωή του Πάνου Γερμανού είναι η ιστορία ενός ανθρώπου που ξεκίνησε από ένα χωριό χωρίς πόρους και έχτισε έναν πολυεθνικό όμιλο. Ιδωμένη από κοντά, είναι κάτι πιο σύνθετο: η ιστορία ενός ανθρώπου που δεν έχασε ποτέ την απλότητά του, εμπιστεύτηκε τους ανθρώπους του και έβαζε πλάτη στις δύσκολες στιγμές.
