Volos Pet Industry S.A. (VPI, GR-37500 Volos; www.frigoglass.com), producer of PET granules and preforms is currently expanding PET production capacity at its Volos site by 20,000 t/y to 80,000 t/y at an investment of EUR 7.5m. This sole PET producer in the region supplies 95% of the Greek market and exports 41% of its production. The company´s chief customer is Greek bottler Coca Cola HBC (CCHBC; www.3c.gr), formerly the Hellenic Bottling Company and currently the world´s second largest bottler for the US soft-drinks giant after Coca Cola itself. It has licences for more than 20 European countries and Nigeria. The principal shareholder of CCHBC is the Cypriot family dynasty, Leventis, whose founder Anastasios G. Leventis accumulated most of his wealth in Nigeria.

The family also has a 44% share in VPI parent company Frigoglass (GR-151 25 Maroussi) via the Luxembourg holding company Boval S.A. Founded in 1996, Frigoglass is currently one of the world´s leading manufacturers of commercial refrigeration equipment. Alongside this, Frigoglass, which is quoted on the Athens stock exchange, has extensive holdings in the bottle packaging sector. A total of 5,300 employees work at 26 production sites in 13 countries. Apart from Greece, the main countries involved are Nigeria and Bulgaria, where different joint ventures are maintained – including one for closures with Crown Cork & Seal. Reference customers are not only Coca-Cola but also Heineken, Guinness, Schweppes, Danone, Lipton and Mars. The rapidly-expanding company achieved sales of GFD 98 bn in 2001 (EUR 290m), and a pre-tax result of GDR 5.3 bn (EUR 15.5m) of which GDR 1.9 bn (EUR 5.5m) came from VPI.

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Presentation of the Frigoglass group including financial data, strategy and organisational structure, as PDF document (768 KB)