The four Piteni brothers managed to take off their father's small salad workshop and get to recommend their food to 30 Countries
They got only five of their father's salads, expanded the range with new products and came to market around them 200 codes, harnessing creativity, imagination and a lot of work, to create one of the largest gourmet food companies. The Piteni brothers from Kozani, Dimitris, Nikos, Andreas and Stelios, They managed to take off their father's small workshop which started by making traditional salads 1973 and arrive with A Bros.. Piteni SA to recommend their flavors to 30 Countries, from Europe and the US to Dubai and Saudi Arabia. In fact, They currently have contacts with Canada and Japan, while constantly expanding their exports currently amounting to 30% on the company's turnover. When they took over the business 1994, their annual output was 45 tons and today exceeds them 1.000. They even feed through their agents more than 11.000 points of sale around the world.
The company, which counted only four of them, their father and just two employees in the mid-1990s, is now busy 55 people and has four branches in Tripoli, Thessaloniki, Athens and Larissa.
International awards and new investments
Dressings were added to that first category of salads, sauce, especially fish, pickles and gourmet foods in general, which are constantly enriched and each year are distinguished in international competitions. Products such as mayonnaise with Kozani Yolk and fish pasturma consistently stand out in the awards.
In fact, the company is preparing to make a new investment, of the order of 3 million euros, adding others 2.000 sq.m.. for 3.000 sq.m.. unit of, to expand existing product lines for its salads, but also to add two more to produce a new line of premium products, which do not exist either in its range or in the market. This new series will carry the brand name Kitchen secrets, inspired by the name of the cooking show made by one of the brothers, Stelios Pitenis - who has studied chef- together with the person in charge of R&D of the company, Giannis Giannitsa, on the channel of Afoi A. Piteni on You Tube, where they show how its products can be used in cooking.
Stelios Pitenis
In fact, the kitchen that became the springboard for the show, having started as a testing ground for the company's new products, will soon be certified as an examination center for cooks.
From the grocery store to their unit 3.000 sq.m..
Agamemnon Pitenis maintained a small grocery store in Kozani with his brother, which was supplied, including, salads from a partner in Thessaloniki. However, the frequent difficulty of the supplier to come to Kozani, with the result that the grocery store is left with salads, stubborn Agamemnon Pitenis, who decided to set up a small workshop to make his own products and not depend on third parties. The first tests began in 1973 and 1975 the laboratory went into orbit, making eggplant salad, Russian, tzatziki, paprika and cheese salad. At first, supplied the family grocery store, but then it started to go beyond the borders of Kozani, reaching as far as Grevena and Kastoria.
The four sons of Agamemnon Pitenis learned the job from a young age. Either on a mountain of eggplants to clean them or by opening the beans one by one to pick the peas, The Piteni brothers knew from children that their father had made something good. The 1994 and after completing their studies, entered the business dynamically, a workshop just 250 sq.m.. who made five salads. Determined to open a new chapter, proposed to their father an ambitious investment plan. In fact, they hid his real budget from him, where was it 412 million dirhams, mentioning only the 60 million dirhams. When the investment was finally approved by the development company and their father found out the actual amount, although it fell from the clouds, he gave them his bank book and with it his blessing. The result was the creation of a modern production unit 2.000 sq.m.. in length 13 acres.
Source: https://www.voria.gr/article/afi-a-piteni-gkourme-gefsis-apo-tin-kozani-se-olo-ton-kosmo