Nicos Sarris: Eureka plans new strategic partnerships and expansion in Eastern Europe

Eureka is aiming to further strengthen its already successful presence in Eastern European countries, and especially in Romania, while at the same time proceeding with targeted investments in Greece, Cyprus and Romania, also having in the works the enrichment of the product categories in its range through strategically strengthening its partnerships.

In an interview with InBusinessNews, Eureka Group’s Chairman and CEO Nicos Sarris analysed the group’s development plan, explaining how the prospects have opened and there is fertile ground for the company to become established in new markets.

With its knowledge, experiences spanning 64 years, quality of products, maintenance of a relationship of trust with consumers, investment in human capital, but also its boldness – the qualities the company’s founder, Xanthos Sarris, instilled in the next generation that took over after his death in 1981 – Eureka is now preparing to strengthen its market share in the Eastern European markets.

The EUREKA brand (Eureka liquid, Eureka Massalias, Eureka Baby, Aroxol, Famozo, Tik Tak, Fioro, Roklin, Topine etc.) is firmly established in the Cypriot market, with consumers even using its brand names to describe specific cleaning products. How did you manage to achieve this and how hard is it for a new brand to become established?

Passion, quality, investment and a long-term view. With these guarantees and with a huge effort, the Cypriot company managed to gain the trust of the consumer by always offering them quality products at reasonable prices.

This is our greatest achievement, as Eureka's products in the Cypriot market have covered most of the needs of the Cypriot household and are in the everyday baskets of consumers. It is our intention to preserve this relationship as the apple of our eye.

From a small bleach factory in Varosha, in 1959, the founder of the Eureka business and my father, Xanthos Sarris, laid the foundations to transform the company into the current tri-national company, which looks multinational competition straight in the eye.

As the founder Xanthos himself said, "in order to survive after such a disaster, like the Turkish invasion of 1974, one needs soul and experiences, but also the belief that you can create everything again from scratch".

The incredibly quick reactivation of the Company and the start of the production of EUREKA products in Limassol in 1974 kept alive the triptych of the success of the EUREKA brands: "People-Quality-Trust".

How is the domestic market for your product categories doing? How did 2023 end for the Group and what are the forecasts for this year?

The markets in Cyprus, Greece and Romania are marginally positive and we are slowly feeling the financial fatigue of consumers.

For this reason and even though in 2023 we had an increase in sales by 11%, reaching €66 million, and while for 2024 we expect a further increase of 10% and sales of €73 million, we will nevertheless keep a small basket for 2025.

How do you assess your presence in the other markets, such as Greece and Romania?

Eureka Hellas S.A., with 180 employees and sales of €34 million, holds a remarkable market share, and is considered a formidable opponent for its competitors.

However, since it does not cover the needs of the Greek household to the same extent as Eureka Cyprus, we believe that there is the prospect for further strong growth.

Regarding the Romanian company INTERSTAR CHIM SA, which we acquired in 2005, we went into the market with its own brands, introducing the Aroxol brand, which has now become the second largest player in the category in the Romanian market.

We should note here that the Romanian company, with 220 employees and sales of €30 million, is our biggest market.

What are your next goals and plans? Should we expect new brands, products and/or any other expansion and collaboration?

Because we have grown so much in the Cypriot market with our brands and also with partnerships, such as with the company Patriotis, we are now looking for and exploring new opportunities, thus diversifying our product portfolio.

I would simply throw down the gauntlet to our Cypriot friends/business associates to have a coffee. We also aim to expand into new categories of personal care, through the Greek company Septona, with which we maintain a long-term partnership.

Our goal is to strengthen this strategic partnership by further strengthening market shares in Cyprus.

By adopting different strategies for the three countries where Eureka operates (Cyprus, Greece, Romania), we can simultaneously internationalise the Aroxol brand in Eastern Europe, whose sales reach €23 million for 2024

Among other, we will seek to increase sales of the product in countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Georgia, Montenegro and Albania.

We believe that success can be repeated as long as there is a long-term plan in place first, and then continuous investment is made.

What trends are you seeing among consumers? Have you seen any changes in consumption habits since the pandemic and the spike in inflation? How are you affected by the wider increased costs? Have you found the formula for price containment?

Consumers are choosing their favourite products based on offers and discounts due to their shrinking income and purchasing power. Once upon a time, looking at promotional flyers and choosing products based on offers was a hobby, now it's a necessity.

Where we can, we will give something more to the consumer in the form of offers, depending on the degree of price reduction, the margins that exist, but also the intensity of the competition.

Meanwhile, the €1 million investments we have made in our production lines in the factories in Volos and Bucharest will increase productivity, while reducing production costs, so that we can be even more competitive and offer even greater value to the consumer.

We have also established indicators that we monitor and evaluate annually: Consumption of natural resources (water-natural gas-electricity), environmental compliance of our suppliers, environmental disturbance from the production activity of our factories, greenhouse gas emissions, waste streams, etc., all of which contributes to the reduction of our environmental footprint.

How does the competition from private label products that supermarket chains have on their shelves affect you? Have you estimated the approximate extent of the loss of sales?

Private label products have entered all categories and are one of the competitors of traditional brands, gaining market shares of around and/or over 10%.

However, the well-known brand will always win as long as it is built correctly, maintains its relationship with the consumer and offers a quality product at a reasonable price.

It should be noted that Eureka produces private label products of large categories for many large companies and retailers inside and outside of Greece and Romania.

As a family business, how do you achieve effective collaboration with the next generation?

Succession is one of the most important challenges for Cypriot businesses – and they are not alone. The transition to the third generation is more difficult than the baton-change to the second generation, as the latter was present during the company’s growth and the emotional connection is huge.

For the third generation, the transition is completed with the complete separation of ownership from company management.

Therefore, I believe that maintaining management talent and attracting new dynamic executives should be the main goal of the third generation.

Only in thus will the Eureka Group, with its 500 employees, make new leaps forward.