Agrand entrepreneur in every sense of the word, George Gerardos founded office products operator Plaisio Computers in 1969 when he was a student of civil engineering at the National Technical University in Athens, Greece. His idea was to supply his peers with the drawing supplies and equipment they needed for their studies.
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George Gerardos |
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Now Managing Director of the Dr25BN ($65M) publicly-traded company, Gerardos has come a long way. He expanded the business in 1976 to include general office supplies and equipment.
1992 saw the start of Plaisio’s chain of retail stores – which now stands at seven outlets – with the opening of a second shop in Athens. Three years later, Gerardos had also built a distribution centre to supply the stores.
In 1996, Plaisio was the first company in Greece to sell office products via a catalogue – today, about 30% of its products are sold via mail order. In addition, in an effort to become a true multi-channel player, Gerardos decided in 1999 to enter a strategic wholesaling alliance with InterACTION, the European consortium of companies that work together on strategic issues such as price negotiations with OP vendors. During the same year, Gerardos again managed to beat the competition when his company became the first OP firm in Greece to offer an electronic store front.
Finally, last year Plaisio entered the contract stationery business with the introduction of a B2B unit specialising in servicing medium-sized and large corporate businesses.
