One of the sweetest business marriages has now become a reality, with the announcement on Thursday of the completion of the acquisition of the Lavdas candy factory by the ION chocolate industry.
The relevant agreement was announced last June and provides that Lavdas will continue to operate as an independent company but with the development of significant synergies with ION.
One of the old shareholders, Stelios Lavdas, will retain 25% in the company and will be chairman of its board of directors. It is also expected that the two factories owned by the company in Ano Liosia, northern Athens, and Gastouni in the western Peloponnese, will continue to operate.
Spyros Theodoropoulos, who is the majority shareholder of ION, owned 24.98% of Lavdas before the above acquisition, an acquisition that had taken place back in 2009.
The Lavdas company, which is already 71 years old, had a turnover of 28.38 million euros in 2023, according to the financial report it has published in the General Commercial Registry (GEMI), compared to €24.42 million in 2022.
A particularly important element for Lavdas that was also a strong incentive for its acquisition by ION, is that its products are exported to Europe, the US, the Middle East and the Far East.
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3:48 PMThe term 'Mediterranean cyclone' -- or shortened to 'Medicane' -- is very similar to a hurricane
known as a Medicane (Mediterranean hurricane)
uprooting trees and causing power cuts in the Ionian islands of Kefalonia
The fire brigade said it had received at least 60 calls for assistance
mainly to cut down trees and pump water out of homes and stores
Kefalonia's Mayor Theofilos Michalatos said no one was hurt but homes
transport infrastructure and water facilities had been damaged
The impact was similar in Zakynthos and Ithaca
which reached the western Peloponnese peninsula around midday
A Reuters witness said there was heavy rainfall in the area of Pyrgos in western Peloponnese
A vessel in the gulf of Kyparissia sent a distress signal
with the same intensity for 6-9 hours and then
will start moving to the south," Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said
before reaching the wider Athens region on Saturday
Authorities said the intensity and course of the cyclone could not be accurately predicted
These cyclones first appeared in Greece in 1995 and have become more frequent in recent years
flash floods killed 25 people and left hundreds homeless
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Janet Lawrence)