Greece loses intrepid enterpreneur and beloved employer Stelios Sklavenitis, 52

Stelios Sklavenitis, aged 52, did not have a health problem, but last Thursday he was he was diagnosed with the flu and was hospitalized. The exact causes of his death according to an official announcement was multiple organ failure caused by Influenza B.

Stelios Sklavenitis, together with his sister Maria and brother Gerasimos, was in the management of the group and carried the burden of the merger with Marinopoulos, the most ambitious such project ever, for Greece. Stelios Sklavenitis was the father of four children.

The company was founded in 1954 by Ioannis Sklavenitis, Spyros Sklavenitis and Miltiadis Papadopoulos, initially as a wholesaler. The first supermarket opened in 1969 in Peristeri, Athens. After 64 years, Sklavenitis has grown to become the largest retailer, as the group now has 43 h"ypermarkets", 466 supermarkets and 11 cash and carry stores and employs about 23,000 employees.

Today, after the acquisition of Marinopoulos, the Group has 538 branches in Greece and Cyprus. On March 1, 2017, the Marinopoulos Group was closed and most of it merged into the newly established company Sklavenitis SA, a subsidiary of the Sklavenitis Group, which included all Carrefour Express and Carrefour Marinopoulos stores.

Until the acquisition, the chain had never expanded outside Attica and numbered just 160 stores, including 112 stores under the name "Sklavenitis", 39 stores "Chalkiadakis" in Crete and 9 stores under the trademark "The Mart" (formerly Makro) .

The financial world and politicians of all the whole spectrum paid tributte to the beloved enterprneur, hailing his ethos and the closeness with his employees. His loss was especially felt by companyy staff at all levels as he was considered a model employer, who personally saw to the neeeds of his employees, who knew him as and called Mr Stelios.