When civil engineer Lefteris Gavrielides left Cyprus in frustration in 1974 at the age of 31 he had never thought he would not only end up in freezing Finland but also introduce its people to Cypriot and Greek products.
His companies today have a turnover of several million euros annually with halloumi cheese being the primary product.
The 79-year-old Cypriot, who was nominated this year for Businessman of the Year at the Bank of Cyprus Man of the Year Awards, has recently spent a few days in coastal Larnaca – his hometown.
And he told Philenews the success story of his life in an interview.
It is the story of a self-made entrepreneur who worked hard with innovation as his main “instrument”. And one who has managed to turn a disadvantage into a strong advantage.
Gavrielides was born in Larnaca in 1943 and studied civil engineering in Britain. Upon his return to Cyprus and after his mandatory military service he worked at the Water Development Board and was subsequently employed as a Municipal Engineer at the Municipality of Larnaca.
“In England I found that there was order in everything, whereas in Cyprus there was chaos due to bureaucracy. When I was a Municipal Engineer there was no filing system and when someone made a building application, for example, it was lost and no one could find it.
“I did not like that and tried to bring order by adopting a filing system. I then decided to find out what was happening in other town halls. Because they didn’t like my actions, I would take a leave of absence so as to go see what system they had.
“So when they asked me why I went to, say, Famagusta Town Hall, I would say, ‘with my personal permit, I go wherever I want’.”
When the 1974 Turkish invasion took place, he enlisted as a reservist and was sent to Pentadaktylos mountain area where he had confronted an “absolute chaos” and a “dire situation”.
After the war was over, he left Cyprus in frustration and went to Saudi Arabia where he worked for three years as a civil engineer. In the meantime, he met his Finnish wife and they moved to her home country where his degree was not recognised.
“I then decided to go to university to learn Finnish in case I stayed there for good and Arabic in case I had to go back to Saudi Arabia. There, the Lebanese professor of Arabic told me that his colleague, a linguist, was doing studies on Greek words in Arabic.
“I met him and he asked me to teach him Greek. I told him that I am not a teacher and he replied that he didn’t mind. I started teaching him and discovered how little Greek I knew in practice. So, I got every book I could get my hands on to learn good Greek.
“Without meaning to, I became a teacher myself and started teaching students who kept asking me the meaning of words. I made a vocabulary and the teacher and I wrote the Finnish-Greek dictionary and then the Greek-Finnish dictionary – the first to be published in the country.”
In parallel to the school classes and private lessons to students, Gavrielides also worked as a civil engineer.
“I also kept the job as a civil engineer, but it was a very low salary. The manager told me that I should be happy because many Finnish engineers don’t have jobs. Then I realised that regardless of my years of working in Finland I was considered a foreigner and I started thinking about what I could do so that the fact that I was a foreigner would not be considered a disadvantage but an advantage.”
‘There were no Greek products’
Along the way, Lefteris Gavrielides was appointed as honorary consul of Cyprus in Finland and, in 1985, a coincidental event paved the way for the big step that changed his whole life.
“At a ceremony with students we decided to have a Greek night and I discovered that there were no Greek products in Finland. The students half seriously said: “why don’t you bring Greek products to Finland?”.
A few days later I told my wife that I would bring olives from Greece and that if we don’t manage to sell them I can live for years eating olives and bread. She said “since you will have the olives, I promise to give you bread”.
“So, I slowly started importing olives. The first storage room was our bedroom. At first, I was filling up bags and driving my car from one street to another. I would stop at restaurants and stores and let them have a taste. Then, I brought olive oil, halva, dolmades, giant olives, Greek pasties, etc.
“My costs were low because I was the only one working in the company. And I was able to survive because I continued to do the other jobs. I was working as a civil engineer, a teacher and a trader at the same time.
“I used to joke that I would first wear clothes fit for unloading the container and go to shops to deliver the products. Then I would change clothes to go to an event as a consul and then I would go to school to teach. I had four different roles in just one day.
“The business began growing because there was no trade with Greece at that time and I started hiring employees. I always wanted not to imitate and that’s why everything I did was innovative. The things that came from Greece were nowhere to be found. The principle of our company is ‘whatever you do, you do it for the first time’.”
Halloumi, wines and beers from Cyprus
After he saw that he had succeeded in his venture with Greece, Gavrielides started importing halloumi, beers, koumantaria (dessert wine) and other products from Cyprus.
“I was the first one to import halloumi, which now sells more than feta. Halloumi today is a popular cheese in Finland, it is in every shop and now the chains themselves are importing it.
“The company has had growth every year since it was established and I have tried not to be uncontrollable. I didn’t want to take loans so that if something didn’t go well, it wouldn’t be a big problem. In the beginning we had 10-15% growth every year and now because the company has grown it has 5-6% growth every year.
“I keep going, but my two daughters have taken over. Our import company’s products can be found in every supermarket in Finland. We have also recently established a processing company where we marinate products. The import company has an annual turnover of about €17-18 million and the processing company about €5-6 million.”
