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 From the island of Syros, handmade wooden spectacle frames are
proving a hit with hipsters in Europe and beyond. Gold-infused
organic honey from the rolling hills of Evoia in the east is finding
favor with upmarket clients in the United States, London, Hong Kong
and the United Arab Emirates. And in an Athens suburb, a carpenter
turned to his lifetime hobby of crafting fishing spearguns after his
business faltered. His first client was from Russia.
Dimitris Hatzirodos, whose spearguns retail between 450 and 1,500
euros, said the crisis is forcing Greeks to think outside the box.
"When things get tough it gets you thinking, you start thinking
differently. When things are easy nobody ever makes difficult
choices," he says, sitting in the workshop that he and his brother
inherited from their father.
More than 400,000 Greeks have emigrated abroad since the country's
financial crisis started in 2009. Those who stayed are lucky to find
jobs -- a quarter of the population is unemployed, and earnings have
fallen on average 40 percent. National output has fallen by a
quarter since 2008.
Periklis Therrios, 36, briefly migrated to Canada. But home
beckoned.
He and his partner Eleni Vakondiou, 37, turned to making
hand-crafted spectacle frames around 2012, some of them using
recycled materials. The idea came over a coffee, after earlier
endeavors with furniture flopped.
"It was very difficult, and there were many times when we thought
about giving up, but we believed in our efforts, we believed that we
would make a product that could stand on its own in the market,"
said Vakondiou.
"There were moments when our (food) cabinets at home were empty
because whatever income we had went towards research and
development," she says.
From a small workshop on Syros the couple started with a production
of 350 pairs a year. They say they are now on track to making 2,000
this year, retailing for between 250 and 300 euros.
AT LEAST WE TRIED
In Evoia, in the heart of the Greek countryside, Yannis Karypidis
and Stevi Theodorou administer beehives left by Theodorou's
grandfather. Last year they sold 60,000 jars of organic honey.
Production has already exceeded 70,000 jars for the first half of
2016.
Former advertising executive and accountant Karypidis, 35, said the
couple had decided to move to the United Kingdom, but a last trip to
Evoia changed their minds.
"We said to ourselves 'if it works it works, if it doesn't it
doesn't, but at least we tried it and got it out of our minds and we
could then move on to something else'," said Karypidis.
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Stayia Farm now produces 16 different types of honey mixtures,
probably most noted for one infused with gold flakes.
"It's a product for refined tastes ... it's not something you can
find in a supermarket," Karypidis says. The product retails at
between 35 and 50 euros overseas.
Ioannis Kaplanis, director general of the government-affiliated
Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation, known as OBI, says Greece
has the talent but also needs an institutional framework for
encouraging patents and financing start-ups.
"There is a critical mass of inventors in the country which must be
tapped, transformed into a commodity which will foster growth," he
said, adding: "There needs to be financing from businesses or from
funds. This link does not exist."
Karypidis and other small business people who have made it agree
their success has been all self-generated and speak of government
involvement as more of a hindrance than a help.
In typical Greek style, Karypidis did not receive any financing and
instead tapped the know-how of his and his wife's extended family.
Therrios and Vakondiou used crowd funding -- mostly raised through
Greek donations -- to get started.
"The difficulty in Greece right now is to maintain (a business),"
said Karypidis. "The expenses, the taxes that exist make it really
difficult to keep a small- or medium-sized business going."
Speargun-maker Hatzirodos said he is happy to be "bringing even a
euro" into Greece, but resents what many call a heavy-handed and
shortsighted approach to taxes to keep the country financially
afloat.
"This country is the most blessed country there is, but the people
who run it just don't deserve it," he said.
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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