In 1980, according to official data from the Hellenic Statistical Office (ELSTAT), 148,134 children were born in Greece. In 2021, according to ELSTAT, 85,346 children were born. Since 2013, the birth rate has been consistently below 100,000 per year. These facts alone are enough to explain why SkagGreek company producing the most famous blue notepadThe “international” laptop currently produces about 8 million laptops a year, while in the 1980s its production quadrupled to 32 million a year.

The demographic problem of Greece, however, did not stop the development of Sag, a company founded 67 years ago in Ampelokipi by Theodoros Skagias, whose notebooks have grown from generation to generation and are still preferred by Greek families, as well as families in … Japan. Both Theodoros Skagias, who passed away in 2021, and the second and third generations of the family at the helm of the company, invest constantly in new product categories that allow them to offset the losses from the successive crises of recent years. In the early 90s, these were binders and other types of filing, during the pandemic – creative toys, and now printing and packaging.

“T. K. Skagias” ABEE, Skag, was founded by Theodoros Skagias as a handicraft business at 18 Sevastopoulou Street in Ampelokipi, “under the grandmother’s house”, as Ms. Popi Skagias, the daughter of its founder, characteristically stated yesterday at a press conference. the company and its current managing director.Sky’s family lived on the same street.In 1973, the handicraft business was transformed into a limited liability company, and five years later, the first Skag plant was built in Kryoneri.In 1990, the company begins the production of office filing cabinets, participates in international exhibitions and in three years its export reaches 25% of the total turnover.

In 1995, a second plant was built next to the first one, which gave the company more opportunities. In 2008, shortly before the economic crisis knocked on the door of Greece, Skag invests 5 million euros in mechanical equipment and is ready to subsequently respond to the changes that will be required in the structure of production. In other words, with the acquired digital machines, the company could switch to the production of other demanded products and reduce the production of, for example, laptops.

It was also equipped with presses in 2019 and has been working with printing companies since then, while an investment of 3 million euros is planned for the purchase of modern machines that will allow Stag to operate in the packaging category in 2023 as well. .

Skag’s products have reached Japan, where the Greek company exports blue notebooks and case files.

At the same time, the company aims to further strengthen its exports, which currently account for 10% of its turnover. Skag’s main market outside of Greece is Cyprus, while the company is present in Romania, Bulgaria, Malta, Portugal, England, the Middle East, Egypt, and Japan, where it exports the famous blue notebook and case files.

Today, in the mainstream notebook category, Stag continues to dominate with a market share of around 45%, but faces strong competition from imported products, mainly from Turkey. As Ms. Skagia noted, laptops from Turkey are imported at 0.17 euros, and a Skag laptop costs 0.75 euros. At the same time, if laptops from Turkey are imported into Greece duty-free, then laptops exported from Greece to a neighboring country are subject to a duty of 80%.

In 2022, Skag’s turnover was 9.07 million euros, and in 2023 the company forecasts a growth of 10%, as well as an increase in operating profit.