The first testimony we have of the Pittas Family’s interest in honey. During the Olympic Games of 1896, the father of the founders, George Pittas, places an advertisement in the newspaper “Estia” of his business “Edodimon Apoikiakon” (Edible Colonial Goods), located on Stadiou Str., in the heart of Athens. Featured among the products advertised is the already famous honey from Mount Hymettus.
In 1928, Alexandros Pittas (the third of eight brothers) opens a store on Sokratous Str. in the city centre, for the packaging and sale of honey. His youngest brother, Panayiotis, who had not turned twenty yet, joins him in the business. It does not take long for the two brothers to realise the benefits and commercial value of honey. The two brothers see the potential of quality packaging for the dissemination and consumption of honey and launch a pioneering initiative which will radically change the way in which honey has been marketed and transported until then: they offer Greek honey in small packages, under the trading name “Ymittos Attiki Honey”.
The first product is named “Ymittos Attiki Honey”, because the business is supplied with thyme honey from Mount Hymettus. Later, the two entrepreneurs start buying thyme honey from other parts of Attica, such as Mesogeia, Mandra, etc. “Ymittos Attiki Honey” evolves into “Attiki Ymittos Honey”, and eventually becomes “Attiki Honey”, the honey now known by all.
The two emerging businessmen begin by buying thyme honey from bee-keepers across Greece, endeavouring, at all times, to keep the flavour of the honey they package exactly the same. Each year, they visit their producers to select the quality of the honey they intend to purchase. As insightful and brilliant entrepreneurs, they decide to export a part of their produce, and in the 1930s, they start participating in the biggest international fairs, snatching up awards and distinctions along the way. At the same time, they religiously promote Greek honey and its unrivalled quality worldwide.
The Second World War and the Occupation of Greece violently interrupt the upward course of the Company, which begins operating again after the Occupation, having managed to re-awaken Greek producers’ interest in apiculture and to reclaim its network of wholesalers. Thanks to the famous “Marshall Plan” and the capital it receives, the Company is transformed into a modern industrial facility.
ATTIKI Bee Culturing Co. Alexandros Pittas has new facilities in Peristeri (an Athens suburb) and thirty employees. It is at this time that, thanks to a powerful ad campaign and a plethora of new packages, it begins to move away from previous geographic confines and to spread to almost all of Greece, as well as new overseas markets. The USA, Canada, Australia, and a number of Middle East countries become acquainted with Greek honey and begin to import a significant amount of the 300 tons of honey packaged each year by the Company.
And it just keeps getting better. The two brothers convince shop-owners to display Attiki Honey on their shelves (honey from thyme and other flowers), as well as their new product, Fino Honey (forest honey). The aim, as declared by Alexandros Pittas, is to have “every Greek eating a spoonful of honey every day”. Sure enough, slowly but steadily, honey consumption per capita starts to increase nationwide, resulting in thousands of families living off beekeeping by the end of the ‘50s. As for the undertaking of the Pittas brothers, it seems to be dominating the honey market.
is a decade of growth for the Company, both in Greece and abroad. New products such as bees wax and jam, and new packages, including tubes, 125g plastic cups and of course, single packs, are added to the gamma of Attiki and Fino products. The blue tin of Attiki Honey is easily recognisable and well-known, whilst Fino Honey sets about creating its own image. The yellow tin of Fino Honey, featuring the “Fino boy”, becomes a firm favourite with children.
But it is also a decade of change, with the sudden passing of one of the Company’s founders in 1967 at the tender age of 58, and the loss of the second founder just five years later. Somewhere in between, the Company also loses two of its executives, who leave to open a rival business.
The death of the two founders of the Company leads to a changing of the guard. Two young adults, the children of Panayiotis Pittas, Alexandra and George, i.e. the next generation, together with their aunt, Eleni, the widow of Alexandros, take over the Company, with a view to maintaining the products Greek consumers love on the market. With the help of the executives who stood by the Company during this difficult time, obstacles are overcome, and the Company begins to grow at a rapid pace. Alexandra Pitta heads the commercial side and exports and George Pittas runs production and handles all communication with the beekeepers.
With the new generation at the helm, new divisions in the Company are gradually created, for the purpose of better organising the Company and adopting improved production procedures. The following departments are born: Sales, Exports, Quality Control and Purchases.
ATTIKI Bee Culturing Co. Alexandros Pittas S.A. is a force to be reckoned with on the Greek market and the biggest honey-packaging company in Greece. Superior varieties of Greek honey are selected from some 2.000 beekeepers. Communication with honey producers is direct. George Pittas and his staff in the Purchases Department have kept the traditions of the older generation alive, travelling to the producers to select the different honey varieties packaged by ATTIKI, and traded under the names Attiki, Fino and Nectar. ATTIKI’s honey has won some of the most important taste awards, the most recent honour coming from the International Taste and Quality Institute (iTQi). In 2008 and 2011, Attiki Honey received three stars for its superior taste, the highest accolade possible, and in 2009, Fino Honey was awarded two stars.
At ATTIKI, we also have one of the most advanced laboratories in Europe for quality control and assurance, and we have an Apiculture Development Department which offers advice, support and training to our beekeepers / partners. We are continually evolving according to the values and principles of our predecessors – the founders of the Company – and striving to create quality products that respect both man and the environment. We have adopted an integrated traceability system, by means of which we can trace the producer(s) of the honey in each and every ATTIKI package. The standardisation and packaging facilities of the Company are still based in Peristeri, but the internal spaces have been better organised and equipped with new packaging machinery. At the start of 2000, a new and large, air-conditioned warehouse for the storage of raw materials and the grouping, classification and control of honey varieties purchased from producers was set up in Kryoneri (Attica). Halfway through the decade, the warehouse for Ready-to-Use Products and Distribution was also moved to Kryoneri, in another new and large space.
Our Company is an ardent supporter of research on honey and bee products. Over the last few years, studies on honey, carried out in cooperation with numerous universities and official agencies, have been unfailing and compelling, producing key results. ATTIKI is growing thanks to its development of new products, and bolstering of sales, marketing and exports.
The Development Department has introduced honey into other Greek products, thereby creating new ones. In fact, other than honey, ATTIKI offers traditional specialities, such as Halva (classic and made only with Greek honey), Tahini with honey, Vanilla and Mastic sweets, Loukoumi (traditional sweets), as well as other bee products, including fresh pollen and fresh royal jelly.
The target of the Sales Department is for all the Company’s products to reach the various retail outlets across Greece, and to secure favourable shelf position in chain stores and sales points. Local sales growth has been significant and the Company caters directly to all stores operating nationwide. The Sales Department is also expanding product sales in other commercial sectors, such as HORECA, industry, etc.
The Marketing Department opts for incentives that make ATTIKI’s products the first choice of consumers.
At the same time, the Exports Department ensures that ATTIKI’s products are available in more than 45 countries worldwide, e.g. in the EU, USA, Canada, Middle East, Japan, etc.
ATTIKI in order to develop and disseminate Greek honey actively participates in the National Interprofessional Organisation of Honey and Other Products Cell as a member of the Association of Greek OLIVE packing and exporting of Honey (S.E.T.S.E.M.)
ATTIKI has made Greek honey accessible to the public at large. We are proud of the fact that the name ATTIKI is synonymous with Greek honey, which we have promoted internationally and to huge acclaim. Attiki honey has won over consumers of every age, and has secured its leading market position – a moral victory for us, following a concerted effort and legitimate business policy to create an exemplary family business, where principles and tradition become one with modern research and management.
