How Giorgos Gerardos made Plaisio “future ready”

Giorgos Gerardos has been at work for 52 years. Since 1969, when the young student of the Polytechnic with loans of 80,000 drachmas (235 euros) and rich in dreams created his first store with drawing and office supplies in an area of ​​12 sq.m. on Stournari Street, until today, when Plaisio has managed to become the first choice for Greek consumers in the field of technology, the unstoppable Giorgos Gerardos is always one step ahead of the competition.

Being an influential retailer was not Giorgos Gerardos' first choice, since he gave up the high social status that a doctor's career offers (before entering the Polytechnic he had studied Medicine), deciding to test himself in the business arena.

The idea for the creation of Plaisio was born in Thessaloniki, when, as a student, George Gerardos, discovered that the prices of  items used in design in the co-capital were dramatically cheaper than on the Attica market.

Considering it as a business opportunity and having now transferred to Metsovio Polytechnic School, he borrowed money and opened a shop next to the School of Civil Engineering.

Trying to supply directly from manufacturers, it bypassed intermediaries and managed to provide much lower prices on products used by civil engineers, architects and related industries.

This model was unprecedented for that time in 1969.

Despite the difficulties (in 1976 he ran Plaisio, a small and medium-sized enterprise with 13 employees, from his unit's commissary only telephone in Evros, where he served as a draftee) and the growing competition, Giorgos Gerardos continued to build what he calls "customer loyalty capitalization".

After all, immediate adaptability to market conditions (agile management) and real-time management are key...