The core of the exhibition is the unit “A Study Trip” which highlights in an original and imaginative way the correspondence between brothers Nikos and Evangelos Papadopoulos who set up the biscuits company. The family is still heading the company and continuing its course of success. The rich and organized company archive comprises the documentation from which exhibits were sourced. They highlight the history of a company and of the whole country, its progress, its misfortunes, its struggles and its achievements..
Educational programmes and tours will be organized in the framework of the exhibition, while the Archive of the Papadopoulos company has also published the book Και το όνομα αυτού ΠΤΙ –ΜΠΕΡ [And its name was PETIT BEURRE] with archival material.
A name full of history, a brand full of Greece
Legendary Papadopoulos Biscuits industry’s venture dates back nearly a century, when the first Papadopoulos biscuit was baked and pressed with a common wooden stamp in the family’s home kitchen. Back then, no one could have imagined the day would come when Papadopoulos biscuits were to be found in every single home in Greece.
In 1922, Evangelos Papadopoulos together with his mother and brothers embarked on the ship that would carry them to Marseille, forced by the Asia Minor destructions along with other fellow immigrants. The ship made a brief stop in Piraeus to refill with fuel, allowing the family the opportunity to tour the city. It came as a surprise to them to discover from locals in a nearby café that the habit of eating biscuits was not familiar to the Greek people. It was the family’s decision of the moment to miss the ship to Marseille and reside in Greece for good!
That’s how life inspired the family with the idea of the current Papadopoulos Biscuits industry we are familiar with. In 1938, the family moved to an immigrant apartments building at the neighbourhood of Lycabettus and later bought a small bakery shop, where they eagerly started to perform their old art of baking: Mother used to prepare the traditional recipe and bake the petit beurre biscuits and children used to sell them in bulk. The stamp pressed on the biscuits was the same old wooden stamp: Papadopoulos Brothers, Greece.
That’s the start of the Papadopoulos Biscuits story that is still written today in the rooms of the company’s four manufacturing units, dispersing the familiar smell of baking biscuits to the whole of the country.
E.I. Papadopoulos S.A. is currently the leader in the biscuits market and also holds a major position in the market of bakery products, manufacturing Toasted Rusks, Cream Crackers, Breadsticks and Krispies.
Papadopoulos’s brands are popular and nearly identical to the generic category Greek Biscuits: Petit Beurre, Miranda, Cream Crackers, Filled Sandwich Biscuits, Digestive, Caprice, Krispies and Traditional Village Rusks are Papadopoulos’s products that have been nurturing several generations of Greeks.
In 2011, Papadopoulos S.A. introduced the revolutionary Digestive Bars to the market of cereal bars, the first cereal bars with biscuit.
Recently, Papadopoulos S.A. further invested to a new manufacturing unit at the land of Oinofyta, after having decided to venture in the market of packaged bread, launching two different lines of products: the packaged slices of traditional village bread Horiano in a variety of 3 recipes, like Wholemeal with 6 Cereals, Wholemeal with Rye, Multicereal and also the toasted bread Gefsi2 in a variety of 4 recipes, like Wheat, Wholemeal, Multicereal and Corn.
By taking this strategic investment step, Papadopoulos S.A. reinforces its corporate presence in the market of bakery products, where it has been holding a powerful position since the late ‘80s, with lines of products, like Toasted Rusks, Krispies and Breadsticks.
Except from leading the Greek market, Papadopoulos’s brand is currently exported to more than 40 countries and 5 continents in the world, successfully represented by the worldwide popular Cream Filled Wafers Caprice, setting also as a close future target the South Eastern European countries, including Cyprus, as main strategic focus for export and development.
TIPS…
- Papadopoulos’s No Sugar line of products is the first biscuits brand with no sugar additives.
- Every Cream Cracker is manufactured by Papadopoulos S.A. by the same traditional yeast recipe and using 1,296 pastry leaves.
- The lifetime of Papadopoulos’s packaged breads Horiano and Gefsi2 extends to 28 day without refrigerating it.
- Papadopoulos S.A. produces 108 tons or else 10,800 kg of biscuits and bread on a daily basis.
