Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met in the morning at Maximos Palace with the President of the FOURLIS group Vassilis Fourlis and Andrea Colzani, Category Distribution Manager of the Inter IKEA group.

During the meeting, the decision of the Inter IKEA group to invest in Greece, in collaboration with the FOURLIS group, was announced for the creation of a state-of-the-art international product distribution center with an area of ​​50,000 square meters. The new unit will be built in White tower, will be supplied through the port of Piraeus and will serve the markets of the eastern Mediterranean, initially covering the needs of IKEA stores in Greece, Bulgaria, Jordan, Israel and Cyprus. The goal is to support other countries in the future, such as Egypt.

The advantages offered by Greece as a regional hub were also highlighted, thanks to the infrastructure it has and its strategic geographical location, while it was emphasized that there is great interest abroad for investments in our country in the transit and storage sector.

The investment in Aspropyrgos has a budget of 70 million euros. Around 100 permanent jobs will be created at the new international distribution center, including highly skilled positions in the fields of computing, data analysis, logistics and artificial intelligence.

“Thank you very much for introducing us to this very exciting new investment. We seek to explain that Greece has the opportunity to develop into a regional logistics hub. These types of investments support our main argument, they take advantage of our unique geographic location and the infrastructure, both private and public, that has been created to support this type of investment.

And of course, we’re talking about it port of Piraeusfor the strategic importance of Aspropyrgos, the wider area, given its proximity to the port, for rail connectivity, which for us will be even more important in the future.

But I would like to point out two aspects of what you said. First, better logistics mean better prices. Importantly, the better the supply chain works, ultimately it means better pricing for the consumer. In an era of increased cost of living worldwide, this is an important aspect. And, of course, the highly skilled jobs around logistics. I believe that we already have a younger generation of Greeks who decide to choose this industry for a career, combined with cutting-edge technological solutions this certainly constitutes a very good career choice”, noted Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Based on planning, work will begin this year and the distribution center is expected to be operational in mid-2025. The facility will have a zero environmental footprint as it will be equipped with photovoltaics.

“This investment is a very important confirmation that Greece can play the role of a hub. Greece is located in the ideal geographical spot, we have the appropriate infrastructure, we have a port that works very efficiently. Piraeus is the fourth port in Europe and the first in the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, I believe that investors can take advantage of Greece’s advantages in order to increase their turnover”, he stressed from his side the Minister of Development Kostas Skrekas.

Vassilis Fourlis, President of the FOURLIS group, said: “We are particularly pleased to be here on such an important day for us. We are announcing a very important investment, both for Greece and for your group. Inter IKEA has decided to invest in a distribution center that will serve all the Eastern Mediterranean countries, such as Israel, Jordan, Greece, Cyprus of course, and in a second stage, Egypt and possibly other countries. More than 250,000 cubic meters of cargo will be unloaded in Piraeus and then reloaded for distribution throughout the eastern Mediterranean.”

THE Andrea Colzani, Inter IKEA Category Distribution Manager, said: “The decision to come to this area was very simple for us. From the Far East, Asia side, the port of Piraeus will be the best way to shorten the delivery time and also take care of the sustainability part. This is part of our plan, what we call the “People Positive Plan”, to get to the point of reducing the impact of carbon emissions. On the shipping side, of course, as you mentioned, it will be possible to make deliveries, to serve all these countries, in a much faster way. We know the infrastructure is very good. The port of Piraeus is something we consider as a parameter, with other ports, and it works well. So we absolutely believe that we will continue to develop this aspect.”

The meeting was also attended, from the government’s side, by the General Secretary of Private Investments, Vicky Loizou, and the Head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Office, Alexis Patelis.