Apostolos Vakakis: The sui generis entrepreneur who made the Greek success story of Jumbo

If something characterizes Apostolos Vakakis, the founder of Jumbo, the leading retail and toy chain, it's his remarkable and strong personality and his business acumen. And if the interesting personality is a subjective judgment of those who support it, as far as his business acumen is concerned, few can dispute it.

On the other hand, someone could accuse him that despite the fact that Jumbo is riding high in terms of financial performance year to year, he not only remains grounded in his forecasts and expectations, but on the contrary, he behaves as a pessimist in several of the cases.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1954, Apostolos Vakakis immigrated to Greece in 1962 with his family, and for a time he also lived in Italy where his father worked in a company producing stuffed toys. The Italian experience was decisive for the future, as it was the first real contact of the Vakakis family with the world of toys. The family returned to Greece and with capital provided by Prodromos Athanasiadis Bodossakis, then owner of Larco, his father George founded the El Greco toy company. However, a major fire that broke out in the mid-1980s destroyed one of the two El Greco factories located in Ano Glyfada. Apostolos Vakakis rushed back from his studies in London and took over the management of the company. He tried to rebuild the industry, continuing the production of its products, with the help of El Greco's second production plant, which was located in Zakynthos. He stayed on the island for three years.

Eventually, the reins of El Greco were taken over entirely by Apostolos Vakakis in 1985, who then sold the company to the multinational toy company Hasbro. In 1986 the first toy store called "Jumbo" opened in Greece. In 1997 the company crossed the threshold of the Athens Stock Exchange, raising a total of EUR 2 million in capital. In the golden age of the stock exchange, in 1999, when the whole of Greece was buying shares, he invested in land. However, a devastating fire destroyed the warehouses and headquarters of the management in 2000. After this, the company moved to new offices in Moschato.

A decisive moment for the entrepreneur was the moment when he took over the production and marketing of the official mascot of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. It was then that Jumbo's turnover reached 500 million euros per year.

Apostolos Vakakis, the pessimistic

In order to understand his philosophy, recently and through repeated references to the volatile environment of the current period, Apostolos Vakakis, during the regular general meeting of shareholders, tried to justify his cautious optimism or even "pessimism" about the group's forecast for 2023. It was a forecast that once again appears below the real potential of the business and the performance that ultimately comes at the end of the year. It is noteworthy that Jumbo's sales in 2023 are estimated by its management to increase by 15% from 949.38 million euros in 2022, which will bring the chain above the 1 billion euro threshold for the first time. As usual, however, the growth it ultimately shows is much higher than Vakakis' initial forecasts.

The person behind the ads

He is the person behind the advertisements that are occasionally shown on television or played on the radio. "Hit, hit like a man", "Hey, this is why you need Jumbo", and "Suck it up, see ya, see ya" are just a few of the provocative phrases heard on TV and radio spots. He has even chosen the central faces of the advertisements with a popular or often cult character, such as the signers Katerina Stanisi and Tasos Bougas or the former regional governor, Panagiotis Psomiadis, playing the role of Zoro.

He is often asked if he plans to retire from the company at some point. The most common answer he gives is more or less the same. Many people would like me to retire, but I don't know what I would do if I did,' which he said recently, joking at the same time that he might open a kebab shop in such a case.