Dodoni Ice Cream: Suitors, vicious circles and the haircut

With accumulated losses of 30 million euros, negative equity of 21.25 million euros and total borrowing at 36.12 million euros, according to data recorded in the last published balance sheet (31/12/2020), Dodoni Ice Cream SA is again up for sale.

Whether this competition, in which 4 interested parties are reportedly participating, is successful, or will lead, like the previous ones, to a “shipwreck”, will be seen in the near future.

The new round of bidding the hard-hit company is reportedly attended by: Venetis, the Serrai dairy Kri-Kri, a company of interests of Dimitris Vintzilaios, which has taken control of Creta Farms and an investment vehicle of the president and managing director of ELGEKA, Alexandros Kasiotis.

This is the third rescue effort since 2017 and as it seems despite the company’s problems, the strong brand has kept a peaked interest.

Regarding the offers, based on information, the bar has been lowered quite a bit and is now somewhere around 3 million euros, much lower than the 8 million that the group, Giotis – Grigoris Mikrogevmata, was willing to pay a few years ago.

However, for the process to proceed, there must be an agreement between the creditors, as the banks have as collateral more than 90% of the company’s shares.

According to the company’s shareholder register, as of December 31, 2020, 100% of Dodoni Pagota’s shares are held by the Cypriot company Foodron Holdings Ltd.

The dairy shop in Kypseli with parfait to-die-for

In the 60’s Vassilis Bletsos and Sofia Xita, from eastern Zagori, Dodoni province, found themselves in Athens in search of better luck.

Their professional paths met in Kypseli where in 1967 they bought a small dairy shop, which they renamed “Dodoni”.

With just three tables inside the store, in Dodoni one could find milk, creams, yogurt, rice milk, eggs, galaktoboureko, kadaifi, baklava, saganaki, but also various ouzo brands.

Noticing that ice cream was in demand, the two Epirotes decided to expand into this category, presenting exquisite and original ice cream flavors.

The parfait cream evolved into an adored ice cream and by word of mouth the whole crème de la crème of Athens started queuing outside the small ice cream parlor. Dionysis Papagiannopoulos, Mimis Plessas, Nikos Stavridis, Giorgos Constantinou, Iakovos Kampanellis, as well as Jenny Karezi, with whom there was a professional collaboration, would feast at the tables of Dodoni. The collaboration with Tzeni Karezi took the form of catering to the canteen of the Greek theater and movie idol.

A few years later, in 1977, the company moved to its current facilities in Pallini, while in 1984 it opened the first corporate store in the form of a gelato shop in Kifissia and the first franchise store in Chalandri.

In 1990 the joint-stock company Ice Cream Industry V. Bletsos – S. Xita-K. Bellos OE, was transformed into Dodoni Ice Cream SA and in the period 1991-1995 a dynamic expansion of the network took place through a franchise with the opening of 17 stores.

The era of Plakopitas, Daskalopoulos, Theodoropoulos and the entrance of the National Bank

In the midst of problems, in April 1999 the owners of the company Pagota Dodoni SA: Konstantinos Belos, with a percentage of 25%, his mother Sofia Xitas, with a percentage of 25% and Vassilis Bletsos, with a percentage of 50%, decided to sell the company to a group of investors.

The new owners of the “divine ice creams”, as they had now become known, were many and well-known. Specifically, 57% of the company’s shares passed into the hands of Global Capital Investors (the Venture Capital Fund of the Global Finance company of Angelos Plakopitas), 25% to the company DELTA, 5% to the company Proodos (investment company of the then Labor Bank ), 5% to Spyros Theodoropoulos, 3% to Kostis Apostolidis (right hand of S. Theodoropoulos in Chipita) and 5% to G. Savvidis, former manager of the company who took over the position of CEO.

In the summer of 2007, Global Finance and a consortium of investors announced their divestment from Pagota Dodoni with the sale of the latter to NBGI private equity, which served as the international investment arm of the National Bank in Europe.

At the time, market executives claimed that Global had tripled its initial investment in the ice cream company through the sale.

In its announcement, Global Finance stated that in the 8 years that it maintained control of the company, the number of Dodoni Ice Cream stores increased from 92 to 207, its turnover increased 2.5 times and the employed staff almost doubled from 56 to 100.

In 2012, a fire broke out in the facilities of Pallini, resulting in the destruction of the production unit. The loss amounted to 2 million euros however there was full insurance coverage and the amount of losses was covered almost entirely by the insurance company.

From National Bank to Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank

Due to the sale, of NBGI Private Equity by the National Bank, in 2016, 90% of the shares of Pagota Dodoni, through the Southeastern Fund, passed to investment companies affiliated with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

At that time, the company had its products through: a network of 72 Dodoni franchise stores, a network of 121 smaller points – “corners”, 600 points HO.RE.CA. (cafes, restaurants, hotels), 700 points of sale of family packaged ice cream in large supermarket chains, but also small mini markets, bakeries and patisseries.

The accumulated losses as at 31 December 2016 had amounted to 15.2 million euros and the total equity was negative and equal to 6.47 million euros.

Six years ago, the company’s management announced that it was in negotiations with the creditor banks, in order to agree on the optimal restructuring of its borrowing in order for it to become viable again.

The unfortunate “flirts”

And while the losses continued, in 2018 information reported that interest in the acquisition of Dodoni Ice Cream was expressed by the Greek companies Giotis – Grigoris Mikrogevmata and the Switz Group of the Indian businessman Taizoon Khorakiwala, which invests in Cretan Bread and Koulourades.

In the summer of 2020, new “suitors”/ candidates also appeared in the foreground. According to information, apart from Giotis, Kri Kri, Venetis, Kayak and Dodoni were on the list of those interested. However, no proposal was successful.

The loss of Chillbox

Amid a pandemic, Dodoni Ice Cream also lost its frozen yogurt revenue as Kayak acquired 70% of Chillbox A.E. and 100% of Chillbox Global SA. Chillbox companies accounted for about 19% of Dodoni Ice Cream’s turnover in recent years.

Network Shrinkage

At the end of 2020 the company sold its products through a network of 56 Dodoni franchise stores, from 70 stores in 2018, a network of 109 smaller points- “corners”, 1,318 points HO.RE.CA. (cafes, restaurants, hotels) and 424 points of sale of family packaged ice cream in large supermarket chains as well as small mini markets, bakeries and patisseries.