The 65 – year route of a large Organization

Introduction – The foundation of the A´ Cooperative General Market
Year 1942. With an unknown outcome, the Second World War is at its height and our small Cyprus, also being under the weight of the English colonialist sovereignty, is counting the scars with the rest of humanity. Poverty, unemployment, deprivation of goods, economic abjection, with the black market playing the role of the … ‘adjustors´. Something had to be done. Somebody or other, had to throw off the insupportable martyrdom, to discomfit the circumstances of deprivation.
 
Then, one day, there in Limassol town, a group of people with a common vision and cooperative ideals, gather the remnants of their strength and much more. They gather their own soul and dare to change the conditions. They offer mouth to mouth resuscitation to survival and to the needs of the consumer. They found the A´ Cooperative General Market.

The route of the Cooperative Foundation
It wasn’t an easy emprise. But still, this group managed with its’ credibility, something precious. The trust of the consumer public. As a result, and until 1945, another 4 cooperative shops were established, in various parts of Limassol, thus serving the wider public, in an era indeed during which the car, even as a concept, was an inconceivable concept for the most people. Simultaneously it upgrades its image through new measures. One of these was the payment of dividends, directly returning part of the profits to the consumer and another, the introduction of a Self Service system. The upward route is steadily established.

 Foundation of SPOLP and A’ Cooperative Textile Shop
The restraint of the prices of consumer goods is given but not enough for the big vision of the Cooperative Movement. Thus, in 1954 the Cooperative Supplying Organization of Limassol – Pafos (SPOLP) is founded. Its main function was the wholesale trade. In 1956, the announcement of the foundation of the A’ Cooperative Company of Tailors follows. This is subsequently reorganized into a Cooperative Company of Store Articles of Clothing (A’ Cooperative Textile Shop)

A’ Cooperative General Market + A’ Cooperative Textile Shop = ESEL!
With Limassol continuously expanding, in 1970 the Administrations of the 2 large Cooperative Companies of General Market and Textile Shop proceeded to the unification of the two Companies and to the creation of a new Company, the Limassol Union of Cooperative Companies (ESEL). The aims exceed all hopes. ESEL is established as the largest enterprise of retail trade in Cyprus.

New Superstore – Amalgamation of Cooperative Foundations with ESEL
With a New Development Plan in 1971 the erection of a Superstore with 9 Departments commences in the center of Limassol. The works are interrupted by the tragic events of 1974 but during the years 1976 – 1977 they continue and are completed. In 1978 the amalgamation of ESEL and under the same name with the Cooperative Consuming Foundations of Mesa Yitonia, Polemidhia, Agios Athanasios, Agia Fyla and Germasoyia follows.

Unification of SPOLP – ESEL
With the retail trade flourishing, SPOLP proceeded with the reconstruction of the Company and also became involved in this sector. With this new data, the two Companies ESEL and SPOLP proceeded with their unification in 1994.

Evolution – Development of the Company after 1994
From 1994 onwards ESEL – SPOLP formed a specific type of evolution. Its parochial shops which reach 32, function under a new form of Franchise comprising the ESEL chain. In parallel, the Company launches the E&S Superstore line, which today includes an overall number of 7 Supermarkets and additionally the specialized E&S Home Textile Superstore in Saint Nicholas of Limassol. In 2000 the Cooperative Company creates the E&S Trading affiliated Company whose main shareholder, with almost an exclusive possession of shares, is ESEL – SPOLP LTD and in which the Superstores E&S Landmark and E&S Home Centre are integrated. 

Pioneering Novelties of ESEL – SPOLP
ESEL – SPOLP is the first Company which incorporated the system of the Bonus Card (E&S Bonus Card) developing for the first time the Customer Relationship Management activity which aimed at the direct contact with customers and the indirect return of benefits to its holders. It was also the first Company to incorporate the Electronic Shelf Label. With this system, the prices on the shelves change centrally thus ensuring the credibility as well as the trust of the consumers. The computerization is then applied to all Company functions as well as the Point of Sales technology in the Superstore transactions.

The social Face of the Company
Along with the militant mission of ESEL – SPOLP which makes its’ presence strongly and creatively in all expressions of everyday life, another mission exists, which is accomplished in parallel but in tones that are as low as possible, almost in unsuspected tones… This is its social mission. This is what comprises the social face of the Company and which declares its presence in every humanitarian call.

The samples of social offering… many! The tragic events of 1974 found the storehouses of the Company open and giving freely to everybody. The Company directly tried to employ as many refugees as possible who were working in Cooperative General Markets. In this way they prevented even worse consequences for their families and the economy. It facilitated its customers for a long period of time through an unscheduled incorporation of the paying – on – credit system.

ESEL – SPOLP has a strong presence in the form of unscheduled or annual subsidies in most of the benefactions as well as in a long list of Charity, Sports, and Cultural Associations and Foundations.

Today, more than 350 families are supported through employment by the Company. The Company ensures that persons with special needs are also supported in this manner.

 Epilogue
Today, 65 years later, ESEL – SPOLP recapitulates with its every move, the facts of its mutual direction with the consumers. Because this is what it is about. Investing in a diachronic relationship, ESEL – SPOLP has marched together with the Cypriot all these years listening closely step by step to the demands and the challenges of time. Three generations of people who have given their soul, carried every dream as a baton, thus creating today’s miracle. Steadfast in the common vision. Unwavering in their beliefs and commitments, no matter how much eras and facts change. They are there, faithful to the spirit and letter of the same philosophy. Harnessing expensiveness, giving a breath of survival but also a better quality of life to the Cypriot consumer. Doing justice to the Cooperative Movement and the reason for its’ existence.   

65 years of ESEL – SPOLP, as a matter of honour… with you!