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A Step Forward<br />
Kostas Pagratis & Co., Corfu<br />
Mr. Pangratis’ service station is located in the busiest part of the island, at a distance of one<br />
kilometer from the port and airport of Corfu on Paleokastritsa National Road (Alikes area).<br />
Aegean News spoke with Kostas about his business and his involvem<strong>en</strong>t in the field of fuel.<br />
Have you be<strong>en</strong> involved in the fuel<br />
business for a long time?<br />
I have be<strong>en</strong> actively involved in the<br />
fuel business since 1996. Nevertheless,<br />
this [service station] is a family<br />
business that was established in 1968.<br />
Iakovos Melissanidis<br />
welcomed me as a fri<strong>en</strong>d.<br />
He trusted me. So he won<br />
me over.<br />
Please talk to us about your service<br />
station.<br />
We sell car fuel, car lubricants, and<br />
heating oil. We also run a car service<br />
station and a coffee shop. On the side<br />
we also run a company called Corfuel<br />
(www.corfuel.com) active in fuels and<br />
yachting services.<br />
Wh<strong>en</strong> did your collaboration with<br />
Aegean start?<br />
Approximately two years ago.<br />
What made you decide to trust Aegean?<br />
Everything was a matter of timing. I<br />
had to take a step forward. I studied<br />
Aegean’s course from 1995 on and I<br />
spoke with company repres<strong>en</strong>tatives.<br />
They were willing to answer all my<br />
questions "without expecting anything<br />
from me,” as they told me. And<br />
of course the "icing on the cake" was<br />
Iakovos Melissanidis. Straight talk. He<br />
welcomed me as a fri<strong>en</strong>d. He trusted<br />
me. So he won me over.<br />
How is your collaboration with Aegean<br />
today?<br />
Our cooperation is very good. We<br />
proceed looking forward.<br />
Talk to us about your customers.<br />
After so many years in this field we<br />
have built a strong relationship with<br />
our cli<strong>en</strong>ts. We are there for them and<br />
they support us. We have a large cli<strong>en</strong>tele<br />
base and strive to overcome the difficulties<br />
of our time by helping them as<br />
much as we can. And they reciprocate.<br />
The service station of Mr Pagratis<br />
CORFU<br />
PALEOKASTRITSA NATIONAL ROAD- ALIKES POTAMOU AREA | 39.630672,19.884866<br />
Located at the <strong>en</strong>trance of the Adriatic Sea, near the coast of Agii Saranda (Albania),<br />
Corfu is the second largest of the Ionian Islands and forms the northwesternmost part<br />
of Greece. R<strong>en</strong>owned for its beauty, Paleokastritsa, a coastal village northwest of the<br />
town of Corfu, lies just south of the Byzantine castle Angelokastro. Scholars argue<br />
that Paleokastritsa was the anci<strong>en</strong>t capital of Corfu where Nausicaa found Odysseus.<br />
How does your cli<strong>en</strong>tele respond to<br />
the Aegean brand?<br />
In the beginning the Aegean brand<br />
seemed strange to them, as it was not<br />
well known on the island. But they<br />
trusted us and they were happy with<br />
the fuel quality. Now they are telling<br />
us that we should have switched over<br />
to Aegean years ago.<br />
Is there a lot of competition in your<br />
area? How do you deal with it?<br />
There is a lot of competition from various<br />
companies. We are who we’ve always<br />
be<strong>en</strong>. We don’t do something differ<strong>en</strong>t.<br />
The Aegean brand takes care of<br />
the rest.<br />
SUMMER 2016 AEGEAN NEWS 27
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