Some things in life are a family affair.
Eleni Hillas and brother Peter Georgatsos run Fotis & Son Imports Inc., a company that carries on their dad’s passion for olive oil. The Huntington Beach company has yearly sales of $15 million to $20 million.
Fotis & Son makes and imports Greek products such as olive oil, olives, cheese, pasta, beer and wine. It owns several Greek product lines: olive oil and olives under the Olga brand, beer under the Hillas brand and pizzas under the Pitza brand.
Fotis & Son also sells gyro meat from Chicago and products from Turkey and Spain.
The company runs out of a 17,000-square-foot headquarters in Surf City and an 8,000-square-foot office in Chicago. It owns four trucks and employs about 30 people.
Fotis & Son supplies products to grocery stores such as Whole Foods, Bristol Farms and Mother’s Market & Kitchen. It also sells to food companies, restaurants, delis and hotels. Rivals include other Greek food sellers such as Titan Foods Inc. in New York and Maryland’s Demeter’s Pantry.
Company founder Fotis Georgatsos,dad of Eleni and Peter,was an engineer before starting the business in 1976.
Georgatsos came to Illinois from Greece in the 1950s. He learned English and packed candy at Brach’s Confections Inc. to raise money for college.
After Georgatsos graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, he worked as an engineer at General Dynamics Corp.’s Pomona operations. Later, he pursued his master’s in thermal dynamic engineering at the University of Southern California and started working for what then was Rockwell International Corp. in Seal Beach. Son Peter was born in 1964. Daughter Eleni came in 1967.
Georgatsos moved his family from Pomona to Huntington Beach. Money was tight, according to Peter and Eleni.
In the 1970s, Georgatsos traveled back to Greece to visit family. His brother, Tony, owned an olive oil company. Georgatsos wanted to bring his brother’s olive oil to the U.S.
In 1976, he started selling olive oil to friends and at church functions. Later, he began selling olive oil to delis and restaurants.
The engineer that he was, Georgatsos made diagrams of how olive oil was made and why it was important to eat it. He always had a diagram handy when he met with customers, his children said.
“He was really into educating people about olive oil,” Peter said. “Back in the 1970s, people didn’t really know about olive oil. It was a hard sell at first.”
Georgatsos juggled engineering and his olive oil business. Wife Catherine did Fotis & Son’s bookkeeping. The kids worked part time from elementary school through college. After Peter graduated from California State University, Long Beach, in the early 1990s, he joined full time. Eleni joined full time in 1994 after she graduated from California State University, Fullerton.
With the children’s help, Fotis & Son grew and started importing other products such as cheese and wine. Soon Georgatsos’ daughter-in-law Laura and son-in-law Orestis joined.
Fotis and Catherine Georgatsos now are gone. Peter and Laura Georgatsos and Eleni and Orestis Hillas now manage the business with the help of Laura’s brother, Tom Fick.
The company’s biggest challenge is managing its growth, cash flow, inventory and employees, according to Eleni. Fotis & Son is trying to grow by creating and finding more products to sell, Peter said.
Real Women Have Curves
Jessica Svoboda was tired of the drab fashions from plus-size apparel makers. So she decided to make her own clothing company.
Svoboda by Jessica Svoboda is an upscale plus-size clothing company that makes jeans, knit and leather clothes sold at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and boutiques in Britain and Japan. Jeans sell from $108 to $168, knits for $105 or less and leatherwear at around $220.
Svoboda competes with Lane Bryant Inc., part of Pennsylvania’s Charming Shoppes Inc., and Torrid of City of Industry-based Hot Topic Inc.
Svoboda designs and markets its clothes at its Santa Ana headquarters. Its knits and leatherwear are made in Los Angeles. Jeans are made in Madagascar. Svoboda employs six to nine workers, including Svoboda’s sister, Kristine.
Svoboda said she started her company in 2004 after seeing a need for upscale plus-size clothing. As a plus size herself, Svoboda said she detested the boring clothes stores had to offer.
“My life was never put on hold because of my weight but my fashion sense was,” Svoboda said. “It was never coming through in the way I dressed.”
Svoboda declined to disclose the company’s sales. She said she plans to work with investors to help her grow the business. Next up: swimwear, lingerie and, hopefully, a store.
As Seen on “The Office”
Olympic Wire and Equipment Inc. helps companies organize their trash. The Newport Beach-based company sells balers, which are used to compress waste or recyclable material such as Styrofoam or paper into bales. The company counts $7 million to $10 million in sales and seven workers.
Jim Walker started the business in 1996 and has sold balers to companies such as Procter & Gamble Co., Weyerhaeuser Co. and Oakley Inc.
The company sells balers made by Indiana’s Balemaster USA, Nexgen Baling Systems in Alabama and Denmark’s Runi AS. It also sells compactors, shredders, baling wire and offers maintenance and repair services.
Last month, Olympic’s baler was featured on NBC’s “The Office.”
Setting it Straight
An April 30 column on Prime Produce International LLC should have said the company provides Costa Mesa’s Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc. with No. 1 avocados, the best available.
