IB Woman
Issue No. 10 - April/May 2003
On the Starting Blocks
Up at Bowman, about an hour north of Adelaide near Port Wakefield, lies a new property that has just come into bearing, and is the source of an even newer brand of olive products.
Elia, by the Stavropoulos family, has been in the planning stages for eight years, but reached the market only in 2002. The seven years it takes to bring an olive grove into bearing commercial quantities must be an unsettling wait!
As Georgina Stavropoulos explains, the family link with olives is ancient; hailing from Kalamata, the Greek city famous for its olives, the clan is deft at growing grapes as well as olives for table and the press.
Taking advantage of family skills has been important. "Dad is very skilled at grafting and he has passed his skills on to my brother. That saves a lot of startup cost," Georgina says.
She is ramping up the marketing and will grow into the sales management role, while her brother Chris takes on production responsibilities that are outsourced currently.
Georgina struck her first distribution deals in November 2002, winning a café outlet in the market and regional points of sale in Wudinna and Port Lincoln.
She is pushing herself hard in these early business stages. While marketing Elia products at shops around SA and interstate, she also works substantial hours at (unrelated) retail to keep up personal cash flow and to broaden her retail experience.
After seven years of grove development capital is at a premium and G...
