Even three months ago in the offices of Balomenos Doors and its network, employees were making appointments, proceeding with confirmations of repairs and deliveries of products and everything seemed to be able to run smoothly, despite the sudden death of Vassilis Balomenos, who for years held the business at high levels.
Since the 80’s when he started the company of the same name, he has made the until then unreachable option for most Greeks, a basic need for every Greek household, asking to install armored security doors at the entrances of homes. Until recently, when the company was virtually invisible.
Balomenos Doors: “Black” by customers on social media
Negative reviews on Google and posts on the official Balomenos Doors social media accounts, a downed site and non-working phones at any of the four showrooms the company maintained attest to the collapse of Balomenos Doors.
Among them, comments like “we were waiting for placement and no one came. The phones in any store are not working. The employees at the headquarters and Vouliagmenis Avenue are missing. Hopefully we’ll get our deposit back.” “We have been customers for many years, we have not encountered any problems, always formal and everything is correct, I am impressed that all this is happening. I need something and the phones really aren’t working. I just found out the boss died and all this is happening. So bad management all of a sudden,” writes one of Balomenos Doors’ customers on the Facebook account.
Every year, one step closer to collapse
The collapse, however, was not so sudden after all, as there is a general feeling. The company, which had its headquarters above Piraeus, in Moschato, despite its ambitious plans for cooperation with Italian manufacturers and the creation of the more economical brand Bravoport, already found itself weakened at the time of the health crisis at the end of 2019.
It is indicative that in 2016 he was involved in a legal dispute over a short-term loan from the National Bank which led to the seizure of his bank accounts. The company had given the bank a guarantee by subscribing its central facilities for 1.8 million euros.
According to the financial statements at GEMI, in 2018, it employed 42 employees, the turnover was 1.3 million euros and the losses were 2 million euros, compared to the turnover of 1.7 million euros and losses of 1.97 million euros in 2017 .
In 2019, the turnover was over 1 million euros, with losses of 518.4 thousand euros, but in 2020 it fell to 902.2 thousand euros with profits of 324.7 million euros. In 2021 the turnover recovered to 955.5 thousand euros, but the company went into losses of 241.2 thousand euros.
To display the figures for the financial year 2022 (they are also the last ones posted on GEMI), according to which the net turnover in 2022 was 810,935.98 while in 2021 it was 955,463.24 showing a decrease of approximately 17.82% , “an element that is justified both by the economic situation of the country, and by the fact that competitive companies have appeared on the market that have more economical low-quality products”, it is pointed out in the relevant Management Report, signed by Vasilios Balomenos, from July 20, 2023 .
Profit after tax was -1,234,813.93 while in 2021 it was -2,523,236.26 showing an increase of 1,288,422.33, as much as the profit before tax of 2022, in contrast to the profit before tax of 2021 which was -241,214.69.
For the specific period, it employed 36 workers from 70 a few years ago and had 4 exhibitions, in its central facilities in Moschato, Agios Dimitrios, Kaminia of Piraeus and Chalandri.
Balomenos Doors and the interim injunction
As of August 23, there is an “updated temporary order of the President of the Athens Court of First Instance, which appoints as a single-member administrative body and advisor-manager of the company a specific person, in order to carry out urgent acts, management and representation until the appointed discussion of the special application and under the condition of its discussion”, as the GEMI announcement concludes.
Source: ot.gr
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