Milestones of our history

Our history goes back to 1982 when the founder, Mr. Andreas Pilavakis, first started trading locally potatoes and vegetables for the domestic wholesale markets.

The late 1980s saw increasing demand in Cyprus for industrial quantities of potatoes for the production of snack foods. Because of the quality of our service and product, we could capitalize on this demand, and we established a long-standing relationship with Corina Snacks Ltd (a subsidiary of PepsiCo International - owners of the Lay's brand), becoming their sole supplier.

The establishment of the company A.S. Pilavakis Ltd took place in 1995 by Mr. Andreas Pilavakis.

During 1999 significant investments in our future began when we installed an ultramodern packaging line to offer 3kg and 5kg packs, together with an additional potato-washing line.

Beginning of 2003 saw us registering our brand name 'Sun Potatoes' for our range of pre-packaged products. Also, in a pioneering move and in keeping with our forward-thinking strategy, we invested in a bulk industrial packaging line to offer customers 1200kg packs of potatoes. This helped us to reduce packaging and distribution costs and resulted in lower costs for our industrial customers.

In mid-2003, knowing that we had the industrial infrastructure and production capacity in place, we began seriously looking for potential export markets. When Cyprus entered the European Union in May 2004 we were immediately able to begin selling our Cyprus potatoes into Europe.

In response to increasing demand for our Cyprus potatoes, in 2005, we invested in a third production line; this was specifically for 20kg and 25kg bags. Our capacity increased and our export business grew significantly.

As a result of continued growth in our business, 2006 saw us undertake our most ambitious project to date - the construction of an additional facility and the upgrade of our original building, giving us three modern, versatile packing lines and extensive refrigerated and dry storage space.

In 2012, the company extended it’s packing lines to four.

Today, A.S. Pilavakis Ltd is still a proud family business, with Socrates Pilavakis and Alexandros Pilavakis managing the company alongside their father, and the company is well established as one of Cyprus' most respected potato packers and exporters to Europe.