OUR ORIGIN
At the turn of the 19th Century, a young entrepreneur named Mathios Mamalakis endeavored to change his stars. With little to call his own Mathios decided to rent a piece of land in Crete, Greece with the intention to harvest olives and make olive oil. As he improved his growth techniques, he grew his dream into an olive oil manufacturing business by the early 1900’s.
Around the 1920s, his sons came off age and joined the business, Branding to "Mamalakis and Sons". As the products of the business grew in demand, so did the manufacturing plant in southern Crete. As the plant grew, employees and families came to make their homes around the facilities. This sparked the growth of the town today known as Agia Galini.
Realizing the potential for the byproducts of the first press of olive oil had potential as Castile, a different grade of oil used to produce soaps and cleaners. The plant began to manufacture both food quality olive oil and cleaning solutions and soaps.
Capitalizing on the towns seaside location Constantin, the first born son of Mathios, pushed the family to expand its market reach through shipping. This reach expanded past mainland Greece into Libya and Egypt. While still new to the idea of international trade, early communications took a combination of multiple language usage, physical actions and simple hand gestures. Through sheer will and determination the sons Mamalakis began formal trade of their soaps and oils for grains, teas and spices from their southern neighbors.
With the importation of grains and spices the brother pushed to grow the family business production, opening a second plant further inland which was primarily used to grind grains into flour. As the brother grew so did their product offerings and trade routes expanding further into northern Greece and Italy.
For a decade or more the factory thrived. But political unrest in Europe found its way to the sunny shores of southern Crete. By the turn of the 1930’s, the Nazi’s confiscated the factory and shipping port of Agia Galini to be used as a way port for Nazi battle strategy. Many people were killed or run off from their homes and the factory during this period. The regime commandeered the factory and used it as stables and barracks, while local homes were appropriated for officers residences.
When the war drew to a close, the brothers returned to their factory. Nearly condemned and the surrounding town nearly destroyed the brother feared the worst. However by sheer luck the Nazi occupiers never searched the factory stores. Auspiciously, the Nazi regime missed two hidden tanks filled with castile under the factory floor. These reserves were the foundation for the rebirth of the factory in the early 40’s.
Short on money, and looking for a solution the brothers turned to the newly advertising Marshall Plan for funding. One of the few businesses to capitalize on the Marshal Plan, those funds opened a door to rebuild. In addition, the brother decided to grow through partnership adding additional equity owners to their group, rebranding the business to "Mamalakis Brothers". These two financial moves while allowing the factory to reopen, did create some unrest amongst the brother, but the final nail came when the Greek government joined the Bretton Woods System, in 1954. The Drachma under this system was revalued at 1000:1, pegging the Drachma at 30 Drachma to $1. Overnight the business went into economic distress. And while the family persevered for a few months, the crushing debt overwhelmed the business and it closed its doors.
OUR EVOLUTION
OUR DORMANT YEARS
OUR DORMANT YEARS
OUR DORMANT YEARS
In the 1960s, 70s and 80s and through to today olive oil production was and is very disparate. As we evolved as a people there has been a departure from farming. Further many of the growers over time bequeathed to younger generations portions of their farms shrinking the overall size of farms. Today the average farmer in crete has a farm of 8-12 acres. While many of these farmers continue to own and grow olive trees to produce olive oil, they do not produce enough to make a go of it as a singular brand. Instead they turned to keep what their family consumes, and sell the leftovers to Italy and Spain.
The grandchildren of Mathios Mamalakis, one his namesake the other his brothers namesake, Mathios and Evangelios took those three decades to grow their land holdings and to put their passion for farming and family into their land. In an attempt to interrupt the state of the industry, they worked tirelessly to unite with other micro growers from the valley. In 1994 they successfully coordinated the launch of a cooperative in southern Crete. The cooperative now known as the Organic Farmers of Messara.
This Cooperative was founded by a group of 44 dedicated farmers. The group shared a common goal; the production of a superior extra virgin Olive oil organically grown on their grounds and terms. This group of farmers were the first cooperative of its kind on Crete. For decades this cooperative has been preserving tradition, while promoting research in organic Olive tree cultivation methods.
OUR REBIRTH
OUR DORMANT YEARS
OUR DORMANT YEARS
Four and five generations later, in an attempt to pay homage to our forfathers, several of the relatives both in Greece and abroad are trying to rebirth our families company. Working with the existing cooperative, we are bringing back the Olive Oil brand that helped to birth the valley, the villages and cooperative that continue in the original traditions from 150 years ago.
Our brand holds true today to the same values that formed the cooperative 30 years ago, and the same dream our forefathers had over 150 years ago; We want to produce a premium Organic Olive Oil, in a traditional method in the region where we come from.