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Gold

ISSUE 55 | octo

bEr 14 - novEm

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Goldt h e b u s i n e s s m a g a z i n e o f c y p r u s

ISSUE 55 octobEr 14 - NovEmbEr 13, 2015PrIcE €4.95

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THE BUSINESS OF FASHION

THE EXPERTS TALK ABOUT RETAILING IN CYPRUS

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As health care moves from treatment to prevention, how will drug makers remain relevant?Find out how we’re working with pharmaceutical companies to plan for tomorrow. ey.com/advisory #BetterQuestions

4 | GOLD | The Business Magazine of Cyprus

www.goldnews.com.cy | GOLD | 3332 | GOLD | The Business Magazine of Cyprus

By Effy Pafitis & Artemis Constantinidou

| COVER STORY |

“Iwant my money right where I can see it – hanging in my closet,” said Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw in 2003. At the time, many Cypriots shared that sentiment, pur-chasing millions of euros worth of clothes, footwear and accessories alone per annum and contributing to the development of the

in Cyprus beyond recording the fact that in

was imported to the island.Many moons, several seasons, and one recession later, most local con-

advice of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood – “buy less, choose well” –

Indeed, this shopper sentiment has led us into the era of Fast Moving Fashion, in which consumers now demand the ultimate in convenience, competitive prices, the latest styles and desirable quality before making a purchase. The abundance of information and images regarding the hot-test fashion trends, as well as price comparison applications and the like, all available via the internet, has only served to facilitate this proclivity, and render e-commerce an increasingly à la mode option of obtaining fashion goods.

Will this consumer climate affect local fashion retailers’ sales growth? And what of online shopping – will it inspire turbulence in brick-and-mortar trading? How should retailers respond in order to secure optimal future success? Will the market’s long-term prospects be impacted by re-cent developments such as the acquisition of the Mall of Cyprus and Mall of Engomi by South African commercial, retail and residential property giant Atterbury Group, as well as the highly anticipated arrival of Swedish multinational retail-clothing company H&M to the island?

On the following pages, Gold answers these questions and more, as we gain the exclusive insight of among the local industry’s top professionals. Olympios Toumazou, Executive President at RAI Consultants Public Ltd. offers his views on the fashion business trends and their effect on both consumers and retailers, Raoul de Villiers, Managing Director of Atter-bury Europe Services, discusses the Group’s plans for the Nicosia Malls as well as possible further investment on the island, while Stelios Nicholson

a representative of Symeonides Fashion House – Marks & Spencer, and

developments in the Cyprus fashion retail industry.

THE BUSINESS

OF FASHION

T H E B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E O F C Y P R U S

I S S U E 5 5 O C T O B E R 1 4 - N O V E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

C O N T E N T S 6 | EDITORIAL 8 | BUSINESS BRIEFINGEconomic & Business Highlights of the past month 14 | MY WAY Alex Mouradian’s management style16 | FIVE MINUTES WITH… Stelios Kythreotis17 | THEY SAID WHAT?A selection of memorable recent quotes from Cyprus

OPINION26 | Whatever Happened to Ideology?By Joseph F. X. Zahra44 | Growth and Bureaucracy Cannot Co-existBy Christodoulos Angastiniotis84 | Hype or Hope? By George Mountis

FEATURES20 | Point of No ReturnInterview with Fikri Toros, President of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce24 |

28 | The Way ForwardHow Cyprus compares with its competitors in Administrative Services46 | Steaming Ahead...and Giving BackCaptain Eberhard Koch on the future of

49 | Teaching People How to Make MoneyProfessor Malcolm McDonald on how CEOs can

52 | I’m A Believer

78 | Use Your Customer!Using Social Media to create customer loyalty

80 | Aspiring to be No. 1G.A.P. Vassilopoulos Group’s Insurance Services are growing in stature and importance86 | Relax!Enjoying the treatments at Hamam Omerye in Old Nicosia89 | BOOKSHELFFive of the best new business titles90 | IN GOOD COMPANYWhy employees are ‘lovin’ it’ at McDonald’s

94 | MY COLLECTIONTony Michaels and his 2,500 comic books 98 | LUNCH WITH GOLDDimis Michaelides, Managing Director of Performa Consulting101 | BUSINESS CLASSYiannis Misirlis, Founder and Director of Imperio Properties104 | WHAT’S ONGold’s guide to the best cultural events106 | A DAY IN THE LIFEElia Nicolaou

COVER STORY

32 | The Business of Fashion

Experts from the fashion retail business express their views on the future of the

industry in Cyprus and elsewhere.

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6 | GOLD | The Business Magazine of Cyprus

| EDITORIAL |

John Vickers,Chief Editor

john@imhbusiness.com

Dedicated Followers of Fashion

his month’s issue of Gold is quite a special one in that it features interviews on two subjects to which we have not devoted much space until now. The first of these is fashion. It was Oscar Wilde

who notably remarked, “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months” but a much fairer assessment is probably that of Coco Chanel, who more wisely (though less wittily) said, “Fashion changes, but style endures.”

The fashion retail sector in Cyprus has always been a huge money-spinner, simply be-cause people here, like everyone else in most of the world, love clothes (and, in the case of women, shoes too...) and are willing to spend a sizeable amount of their income on them.

Some 40 years ago the island had a name for manufacturing clothing and shoes for ex-port as well as local consumption but that has now completely disappeared, to be replaced by a market in which virtually every imported international brand name can be found.

Like every retail sector, fashion has been affected in recent years by the financial crisis – one only has to look at what happened to Stasikratous Street (popularly and unwarrantedly known as the ‘Bond Street of Cyprus’) and Makarios Avenue in Nicosia to see the effect of the recession on boutiques and clothing stores – and it is only just starting to recover. In addition to losing revenue due to reduced disposable income, shops have also been hit by the rise in e-commerce and the ease of buying online. But all is not lost, as several fashion industry experts told us for this issue’s cover story (starting on page 32) and while the sector it may be changing, it is changing for the better. The arrival next year of an eight-storey H&M store in what was once Nicosia’s main shopping area – Ledra Street – bodes well for shoppers and other retailers alike.

Several of the people we spoke to about fashion retail expressed the view that the sector will be positively affected by a settlement of the longstanding Cyprus Problem, which brings us to this issue’s second – and much more groundbreaking – topic. For the first time, we present an interview with a prominent Turkish Cypriot – Fikri Toros, President of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce – who talks about his community’s econ-omy and how he sees the benefits of a reunited Cyprus on both the Greek and Turkish Cypriots (page 20).

Elsewhere you will find articles and interviews related to the fi-duciary sector (page 28), shipping (page 46), law (page 52), social media (page 78) and insurance (page 80), while we also take a look at companies as diverse as PGS Lighting & Electrical (page 24) and McDonald’s (page 90).

MANAGING DIRECTOR George Michail

GENERAL MANAGER Daphne Roditou Tang

MEDIA MANAGERElena Leontiou

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Vickers

JOURNALISTSEffy Pafitis, Artemis Constantinidou

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE Christodoulos Angastiniotis, Mariana

Antonescu, George Mountis, Maria Pilidou, Joseph F. X. Zahra.

PHOTOGRAPHYJo Michaelides, Andreas Loucaides

ART DIRECTION Anna Theodosiou

SENIOR DESIGNERAlexia Petrou

PHOTOGRAPHY Jo Michaelides, Harris Kyprianou

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Kevi Chishios

SALES MANAGER Irene Georgiou

SALES EXECUTIVE Stavros Epifaniou

OPERATIONS MANAGER Voulla NicolaouSUBSCRIPTIONSMyria Neophytou

PRINTERS Cassoulides Masterprinters

CONTACT5 Aigaleo St., Strovolos 2057, Nicosia, Cyprus

Mailing address: P.O.Box 21185, 1503, Nicosia, Cyprus

Tel: +357 22505555, Fax: +357 22679820e-mail: gold@imhbusiness.com

subscriptions: goldsubscriptions@imhbusiness.comwww.imhbusiness.com

ISSN 1986 - 3543PUBLISHED BY IMH

T

GOLDT H E B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E O F C Y P R U S

ISSUE 55 OCTOBER 14 - NOVEMBER 13, 2015PRICE €4.95

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THE BUSINESS OF FASHION

THE EXPERTS TALK ABOUT RETAILING IN CYPRUS

8 | GOLD | The Business Magazine of Cyprus

ZAHA HADID WINS RIBA GOLD MEDAL

RECORD NUMBERS APPLY FOR STELIOS AWARDS

BYRON CAPITAL PARTNERS: BEST INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

COMPANY 2015

TWO GLOBAL FINANCE AWARDS FOR HELLENIC BANK

IMH Announces New Newspaper and Portal

Gold IN Business

AWARDS

BUSINESSBRIEFING

IN THE NEWS

ANASTASIADES AND CAMERON MEETDuring a meeting in London last month, President Anastasiades and British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the lat-est developments on the Cyprus issue, the current refugee crisis in Europe, Britain’s aim to reform the EU and energy matters. Cameron made reference to the effort and “strong leadership” required for a solution to the Cyprus problem. “If we can dem-onstrate that dialogue and good faith and good discussion can reach an agreement, that would be a great thing for Europe, a great thing for Cyprus and a great thing for the world. So I want to encourage you to do everything you can. We, as one of your oldest and best friends, stand ready to help,” said the British Prime Minister.

POLITICS

Dr Evripides Dem-osthenous, Sports Officer at the Cyprus Univer-sity of Technology

(CUT), has obtained a full MBA scholarship offered by the Cyprus Institute of Marketing (CIM) in collaboration with Goldnews.com.cy.The scholarship, worth €6,600, was handed out on September 11 by the Chief Editor of Gold magazine, John Vickers, and the Deputy Director of CIM, Yangos Hadjiyannis.The duration of the MBA pro-gramme is one year (full time) or two years (part time) and classes are held in the evening in both Nicosia and Limassol.

Gold/CIM Scholarship

EDUCATION

www.goldnews.com.cy | GOLD | 9

IMF DISBURSES €126 MILLION TO CYPRUS

T

ECONOMY

Toyota Celebrates 50 Years in CyprusOn 30 September, Dickran Ouzounian & Co. Ltd. celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first Toyota distribution contract signed with the Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan for the island. As part of the celebra-tions, the Executive Vice President of Toy-ota Motor Europe, Karl Schlicht congrat-ulated Dickran A Ouzounian and Toyota Cyprus for their steadfast commitment to the values of Toyota, their entrepreneurial spirit and success in Cyprus over the last 50 years.

University of Cyprus Marks 25th AnniversaryLast month, the University of Cyprus celebrated the 25th anniversary of its estab-lishment in 1989. With 7,000 students, 8 schools, 22 departments and 11 research units, the University was recently ranked among the 400 top universities in the world, as published by The Times in its Higher Education World University Rank-ings. The university described its ranking in 351st place as “an enormous achievement for our country, but also for the University of Cyprus itself, which has managed within its only 25 years of operation to be among the organizations of scientific excellence.”

MILESTONES

16,799TOTAL REGISTRATIONS OF MOTOR VEHICLES

BETWEEN JANUARY AND AUGUST 2015. THIS

REPRESENTS AN INCREASE OF 11.6% ON THE SAME

PERIOD LAST YEAR.

NEW STORE

NEW WEBSITE

NEW BUSINESS

NEW BUILDING

NEW IN CYPRUS

10 | GOLD | The Business Magazine of Cyprus

CTO Plans

Radisson Blu Hotel for Larnaca

Ryanair Launches New Cyprus-Brussels Route

Lefkara in Top 30 Most Beautiful Villages

TRAVEL & TOURISM

BUSINESSBRIEFING

NICOLAS PAPAPANAYIOTOUCostas Tsielepis & Co Ltd has announced the appointment of Nicolas Papapanayiotou BSc, MBA, FCCA, as Senior Manager of its Taxation Department. Papapanayiotou is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA) with over 10 years of experience with the tax department of Deloitte Cyprus in the fields of national and international tax advisory and compliance. Costas Tsielepis & Co was founded in 1978 in Limassol and today offers Tax Advisory, Business Consul-tancy, Audit & Assurance and Risk Management & Corporate Governance services to clients and associates in Cyprus and worldwide.

DR. ANDREAS POULIKKAS Dr. Andreas Poullikkas has been appointed the new Chairman of the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA), following the departure of George Shammas. Poullikkas is a Chartered Scientist (CSci), Chartered Physicist (CPhys) and a Member of The Institute of Physics (MInstP). Prior to his promotion to Chairman, he held the role of Assistant Manager of Research and Develop-ment. He has over 20 years’ experience of

research and development projects related to the mathematical analysis of fluid flows, nuclear power safety, the analysis of power genera-tion technologies and the power economics.

KATHLEEN ANN DOHERTYThe new US Ambassador to Cyprus, Kath-leen Ann Doherty, joined the Foreign Ser-vice in 1990, with early posts including the Dominican Republic (1990-1992) and Bra-zil (1993-1995). She served in Washington for five years in the Office of Development Finance and in Office of Investment Affairs, before serving as special assistant to the then Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott during the Clinton administration. She served as an economic counselor in Rome (2000), Moscow (2006) and London (2008) and returned to Rome in August 2013 as Deputy Chief of mission.

PETER ECONOMIDES Peter Economides, Honorary Founder of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Cyprus has been re-elected as one of

the Society’s two Council members. STEP is the professional association for those advis-ing families worldwide on trusts and estate planning. Commenting on his re-election, Economides said that his primary objective is the promotion and further establishment of the Society both in Cyprus and globally. He added that, while he felt proud and honoured to be re-elected, this would be his third and final term as a STEP Council member.

SAVVAS CONSTANTINOU Barclays has announced the appointment of Savvas Constantinou as Country Director of Barclays in Cyprus. Constantinou will be responsible for leading the corporate and intermediary business in Cyprus, replacing Hans Wolff. Constantinou joined Barclays Bank PLC, Cyprus Branch in 2010. Of his appointment, Constantinou said: “I am excited to be taking up my new Barclays position in Cyprus. With such a highly experienced and talented team based at our Nicosia and Limassol offices, we are able to offer clients local relationships with all the expertise of a global bank.”

APPOINT-

MENTS