He passed away at the age of 74 businessman Panos Marinopoulos, one of the main representatives of the third generation of the family that associated its name with supermarkets Marinopoulos and the pharmaceutical industry FAMAR.
According to the first information, the businessman Panagiotis Marinopoulos ended up in a private clinic in Athens after complications from acid anoxic encephalopathy.
He was born in Athens in 1951. He studied at the School of Pharmacy of EKPA and continued at the Institut des Sciences Politiques in Paris, combining the technical knowledge of medicine with political and economic studies. He belonged to the third generation of the business dynasty that started at the end of the 19th century from a pharmacy in the center of Athens and developed, within a few decades, into one of the largest Greek retail and pharmaceutical groups.
The Marinopoulos group, which he served for decades, expanded its activity into two main pillars: FAMAR, which from a pharmaceutical production unit in Greece evolved into one of the largest European players in the contract production of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, and the Marinopoulos supermarket chain, which through partnerships with foreign groups came to cover the largest part of the Greek market of organized retail.
At FAMAR, Panos Marinopoulos found himself in key management positions, as a member of the board of directors and, for many years, as one of the people who defined the company’s extroversion strategy. During his tenure, FAMAR expanded its network in Europe, with acquisitions and new production units, significantly increasing the number of factories and countries in which it operated, and established itself as a partner of large multinational pharmaceutical companies.
At the same time, it had an active presence in the retail sector. He was a member of the boards of directors of Marinopoulos Bros and Marinopoulos AE, while he was closely associated with the development of Carrefour-Marinopoulos, the joint venture that created a network of hypermarkets and supermarkets across the country. In the retail trade of cosmetics and beauty products, he was president of Sephora Marinopoulos, contributing to the further consolidation of the brand in the Greek market.
His business activity also extended to the part of international catering chains. Together with other family members, he was behind the development of Starbucks in Greece, through the company that had the rights to the chain in the country, while the side of Marinopoulos that he represented was connected to other retail and franchising schemes. His logic has always been to enter into strategic partnerships with international groups, so that the Greek partner has a strong position at the table and does not simply function as a local representative.
Beyond the narrow core of the family business, Panos Marinopoulos found himself in administrative positions in other large organizations. He was a member of Titan Cement’s board of directors, participated in international payment services and software companies, while also having a presence in organizations such as BSE and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE). This dispersion of activities placed him at the crossroads of industry, retail and financial services.
His contribution to culture and business decline
He also left a special mark in the field of culture. As treasurer of the N. P. Goulandris Foundation – Museum of Cycladic Art, he participated for a number of years in the management of one of the most active private institutions in the field of visual arts, with a strong international presence. He also participated in charity and social solidarity actions, through organizations active in supporting vulnerable groups.
The path of the Marinopoulos family has not only been upward. The collapse of the supermarket chain in 2016 and the subsequent rescue of part of the network by the Sklavenitis group marked an entire era of Greek retail. Panos Marinopoulos had already started to move away from the day-to-day management of the retail activity, but remained active in FAMAR and in his other corporate and institutional capacities.
On a personal level, he was known for his particularly cosmopolitan profile, with years of residence and activity between Athens and Paris, but also for his social relations in the field of business and culture. He was the father of two children, whom he had with Ioanna Marinopoulou, and belonged to a generation of businessmen who lived through both the explosive rise of Greek consumption and the violent landing of the crisis.
His death closes another chapter in the history of a family that sealed the Greek pharmaceutical and retail market for over a century. The imprint of Panos Marinopoulos can be found in the pharmaceutical industries that operate today under the FAMAR seal, on the shelves of stores that once bore the name Marinopoulos, but also in the cultural and entrepreneurial institutions where he left his mark.