About us

I would like to tell you a true story

The company was founded by Constantin Potou, a descendant of the traveler Jacques Nikolas Potou, a cultivator and trader of olive oil and wine from Poitier in France, who arrived in Greece in the first half of the 19th century after a few years in Marseille.

Constantin POTOU company produces excellent quality olive oil and olive products from Kalamata, Messenia in the Southern Peloponnese. The range includes award-winning and high-phenolic olive products, based on the Mediterranean diet.

POTOU company has a long history and know-how in the field of olive oil, since 1836, for 8 generations. Today it produces and standardizes with its own innovative specifications, controlling the entire process of development, collection, transport, and standardization of products. All this is done with absolute morality, respect for the product, nature, and the environment, as well as with the social sensitivity to the human factor.

The company has loyal partners and consumers and POTOU products are found in quality stores in the Greek and international market. The range of products is large, retail & HoReCa with attractive packaging, innovative and elegant.

Constantin POTOU is the Greek brand that includes authenticity in healthy olive products, delicious taste, and luxury.

An olive “sea” awaits to be travelled again today!

Life Journey

Our ‘’Francogrec’’ journey throughout the years sailing in an olive oil sea Poitier-Marseille-Kalamata-Athens

Our ancestor Jacques Nicolas Potou traveler, cultivator and merchant of olive oil and wine from Poitier in France, arrived in Greece in the first half of the 19th century after a few-years stay in Marseille. He settled in Sifnos Island in the Aegean where his family grew along with the cultivation of olives and wine production. My grandfather, Constantin Potou, was his descendant. The french family united with my mother’s, Evridiki Makri, greek family at Kalamata region in Messinia, with extensive family tradition in the cultivation of koroneiki variety olives and Kalamata olives.

We, their descendants, live in modern Athens and loyally continue the longstanding tradition. Our family’s deep knowledge of cultivation, the unique ability to create delicious flavors from the pure and generous greek nature, our immense respect towards nature and our scientific knowledge and modern technology literacy form the thread uniting our greek and french origin. Our intention is to bring out only the purest of what this blessed land generously offers us, our own Greece, and spread that to the other unforgettable home France and to the rest of the world. We are the third generation of olive oil producers and are grateful to our Greek and French ancestors, but foremost we are delighted to share with you all our valued products in an unforgettable culinary journey.

Our philosophy

Our philosophy is the greek philosophy of life and lies in the triadic relationship: I am – forward thinking – innovative with respect to the human and nature.

Constantin Potou group of companies produces, selects, standardizes with its own specifications, controlling the entire development, collection, transportation and product standardization process. All these are performed with the ultimate ethics, respect towards the product, nature and the environment as well as with social sensitivity to the human factor.

Constantin & Areti Potou

Constantin Potou, a Chemical Engineer, producer and connoisseur, and Areti Potou, a connoisseur, quality control specialist with Sociology studies background, are the people who with their love, passion and scientific knowledge have collected the purest traditional Greek products and offer them to you openhandedly.

Identity

Our logo and our branding in general were designed having two basic concepts in mind. First, we wanted to reflect our family’s history and its passage from France to Greece and the return back to its origins. Our brand name itself “Constantin Potou” has a French aura which was depicted by a strong yet elegant typography with rich character. The Greek essence is added by the fine use of the decorative flowers that can be met in ancient Greek pottery. All graphic elements were carefully combined providing an elegant logo with respect to both cultural backgrounds.

Second, we needed our branding to represent our true passion and respect for gourmet Greek products of the finest quality, as well as the expertise we have gained on olive oil production and olive tree care. Our tagline “Pure Fine Selections” encapsulates exactly this; that all Constantin Potou products have been attentively selected to represent only the best of Greek produce. This expertise and love for the utmost quality and healthy living has deep roots originating from 1836.

Packaging concept

The packaging concept inspiration came from the pottery art and color use in ancient Greece. Specifically the inspiration arose from the decorative flower-like patterns that were used around erythromorfa (basic color red) or melanomorfa (basic color black) pottery utensils used to store liquids such as olive oil or wine in ancient Greece. On the pottery craft these patterns were often met surrounding elaborate painting compositions such as depictions of everyday life, festivity or mythological scenes.

Colors played a great role in ancient Greek pottery and sculpture so we felt that the use of specific colors would be the carrier of our Greek identity as well. According to Aristotle all “simple” colors resulted from the gradation of light ranging from white (lefko) to intermediate shades of yellow (xantho) to red (pyr) and finally reaching darkness (melan). These four were also the basic colors in ancient Greek art used from statues to frescos; their mix resulted in new colors which expanded the color range used in painting and decoration.

Each one of our products’ labeling has a distinct pattern surrounding the packaging in different color and shape combinations. Having a closer look you can notice that elements of our logo’s flower can be met in every packaging pattern. Each one of them has its own character and identity, but all of them are harmonically combined.

Our vision

To make the unique quality pure greek products provided generously by the greek nature, universally known; the products that we grow with respect and knowledge in order to become the first choice at your family table.

Our mission

• To improve the dual relation of nature and science achieving the optimum efficiency level on every product we select and produce.
• To offer the best products of Greece in very competitive prices.
• To promote the Mediterranean diet and the incomparable Greek delicacy “training” our customers in choosing only the best for their gastronomic delight and their health.

Our activity

Complete quality control is performed throughout the entire production process both on our products and on those cultivated by our friends, producers and excellent partners, always under our supervision.

We perform all necessary quality controls in every stage of the development, production, standardization and maintenance to offer the best possible outcome until each product is consumed.

Our values

• We have scientific knowledge combined with a deep knowledge of tradition in order to deliver products of unparalleled quality, with great respect to nature, the environment and humans.
• We offer 100% pure Greek products of mother nature of high and consistent quality.
• We offer unforgettable culinary experiences through our products, providing a healthy way of living with Mediterranean diet which brings longevity.
• We are responsible and consistent towards our customers providing them with the commitment of always offering products of high and consistent quality.
• We are responsible towards our partners trying to bring out the products they produce, with respect to the environment and the life-providing earth.
• We are looking forward to raising our customers’ and our collaborators’ standard of living.
• The emergence of the magnificent flavors of Greece all around the world.

Our social role

We aim in defending the entitlements of our small greek producer friends for their emergence in the international marketplace and the increase of their profit subsequently.

We are innovators in all aspects; we invest in the future providing new proposals for remarkable flavors to our customers with improved techniques.

Providing new market outlets we contribute to the dissemination of the valuable greek flavor culture, which is rooted in the ancient greek and Mediterranean diet, to a globalized economy. Our guiding force is science always with respect to tradition and to the uniquely diverse greek nature.

We are people-oriented, as genuine Greeks, respecting all humans around the world and we generously give to all people the pure products of our blessed land.