Manufacturers keep folding in Thessaloniki, though in smaller numbers

At least one manufacturing business folded every day in the nine-month period from January to September in Thessaloniki under the weight of rising obligations, the northern port city's Chamber of Industry said on Tuesday, noting, however, that the launch of new businesses helped tip the balance.

From the start of the year and until September 30, the chamber struck 378 manufacturing business off its register and introduced 324 new ones.

However, despite the high number of closures, the sector suffered 16 percent fewer losses year-on-year, as 450 Thessaloniki manufacturers closed shop in the same nine-month period in 2017. It also saw 18.2 percent more new arrivals, compared with the 274 businesses that opened up in January-September 2017.

Despite the significant challenges of carrying the burden of doing business alone, 215 of the city's 324 new manufacturers are individually owned enterprises, the chamber's report noted. This has also been the dominant trend in previous years, even though 321 of 329 individually owned enterprises folded in January-September 2017.

“What needs to be understood is that an economic turnaround requires healthy businesses, not businesses that are barely coping,” said Thessaloniki Chamber President Anastasios Kapnopolis.

“The economic policy being pursued by the government, with the relentless barrage of tax and the complete absence of any plans to reform industrial policy, are choking the life out of entrepreneurship,” he added.