Frixos Papadopoulos is awarded as Founder of the Year Honorary Award for his lifelong work in building up the family business Fontana Food.

Frixos Papadopoulos received the global Founder of the Year Honorary Award for his lifelong work in building up the family business Fontana Food. Frixos was awarded together with his family at the Founders Awards Gala held at Stockholm City Hall on September 22.

“It is such an honor to receive this prestigious award. Anyone who runs a company knows how much hard work is required to build a stable and sustainable company with happy employees. It is with great passion and love that I have founded and driven Fontana since 1978. Now that I have handed over the reins to my children, it is a great joy for me to see the company develop further.”, says Frixos Papadopoulos, Founder and Chairman, Fontana Food.

Frixos Papadopoulos came with his family to Sweden from Cyprus in the mid 1970s. During a visit home to Cyprus, he got the idea to take a piece of the Cypriot food culture to Sweden, and in 1978 Frixos founded the family company Fontana Food. The first products were exotic juices from Cyprus, but gradually the range grew with products such as greek olives, olive oil and feta cheese, and in 1984 halloumi was introduced in Sweden.

He started with two empty hands, and the first delivery truck consisted of a SAAB 99 which was eventually upgraded to an old Volkswagen bus. Thanks to his persistence and hard work, the business started to grow from a small family company to an established retail brand.

Frixos wife Maro, had her role in the success by introducing the products in the best way and making recipes to inspire Swedish people how they could use them. Their two children, Corina and Loizos, have grown up with Fontana and today they are the ones running the company, Loizos as CEO and Corina as Deputy CEO. Fontana Food's founder Frixos Papadopoulos was interested in ecology and organic products early on. The dream was an organic halloumi, which proved to be a challenge to produce in his native Cyprus. With the help of their friend Takis Pilavas, who runs the farm Alpina in Cyprus, they together developed Alpina into Cyprus's first organic farm.

Fontana has grown steadily since the start and has today 49 employees, a range of more than 400 products and annual sales of about EUR 50 million.

Frixos has been awarded several prizes and received a medal from the king for his contribution to Swedish business, and in connection with his 70th birthday, he founded his own foundation with the aim of supporting, promoting and inspiring entrepreneurship, thus creating a sustainable society and promoting integration and diversity.

Founder of the Year Honorary Award

By rewarding particularly successful founders who have made a lifelong contribution, Founders Alliance wishes to inspire sustainable company building and inspire other founders to act as similarly great role models.

Criteria for the Award

• has built a limited company with over 10 MEUR in annual sales
• has made a lifelong contribution of sustainable and long-term company building
• has enhanced societal well being based on employment, tax revenue and community involvement
• is a role model for other founders, business and society no longer need to be operational

Photo: Jean Lapin, www.jeanlapin.com, and Evan Pantiel, www.evanpantiel.com