Mrs Niki’s project started in 1986 in a small workshop in the village of Agros, in the mountainous district of Limassol, Cyprus. The general idea behind Mrs. Niki’s venture was to utilise any residues from fruits and nuts that the family consumed, in order to produce traditional sweets, thus creating something out of nothing and avoiding unnecessary waste. Initially, the raw materials for preparing these sweets included residues from cherries, quinces, citrons, apples, watermelons and walnuts. As years passed by, the demand from locals and passersby steadily increased, due to the high-quality and taste of the delights. This eventually led to the registration of the venture as a company (Niki Agathocleous Ltd) in 1989 and the expansion of the workshop into a larger space in 1992. In 1996, the company continued to enrich the variety of its offered products, including new kinds of traditional delights and marmalades and kept employing more staff to keep up with the ever-growing demand and new needs and trends. In 2003, another expansion came as a result of Niki’s Sweets success, through the establishment of a big factory and a physical shop.
Niki’s Sweets is operated by Mrs. Niki Agathocleous herself, with the active involvement of three of her sons: Christos, Marinos and Constantinos. Mrs. Niki’s three sons have always been “involved” in the family business. In other words, while they were growing up, the business was also growing with them. Christos, Marinos, and Constantinos started contributing to the family business from a very young age. Christos recalls himself and his brothers helping their mother by labelling jars and preparing the paper boxes to be later used for storing and selling the company’s products. Nowadays Christos, who has studied to become a Food Technologist, handles several managerial and technical aspects of the venture along with Mrs. Niki.
On the other hand, Marinos is involved in the sales department of the company, including managing the shop and other communication/ public relations operations. Finally, Constantinos, who has an academic background in Leadership and Management, contributes to the family business through both managerial and sales operations.
The company is accredited with the HACCP health system and ISO 22000 certifications and it is now one of the most famous enterprises in the production of traditional delights in Cyprus. The venture also exports its products in other countries, such as France, England, the USA, Egypt, Australia, and Japan.
