Page 11 - 60 YEARS NISSAN NIC. J. THEOCARAKIS S.A.

The history of the Theocarakis Group enterprises begins with Nicholaos J. Theocarakis. He was born in 1898 in Kasteli, Kissamos, on the island of Crete, which at the time was under Turkish occupation. He was the son of Ioannis Theocarakis and Alexia Bredaki. He graduated from primary school in Kasteli, and went on to work in his father’s grocery store. In 1916, 18 years old at the time, he decided to leave the island and seek his fortune in Athens. Four years later he served in the Greek military during the Asia Minor war and received a Medal of Valour.
After his return from the front, he opened his first store in Athens, at 1 Filellinon Street, where he sold car parts and truck bed tarps. Seven years later, he expanded his operations, this time to Piraeus, opening a car station at 50 Retsina Street, where he installed a fuel pump in front of the premises.
After the country’s liberation from the Germans (1945), Nicholaos Theocarakis was involved yet again in the car parts business, with branches at 6 Veranzerou Street in Athens and
50 Retsina Street in Piraeus. Both his sons, Ioannis (Piraeus
1929 - Athens, January of 1980) and Vasilios (Piraeus, 1930 - ), eventually joined the business. In 1957 the company undertook the representation of the Yokohama tires in Greece. This was in fact the line of business of “Theocarakis S.A. Trade of Cars, Tyres and Parts”, founded in 1959 in Athens. Even since the Interwar period, automobiles brought a new momentum to cities like Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and eventually to the countryside.
1898-1960 The first determined steps
Nicholaos J. Theocarakis’ store at 6 Veranzerou St.
in Athens (circa 1940). Even since the Interwar period, most car dealerships and business operating in cars parts were based around the area of Hafteia and in Syggrou Avenue. Nicholaos J. Theocarakis had also a car station at 50 Retsina St. in Piraeus, where he installed
a fuel pump in front of the premises
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Nicholaos J. Theocarakis married Anna Tzouma in 1928, and together they had three children, two sons and a daughter: Ioannis
N. Theocarakis, Vasilios
N. Theocarakis and Alexia Theocaraki. He had one more daughter, Maria, from his second marriage to Eleni Danomara in 1946. Ioannis and Vasilios after studying, the former economics
at Athens University Of Economics and Business,
and the latter law at the University Of Athens, as
well as painting under artist Spyros Papaloukas in the School of Fine Arts, joined the family business at an early age, in the late 1940s.
Vasilios went on to eventually become President and Managing Director
of the Theocarakis Group of Enterprises in 1980. Ioannis N. Theocarakis married
Maria Kanellopoulou in 1955, and they had two sons, Nicholaos and Panagiotis (Takis), who joined
the family enterprises,
Nic. J. Theocarakis S.A. and TEOCAR S.A., in 1983.
Takis Theocarakis today
is Vice-president and Managing Director of
Nic. J. Theocarakis S.A. Vasilios N. Theocarakis married Marina Alexandri, and they had two daughters, Annita and Despina (Denny).