Today we were able to stay in Nicosia and went on our last site visit to G.A.P Vassilopoulos Group. G.A.P was founded in 1964 as family business ran by 3 brothers. We were able to hear one of the sons speak to us today, Petros Vassilopoulos. The company is based around traders and exporters, which is now based in Nicosia but works out of 10 European countries including the United Kingdom and Germany. G.A.P has achieved vertical integration by partnering with other companies that take care of each part of the supply chain. We also got to hear about some of the services that G.A.P offers to their clients. One of the services that I found interesting was management of Cypriot airports Larnaca and Paphos. They are in charge with transporting luggage from the planes to baggage claim in Cyprus, which is something that I never thought fits into a supply chain but airlines need someone to take care of bags from consumer to plane back to consumer. Another service G.A.P offers that I never would have thought of was also managing the Limassol port, where they work directly with DP World and P & O Maritime, who we actually were able to speak to a few days ago. They are able to the logistics for these companies for shipping. Some of the major players and brands that work with G.A.P are Pepsi, Nissan, United Airlines, and MSC.

We also got to hear some interesting and helpful concepts from Dr. Vassilopoulos. He went through the whole of G.A.P’s supply chain and depending on which company they were doing logistics and service for, they use that certain best way to transport the product or service from consumer to consumer, business to business, consumer to business or business to consumer. Something I found to be very helpful was that Dr. Vassilopoulos told us that collaboration is key to the success of the supply chain. As a company, being able to collaborate helps keep the chain moving at a great pace. Like he said, If one part of the chain is weak, the whole chain would fall apart. This also needs teamwork and being selfless to make sure everyone is on the same page. Dr. Vassilopoulos also mentioned how having competition within the same company isn’t a bad thing, it produces hard work and determination. Thus, he made the name Collaborotion, which is a combination of collaboration and competition. This shows how important both are to the supply chain. Another point he made was how you need a company to have visibility. Being able to see what’s going on at every step, from source to consumer, can help the supply chain run smoother. If all parties don’t have visibility, it can cause problems in the supply chain. It was a very interesting and educating lecture for someone like me, who is looking at majoring in Supply Chain Management. I can’t wait for our last day in Cyprus!