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Major Greek companies have started to declare bankruptcy one after the other. After the cases of the Atlantic and Aldi super-markets, and the Fnac chain stores, the corporate group Vardis announced the suspension of payments. It owns the five-star luxury hotel Pentelikon in the northern suburb of the capital Kifissia. The Vardis group also owns a catering company and 32 acres of property rented for organized celebrations and conferences. The other assets of the company include three luxury restaurants in the yachts marina Folizmos, production plant for luxury textiles Αster Κin and the German franchise confectionery brand Εric Κayser.
 
One of the main investment of the corporate group remains the Pentelikon hotel. It was founded in 1927 and has been home to great names such as that of Eleftherios Venizelos over the years. In the mid 80's, the hotel was owned by the Australian with Greek blood Harris Vardis, who revived the old glory of Pentelikon. The last renovation of the hotel was made in 2004. 14 new luxury apartments on the fourth floor and an additional area of 3500 square meters around the main body of the building were added then. Irregardless of its long glorious history, today a mortgage of € 25 million euros hangs over it. Greatest harm to the corporation's finances have caused the Εric Κayser company, which registered losses of 5-6 million for the last reporting year and this year continues to sink.  

The other company that proved to pass away is Platis. Its activity was organization of celebrations and rich luxurious corporate events. It also declared bankruptcy in late August. Thus, about 180 jobs are threatened by dismissal. The official release of the company states that turnover has decreased by 40% in the last year while operating costs have grown significantly since the last increase of taxes and excise duties. At the same time, the obligations of the company grew and that made the Management Board to decide to declare the suspension of payments under Article 99 of Law 3588/2007 on bankruptcy. The announcement of Platis states that about 60 percent of the company's revenue came from organizing corporate events, conferences and celebrations. Their number, however, fell sharply due to the economic crisis that unleashed in the beginning of 2009. The remaining 40% of company revenue came from the organization of lavish weddings and christenings which began to reduce their budgets in the same period. Platis’ search of new strategic investors to inject fresh money into the business failed. This is not unexpected because the entire Greek market feels the lack of liquidity after the implementation of the restrictive economic measures of the government of George Papandreou.
 
Platis began to operate 27 years ago. It merged with the international company Εures in 2001. This is the golden ageof the new company, which then avails € 1.5 billion and offers organization of luxury social events with capacity up to 8000 people. The first blow came in 2007 when the year ended with a loss of half a million euros. The total amount of the company capital reached € 900,000 this year while liabilities to banks and other financial institutions was € 850,000. The situation worsened even more after the outbreak of the international economic crisis and larger debts to social security fund (IKA) and suppliers began to accumulate. The company continued to work under its momentum hoping that better times will come until the summer of 2010 when it declared bankruptcy as many other companies.

According to the latest published study of the union of Greek traders, the first victims of the new economic conditions in the country are importers, retailers and in particular manufacturers of clothing and footwear. As it was stated earlier this year, the small and medium enterprises took the initial blow and did not stand it. It appeared today that the time of the big players has come. The Greek representation of Τimberland and Νautica, Ridenco Commercial is among the companies that declared bankruptcy too. According to company data for 2009, Ridenco Commercial has declared a total annual turnover of € 43 million and its obligations to financial institutions amounted to € 53.3 million (€ 24.8 million long-term loans and € 28.5 million short-term loans). Even more perplexing is the fact that the company's management has decided to spend in the same year € 20 million on advertising and the administrative costs have reached € 7.5 million. After the sharp market shrinkage, the  representative of Timberland and Νautica resorted to the well-known paragraph 99. At the same time, it asked the financial consulting firm Deloitte Βusiness Solutions for assistance by preparing a recovery plan.

Ridenco Commercial is a subsidiary of Ridenco S.A. The company signed a contract for import and distribution of Τimberland branded clothes, shoes and accessories in 1993. It did the same with another famous brand – Νautica – in 1996. It established a chain of stores nationwide and in 1996 won the right to not only wholesale and retail the goods, but also to produce Νautica. So, in 1999 it opened a factory in Turkey to produce exclusively the branded goods. The Greek Ridenco expanded and opened sales offices in various countries in Europe, and in Bulgaria in 2005. The representation was sold two years later and the brands Τimberland and Νautica remained on the Bulgarian market.

Unconfirmed information about bankruptcy made a fuss in Greece this week. This was a publication of the Greek edition Vima that the luxury clothing trading company Tsandilis died financially. The company's history began in 1929 and despite the expansion of the name, the company is still family owned. Tsandilis stores offer expensive clothing and accessories and over the years has built a reputation of a major company that sells high quality goods. The edition refers to the Executive Director of the corporate group Alexander Tsandilis, who said that 2009 ended with a loss of € 1.5 million and losses are also expected in 2010. The newspaper notes that two of the oldest shops of Tsandilis – the one on the corner of Panepistimiu Blvd and Vukureshtiu street and the one of the most famous shopping street Ermu - no longer work. The published insinuations for the financial collapse angered so much the company management that the PR office of Tsandilis made the same day an open release to media that it will sue the Vima newspaper for the lies it published. Whatever the truth about the financial situation of the Tsandilis chain stores, the economic crisis is a reality and all businesses in Greece feel its influence more or less. High taxes and low consumption are felt in all spheres of economy and they inevitably have affected the demand of luxury goods and services as very expensive hotels, clothing or celebrations.