Aspioti-ELKA

Aspioti-ELKA (Greek: Ασπιώτη-ΕΛΚΑ) was one of the largest publishing and printing enterprises of Greece. Founded in 1873 in Corfu by Gerasimos Aspiotis as a factory manufacturing playing cards under the name Elpis it eventually merged with the Etairia Lithographias kai Kytopoieias Athenon (ELKA) and finally became Aspioti-ELKA.

In business for over a century, Aspioti-ELKA was the oldest company of its kind in Greece when it folded in 1997. During the post-WWII period Aspioti-ELKA was one of the largest employers in the printing and publishing business in Greece up to 1985. In 1992 the company was sold by the National Bank of Greece to Jean Jacques Lesouer and in October 1997 it was declared bankrupt.

History

In 1873, Gerasimos Aspiotis founded a playing-card factory in Corfu under the name Elpis (Hope). In 1884, Aspiotis secured a contract with the government of Charilaos Trikoupis as the sole manufacturer of playing cards for Greece. The cards were designed by Gerasimos Aspiotis' father Nikolaos Aspiotis who was a painter.