OUR STORY
In 1993 Kostas had just retired from work and dreamt about making a fresh start away from the city and closer to nature. He and his wife, Maria, found in Nikiti the landscape of their dreams and bought a piece of land in order to change it into a small family farm. This piece of land hosted nothing but 11 old olive trees. Soon they planted 100 more. Little did they know that they were setting the ground for what would become our starting point and inspiration.
Nikiti's estate was used as a country house where the family with their two boys spend their summer holidays. But Kostas spend all his free time working on his house and farm
For the sons of the family, Dimitri and John, Nikiti was their Kingdom. They spend there every summer of their childhood years. They grew up there. Spending time by the sea, and then riding their bikes in the village till the sun went down...
In 1999, we, Ninetta and Dimitris meet again. We knew each other for some time but this is the year we fall in love and become a couple. During our first summer we visited the country house together for the first time.
Back them we couldn't even imagine that from that house we would start our own business but we started spending our summers there with great joy!
Soon we got married and our family started to grow. First came Constantine and afterwards George and Hermes. As parents, it has always been our priority to provide the best care for our children. That’s why, being in our most creative spirit and amongst the very best and pure raw materials of our farm, we created our first all natural soaps. At our house in Nikiti, which became our first workshop.
A little while later, having successfully experimented upon several original formulas, we started receiving our first orders from friends and family. When they came back with great feedback and new orders, we knew that the time had come for us to work even harder.
We worked all summer long. We were ready to start off with our family business, and were looking for the most appropriate name. Our farm with the 11 old olive trees, where Kostas planted 100 more, the place that become our starting point and workshop, the one that carries all the optimism and joy of our summer days, held the answer, 111olive trees, 111ELIES, 111 ελιές