BMW set off to find extraordinary stories regarding their blue and white roundel around the world a while back and the tour reached Cyprus earlier this year, where they met with the Pilakoutas family.
They are the owners of one of the oldest BMW dealerships outside of Germany, in the world. Their business was started back in 1932 according to the oldest member of the family and that is close to the birth date of the German brand altogether.
Over the years, the passion of each family member led to a consolidation of their firm and its expansion, not only in Cyprus but in other countries as well. As Charalambos Pilakoutas says, they didn’t become involved in the BMW business but they were born in it.
In 1958, the family bought their first BMW 507 and that car started the madness that took over the whole clan if you will. Before that, they were involved in car trading but not exclusively with the German brand.
Nearly 16 years later, the Turks invaded Cyprus and took over even small businesses such as the Pilakoutas’. Needing to find an alternative, the businessman traveled to the Middle East after one of his friends invited him over. Seeing the tremendous potential the area had, he called Munich and told them that they have to open a dealership in the area.
Said and done. A couple of weeks later, he was invited to Munich to take over the plans to put everything in motion. Starting with a small batch of just 200 cars imported per year, the dealership had grown to numbers ten times higher by the time our good man left the Middle East, to his great pride. Today they are even higher.
Nowadays, the Cypriots are enjoying their time around BMWs, even inside their own little private museum that they have a thing or two to say about. Let’s hear them out.
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