Page 76 - teyxos_13
P. 76
Α Athens insider's guide
22-23 > THE GUEST > TASTE FRONT > THE DISCOVERIES > ATHENS ON A BUDGET > 2BOARD PICKS > WHERE TO GO NEXT
> GREAT DATES > ART EVENT > THE SOURCEBOOK > THE EXPERTS
Cocoματ
The founder and owner of COCO-MAT is
not your typical businessman. He doesn’t have a
mobile phone and never drives. He treats friends
or even strangers with vegetables grown on the
company’s farm. With his bohemian behaviour,
the impressive success story of COCO-MAT nat-
ural sleep products, linen and furniture, with 40
stores in Greece, 11 in Europe, 9 in China, 2 in
New York and 1 in Saudi Arabia, seems of sec-
ondary importance. Same goes for the new pro-
ject of COCO-MAT Hotels & Resorts, an interna-
tional brand affiliation whose members include
not only hotels with an ecological orientation but
also franchisees and private accommodation all
over the world. COCO-MAT Nafsika is the per-
fect example, with its exceptional beds provid-
ing a natural ‘non-metal’ sleep experience, or-
ganic cuisine with hard-to-find superfoods and
bicycles for every guest. However, the “non-
modified”, as he describes himself, Pavlos Ev-
morfidis prefers to speak about the cultivation
of potatoes or his bicycle trip from Amsterdam
to Athens via the Alps.
All this began with a mattress?
It began with the need for a good night’s sleep.
A restful sleep on a non-metallic mattress is
a source of longevity. Take for example Plato
or Aristotle. They slept on beds of straw. Now
we have been modified. Everyone talks about
money. Why?
So you are not interested in money?
Completely. What I am interested in is sweat-
ing. If you don’t sweat every day, you don’t live
well. Some say to me “okay, you are financially
secure, that’s why you say these things”. But I
have always been this way. I travelled the world
for seven years, learning languages, meeting
people under bridges and asking them if I could
“sleep at your place tonight?” You don’t need
money. We need to smile, to have fun.
What is the basis of the company’s success?
Unawareness of the risks involved. Sincerity.
Honesty. Our eagerness to offer hospitality. I re-
member when we didn’t have our own hotels,
we invited prospective customers to stay in a
prepared loft, so that they could understand what
the COCO-MAT sleep experience is all about.
What is different about the COCO-MAT hotels?
We make every effort to make the guest genu-
inely feel at home and happy. I remember staying
at hotels in the past and feeling stress; I couldn’t
sleep. Closed windows, nobody speaking to me...
What is a hotel? It is hospitality. It is going some-
where to talk, to laugh, to eat, to meet people, to
spend time like you would in your own home.
76
22-23 > THE GUEST > TASTE FRONT > THE DISCOVERIES > ATHENS ON A BUDGET > 2BOARD PICKS > WHERE TO GO NEXT
> GREAT DATES > ART EVENT > THE SOURCEBOOK > THE EXPERTS
Cocoματ
The founder and owner of COCO-MAT is
not your typical businessman. He doesn’t have a
mobile phone and never drives. He treats friends
or even strangers with vegetables grown on the
company’s farm. With his bohemian behaviour,
the impressive success story of COCO-MAT nat-
ural sleep products, linen and furniture, with 40
stores in Greece, 11 in Europe, 9 in China, 2 in
New York and 1 in Saudi Arabia, seems of sec-
ondary importance. Same goes for the new pro-
ject of COCO-MAT Hotels & Resorts, an interna-
tional brand affiliation whose members include
not only hotels with an ecological orientation but
also franchisees and private accommodation all
over the world. COCO-MAT Nafsika is the per-
fect example, with its exceptional beds provid-
ing a natural ‘non-metal’ sleep experience, or-
ganic cuisine with hard-to-find superfoods and
bicycles for every guest. However, the “non-
modified”, as he describes himself, Pavlos Ev-
morfidis prefers to speak about the cultivation
of potatoes or his bicycle trip from Amsterdam
to Athens via the Alps.
All this began with a mattress?
It began with the need for a good night’s sleep.
A restful sleep on a non-metallic mattress is
a source of longevity. Take for example Plato
or Aristotle. They slept on beds of straw. Now
we have been modified. Everyone talks about
money. Why?
So you are not interested in money?
Completely. What I am interested in is sweat-
ing. If you don’t sweat every day, you don’t live
well. Some say to me “okay, you are financially
secure, that’s why you say these things”. But I
have always been this way. I travelled the world
for seven years, learning languages, meeting
people under bridges and asking them if I could
“sleep at your place tonight?” You don’t need
money. We need to smile, to have fun.
What is the basis of the company’s success?
Unawareness of the risks involved. Sincerity.
Honesty. Our eagerness to offer hospitality. I re-
member when we didn’t have our own hotels,
we invited prospective customers to stay in a
prepared loft, so that they could understand what
the COCO-MAT sleep experience is all about.
What is different about the COCO-MAT hotels?
We make every effort to make the guest genu-
inely feel at home and happy. I remember staying
at hotels in the past and feeling stress; I couldn’t
sleep. Closed windows, nobody speaking to me...
What is a hotel? It is hospitality. It is going some-
where to talk, to laugh, to eat, to meet people, to
spend time like you would in your own home.
76
