Steadily improving is the balance of entrepreneurship in Achaia, as can be seen from the aggregate data of registrations-deletions of GEMI. The positive sign between openings and closings that began in 2017 continued into 2023, with new business registrations setting new records year following year.
According to the data presented by “Peloponnisos” today, the businesses that opened in 2023 were 555 more than those that opened in 2012 (1,880 from 1,325) and twice as many as in 2020 (972).
It is clear that every year we see massive start-ups of new businesses in Achaia. However, the picture of the locks is not clear, based on the data presented by the Chamber of Achaia. And that’s because there is an essential difference. On the one hand, business start-ups require mandatory registration in GEMI, but, on the other hand, no one knows how many deletions there really are, because a business may have been permanently removed from the rolls, but not deleted from GEMI and the Registry of the Chamber, because it still has financial outstandings.
Thus, in 2023 new businesses that opened appear to be six times more numerous than those that closed (1,880 business start-ups versus 335 closures). Therefore, the positive difference of 1,545 companies, which is a record number since 2011, may be fictitious, but no one can certify it.
The above information gap confirmed in “Peloponnisos” and the director of the Development Chamber of Achaia Athanasios Koustas. As he said, this is a weakness of the system due to which the exact number of locks in the businesses of Achaia cannot be estimated. Nevertheless, he emphasized that the general picture is positive, as the situation in the market is normalizing, following the ten-year financial crisis and the health crisis of the corona virus that followed.
This image also concerns the manufacturing sector, which, however, remains weak compared to trade and services, despite any declarations we hear in recent years regarding changing the production model in Achaia. The recovery of the sector has begun, but it is still taking place at a slow and weak pace compared to trade and services. It is indicative that in manufacturing in 2023 we had 118 business start-ups, when 441 businesses started operating in trade and 1,321 new businesses in services.
From the above data it is clear that services continue to be the sector that drives the developments in Achaia, with an important detail that is invisible. A significant number of new businesses concern Catering and Leisure establishments, i.e. cafes, restaurants, etc. In particular, of the 1,321 new business registrations of the Services department in 2023, 232, i.e. 17%, were focused.
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