30 November 2025

Proto Thema’s Sunday Business edition published an extensive feature on STIRIXIS Group, presenting our evolution, international activity, and award-winning strategic design work across 29 countries.
The original article (in Greek) was published in the printed newspaper of 30 November 2025.
Below is the faithful English translation prepared for our international audience.

English Translation of the Article

Alexandros & Elena Athanasoula / STIRIXIS Group

The Architects of Business Success

How the crisis turned a Greek construction firm into consultants of architectural and business transformation with a presence in 29 countries

At the beginning of the 2010s, at the height of the major crisis in Greece, Alexandros and Elena Athanasoula, already with a successful track record in the construction sector, found themselves at a critical crossroads. Their company, STIRIXIS Group, was executing dozens of projects successfully in the domestic market, but the unprecedented situation led them to redefine their strategy and turn aggressively to international markets.

This strategic shift opened the way for a business journey into 29 countries, with more than 850 projects worldwide, and marked the radical change of STIRIXIS’ business model.

An Integrated Set of Services

From a construction company, it has been transformed into a holistic organisation of strategic, architectural, and business transformation, which integrates into a single set of services strategy, design, and project management from concept to implementation, as they themselves say.

STIRIXIS Group is an internationally recognised company of “investment architecture,” as they explain, which does not simply design a building and facilities, but a holistic and efficient business solution for the space and the client, ensuring projects with substance, resilience, maximum return, and long-term value.

From offices and hotels to retail chains, educational institutions, and global brands, STIRIXIS Group delivers projects that lead to measurable growth and sustainable prosperity, with activity from India to the USA and from Russia to Nigeria, the company’s head, Alexandros Athanasoulas, tells us. He points out that out of their 850 projects around the world, dozens have already been recognised with prestigious international awards from organisations such as the International Property Awards.

The Secret of Success

This business mix reflects the combination of the company’s two founders: Alexandros, a civil engineer with an MBA, and Elena, a mathematician with specialisation in political communication, created a distinctive amalgam of technocratic precision and strategic insight.

“Our secret is our absolutely systemic approach,” says Mr Athanasoulas. “We analyse in depth the business model, international trends, local markets, and the future of our client, and only then move on to design. We see spaces as environments and systemic tools for growth and efficiency.”

Ms Athanasoula adds: “We do not simply implement technical works; we design investment strategies. We start from the client’s vision, we strengthen it, specify it, and turn it into a viable business mechanism that produces value and true prosperity for everyone.”

An example she mentions is the dairy company Kostarelos. “The company asked us to design a concept for its chain of stores. Our market analysis showed us that there was a significantly larger opportunity, and so we designed a retail chain, enriching it at the same time with the tasting experience of their products and a welcoming food service component. At the same time, new products and services were created, new store formats such as those in Golden Hall and the International Airport, and a complete positioning of the brand in the Greek market as well as abroad. Today, the chain continues to flourish and grow very rapidly in Greece and internationally. For us, this is true prosperity.”

“Another characteristic case is the largest pastry chain in the United Arab Emirates, Mr Baker,” says Alexandros. “We were asked to redesign its retail concept and its branding. The strategic market analysis led us to design, beyond the image, branding and logo, a different operational model. In this way, we built a unique differentiation and today the company is the leading chain specialising in every kind of celebration, custom-made birthday cakes, wedding cakes, and related services, with 26 stores in various cities of the Emirates.”

International recognition did not take long to arrive. STIRIXIS’ business model is constantly vindicated by awards in international competitions, Mr Athanasoulas stresses, mentioning the recent distinctions at the International Property Awards in London, the most recognised and prestigious awards programme in the world, with 100 judges supervised by four Lords of the House of Lords. STIRIXIS Group recently received the award for Best Public Service Design in the World for the amphitheatre of Qassim University in Saudi Arabia, as well as the award for Best Office Interior in Europe for the offices of Coca-Cola HBC in Zurich.

Unique Projects

This year, the same organisation has selected two of the company’s projects among the three best in Europe in their categories: the Delasalle School in Alimos, a modern school housed in a 9,000-square-metre building, as well as the new concept for Village Cinemas at The Mall Athens.

“We do not follow a fixed style like purely architectural firms, but our designs differ in order to serve each strategic purpose. Each project is therefore authentic, based on real data, the client’s vision and needs. We do not have a constant, recognisable, and repetitive style, as other architects in Greece do. We are authentic in studying and designing for each client unique projects, according to their needs, their vision, and their business plan, which in many cases we transform or even shape from scratch,” explains Elena.

Among the companies for which STIRIXIS Group has completed projects, one will find names such as Samsung, Daikin, Coca-Cola HBC, Merck, TUV Austria, Enel, Rafarm, National Bank of Greece, P. Petropoulos, L’Oréal, Schneider Electric, Playmobil, Mattel, Eltrak, Sunlight, Siemens, Nestlé, and Intrum.

By Giorgos Ch. Papageorgiou
Original article published in Proto Thema – 30 November 2025.