The company is that rare Cypriot phenomenon: a third generation manufacturer. Fifty years ago Kyriacos Ioannou joined his father as an apprentice in the family business based in the old commercial heart of Nicosia in the ancient walled city where they produced custom made top quality joinery and furniture. Today his son Aristos oversees a company with a global reach that has recently injected half a million euros just to upgrade their computer driven machinery.
Following graduation from that hot-house of industrial design, the University of Milan, Aristos joined the company, now situated in an industrial suburb of the capital, and embarked on a campaign that would result in the company becoming the premier producers of high end domestic and commercial joinery in Cyprus. The company’s products can be seen throughout the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean region as well as in Greece, Russia, Italy, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia and the Balkans.
No exhibition in continental Europe is complete without prefabricated stands manufactured by the company. The units are designed and manufactured in Cyprus and distributed around the world. When a client comes to the company he is guaranteed a marriage of the very best design with superb construction and the unique designer/client relationship ensures they will be involved in every step of the development.
There is no aspect of construction or development that can be completed without joinery and although the company manufactures for a global clientele they have never forgotten their Cypriot origins.
The Ioannou Company has always been involved in every aspect of domestic and commercial work ever since their earliest incorporation, ranging from refurbishing the Ottoman mansions and British Colonial Bungalows of yester-year, to providing first and second fixing for the most expensive private dwelling on the island at a cost exceeding the price of four average coastal houses. The skills that make the company the leaders in exhibition design can be detected in the bespoke housing products.
The same Aristos led team undertakes to manufacture, through client/designer union, the same high quality items that feature in every Ioannou project.
The core of this work is not only design related but is determined by the exhaustive work done by the company’s employees and agents to ensure that only the very best base materials are employed in the work. The selection of hardwoods, softwoods, glazing and of course, joinery mechanisms; these last are supplied through the Hettich Group of Germany that provides K.I.X Ltd.with their ultra-reliable world leading products that come with a lifetime guarantee.
This attention to detail is why the discerning client chooses the Ioannou Company over their rivals. The maxim ‘you get what you pay for’ is so applicable to the company’s work. Class and quality speak volumes but are never accused of being cheap.
When a new client comes aboard the design team led by Aristos Ioannou is activated and will be dedicated to producing a unit that will command the attention of buyers in the most prestigious settings in the centre of the world’s capitals.
The Ioannou Company were the first on the island to explore the modern use of veneers, laminates, plastics and their innumerable variations ; this followed from their old family tradition of producing veneers by hand which gave them such an insight into quality products.
A client could grow old looking through the veneer options offered by the company, which is why the design team is so valued: their experience and taste relieves the customer of hours of anxiety that will be more usefully spent about their business. The choice of finishes in any of the offered media is extraordinary; nothing has been spared in pursuit of excellence.
The Veneers distinguish an Ioannou product from the mediocre and are processed in-house to the client’s specification whether paper or phenol backed for curved work or raw. The patterns that can be attained are infinite and the design team will offer some astounding examples.
Any examination of the quality of the marquetry, parquetry or stringing produced by the company will satisfy the most fastidious of clients. It is a sad fact that today, so many contractors, in an endeavour to cut costs, offer poor photographic paper in an attempt to emulate a true veneer finish, but these, we are certain, will not be accepted by the discerning client seeking a classic and durable product, and will never feature in the Ioannou catalogue.
It is an extraordinary feature of the Ioannou Company that although located on a small island in the eastern corner of the Mediterranean sea they have such a reputation among the great fashion and perfume companies of the world.
The contracts arose through the company’s own exhibition work which so impressed those icons of cosmetics that they abandoned their in-house designs and came over to K.I.X. Ltd. It is universally recognised that the fashion houses are among the most prudent and testing of clients and only a manufacturer of the highest standard could ever satisfy them; which is why there is hardly a perfume display unit anywhere in the world’s major cities that didn’t originate in the Ioannou workshops in the capital of Cyprus.