In his recent interview with Oikodomi Expo News, Panagiotis Karatzaferis, Country Manager for Greece and Cyprus, shared insights on the group’s strategy, ongoing investments, and Greece’s role as a key growth market.

Read the full interview below:

Technogips-FORMATT has a strong presence in the production of gypsum-based systems. What is your competitive advantage, and how do you differentiate yourselves in the European construction materials market?

Formatt Building Products Ltd is a leading European Industrial group of companies focused on the development and production of building products and systems with net-zero carbon emissions and high energy efficiency designed for the needs of modern construction.  The group has 9 factories located in Spain and Bulgaria and sell its products and systems under the brands - Technogips Pro, Technopanel, and Technocim.

Technogips Pro, which is the most known brand in the Greek market, produces gypsum-based products and systems for dry construction with focus on the vision of the company to be the leading European company for manufacturing gypsum products. Our products are being distributed to over 25 EU countries including Greece and Cyprus. Technogips Pro has one of the most advanced and latest technological production lines for high quality gypsum boards. In the last 15 years we have invested in certification of all types of dry construction systems for partition walls, shaft walls, wall linings, ceilings and external facades. These systems meet the highest safety and environmental standards providing high fire resistance, high thermal resistance and of course high sound insulation. At the same plant area, there is also a second factory to produce gypsum-based bagged products like gypsum plaster, jointing compounds, gypsum mixtures and other. For Technogips Pro, June 2025, is a milestone as our brand-new plant for gypsum boards begun the construction phase in Spain. This plant will have the most recent and advanced technological equipment that will allow us to develop new, more advanced and sustainable products.
But let’s talk for the other 2 brands of the group, Technopanel with a high-end plant at the center of Bulgaria, produces all type of sandwich panels for roofing or side panels with insulating material of stone wool, PUR and PIR that can be used for constructing industrial, commercial or other type of buildings with metal structures. The panels meet the highest standards for fire insulation and thermal insulation and can be custom-produced and precut according to the specific needs of each construction.
 Technocim plant also located at the center of Bulgaria, produces cement-based products and focus on roof tiles and systems for roofing with modern design and a big variety of colors as well as pavements and sidewalks with modern design and durability.

Which strategic markets are you targeting over the next few years, and what role does Greece play in your geographic expansion plans?

Formatt Building Products is present and active to more than 25 countries in the EU. Our strategic market though is Greece, and it is our focus, as it seems to be the country with the highest potential in EU. During the past few years has become a highly growing economy with higher growth rates of GDP according to the average EU countries, and the predictions show that in the next years this trend will continue with every year to have higher growth rates than the average of EU countries, and over 2% for the next 5 years. Furthermore, the potential of the new projects that are currently under development will be needed to implement new technologies and systems like the ones we are developing and already offering in the market. In order to support the Greek and Cypriot market we expand our presence with a local team of people for supporting all constructions and mainly to be close to the specifiers, construction companies, architect offices and contractors providing them our solutions with our premium certified systems for every construction with net-zero carbon emissions, lightweight, high-energy efficiency, fire protection, sound isolation and, due to the seismic region that we are located, solutions that withstand and have high performance in seismic situations. So, for Greece and Cyprus, our ambition for the coming years is to become one of the top two brands in our sector.

Sustainability is now a core pillar of the construction industry. How do you incorporate circular economy principles and ESG criteria into your production line and product portfolio?

The ESG criteria are implemented in so many aspects in our corporation and there are a lot more that we plan to implement soon, as it is a continues process. The most challenging ESG criteria are the ones for the environmental impact of our production lines. Our production lines have net -zero carbon emissions with zero waste. All our products are certified by recognized European organizations according to strictest standards and our products have acquired an EPD and we follow the latest ISO certification needed for all our production lines. The life cycle analysis for all our products has been considered thoroughly and when our finished products are used in a building, the total emissions from the building are reduced by 50%. If the building at the end of its life is deconstructed, then our products can be returned to us and be recycled 100% and reuse them to produce new products. This way we can assure the sustainability, environmentally friendly and healthy construction of the future buildings in harmony with nature. Of course, our part is to be able to support all the required processes with investments to our production’s lines, but the main challenge is to have the appropriate national regulations of the countries and the governments to make it possible to have the deconstructed and waste materials back to our production to be reused, instead of being thrown in landfills for low cost. 

New standards for energy efficiency and green construction are reshaping the market. How is Technogips-FORMATT responding to this transition?

Formatt Building Products is one of the leaders of innovation in construction, producing systems and solutions with much higher standards than the ones required by the national regulations of the EU countries. We have the systems and solutions for new and old buildings to easily comply with higher standards that are required and in the same time to be sustainable and environmentally friendly.

All our premium certified systems and products are used for facades, roofs, external walls and ceilings or internally such as wall linings, partition walls, shaft walls etc., contribute with their characteristics to the thermal resistance, fire protection and sound isolation of any building construction providing maximum energy efficiency, with superior and healthy internal living environment without VOC emissions.

What investment plans or expansion strategies are you considering in the near future—whether in terms of production capacity or strategic partnerships?

Our vision and ambition for the future, in which our goal is to be the leaders in Europe, is to create networks and platforms with innovative building systems and solutions and to become a ‘’one -stop-shop’’ for every construction project. This way we are going to be able to provide all the necessary certified systems and solutions for any type of construction and the investor/contractor/construction company can find and purchase everything in one place. This way there will be full transparency on the characteristics of the new buildings and will lead to fully certified buildings for the aspects of energy performance, emissions, fire rating, seismic performance, acoustic rating and any other requirement. The owner/investor will then be able to acquire a “building passport/ID” which will declare the impact of the building to our environment and how it helps all of us to have a healthier life.

How are you tackling the challenges posed by rising raw material and energy costs? Are there any initiatives underway for technological upgrades or production optimization?

In our production plants machinery and their efficiency are our top priority as this is also part of the ESG principles that we follow. There is a continues optimization of the production lines and we have already implemented numerous technological upgrades to minimize the energy consumption of our factories and to maximize efficiency. This way we believe that our production will have the lowest environmental impact, and we will be delivering products that from the beginning of their life cycle till the end will help to have the lowest environmental footprint and will deliver maximum energy efficiency. We have the ambitious goal to be net-zero emissions by 2050 and the life cycle analysis of our products and systems already show that from production to application is net-zero and dramatically improves carbon emissions from the construction and exploitation of buildings.

For sure, one of the greatest challenges is the energy costs which mainly happen due to geopolitical reasons that cannot be predicted, and it is something that the last 5 years has changed the production costs and the end costs significantly. Our experience so far is to try to be patient before adjusting our prices, and this is something that we have seen in the long run appreciated by the markets and our customers.

What are your expectations from your participation in the OIKODOMI EXPO 2025? What do you intend to showcase to professionals in the construction sector?

Our group of companies will participate in this big exhibition for the first time with the focus on introducing our brands and their most premium-certified solutions to all the participants that will attend this exhibition.

In Greece, the presence of our group is mainly through our premium certified products and solutions of Technogips Pro. Technopanel and Technocim with their premium certified products and solutions will be introduced to Greece for the first time, mainly through this big exhibition event. So more specifically the following fully certified solutions will be presented:

Solutions from Technogips Pro

• Exterior wall/facade system for high energy efficiency, sound insulation, fire protection, and durability.
• Interior partition wall for maximum sound insulation, fire protection, durability, and healthy indoor environmental conditions.
• Exterior ceiling system that withstands all weather conditions, with fire protection and durability.
• Sloped ceilings for attics with high thermal insulation, fire protection, sound insulation, and moisture resistance.
• Fire protection system for steel columns for industrial buildings.
• Self-supporting shaft wall system for sound insulation and fire protection.

Solutions from Technopanel

• Facade system with different textures, various insulation materials, and several color options that provide high thermal insulation and fire protection.
• Roofing system with an integrated solution for photovoltaic panels, with various insulation materials and several color options.

Solutions from Technocim

• Roof tile solution with different colors and integrated solutions for photovoltaic panels.

We have a lot of concentrated knowledge and know-how, and we will be more than happy to meet and share this knowledge with all the participants, to help building the future modern Greek building with our certified solution accustomed to be used to any building, either it is a hotel or an industrial or residential or at any other type of building.