Greece has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2011, with the country being hit by political turmoil as it struggles under the effects of the economic crisis. However, for many Greek companies based in Poland, this year has been business as usual.

There are currently about 40 companies with Greek capital active in the Polish market, according to figures from the Embassy of Greece in Warsaw. Greek-owned companies have invested more than €1.4 billion and created a total of 11,000 jobs in Poland, the country's ambassador to Poland, Gabriel Coptsidis, said in a statement earlier this year.

Mellon Group, a company headquartered in Athens specializing in IT services and sales for financial institutions, telecommunications firms and companies in the retail sector, established itself in the Polish market almost six years ago. A growing Polish client base, which includes lenders such as PKO Bank Polski, Polbank EFG, and mBank, helped Mellon Poland make it in to the top 100 companies of Europe's 500 fastest growing companies in 2010. Europe’s 500, which makes the ranking, is an association of fast growing owner-managed companies in Europe.

“This year is better than the previous one, and we have not been affected,” said Grigorios Kotoulas, General Manager, Mellon Poland.

“However, we see in the market that there is a slowdown, but not a recession. We are making plans accordingly but none that ... will affect our forecast for 2012,” he added.

For Lefteris Maroulis, general director of sports betting firm Totolotek (owned by Greek company Intralot), business has been going well in Poland. Totolotek is a company which has been organizing sports betting in Poland since 1992 and operates close to 400 locations in the country.

Veronika Joy