[excerpt from the book 'The Greek community in Malawi']
In 1928, Nikos Trataris left Lemnos and went to Beira to work for his uncle who had a farm. He worked from morning till night without a payment and after eight months he left for Malawi. He decided to set up the first bakery in Blantyre but he had no funds so he borrowed some money from his friend, George Cocorozis who was in Beira. He opened the “European bakery” which was later renamed to “Associates bakery”. In the 1950s, Trataris built an ultra modern and automatic bakery which was baking 1,200 loaves per hour. In 1955, it reached 8,000 loaves an hour. It was such an accomplishment that the owner of the biggest bakery of South Africa came to see it. In 1975, Trataris’s sons who were running the business were forced to sell it at a low price. One of them, George Trataris, who refused to cooperate was imprisoned for 18 months.
