Selling into Greece through distributors

How the market buys

Greek public procurement is built around two national systems. ESIDIS (ΕΣΗΔΗΣ), the national electronic public procurement system, is where electronic tenders are run, with separate subsystems for supplies and services and for public works, plus search, open data and an API. KIMDIS (ΚΗΜΔΗΣ), the Central Electronic Registry of Public Contracts, records each stage of a purchase in one place: requests, calls for tenders and notices, awards, contracts and payment orders. Both are reached from the national e-procurement portal at eprocurement.gov.gr.

For a supplier the practical point is that the record does not stop at the tender. KIMDIS follows a purchase from the request through the award and the contract to the payment order, so you can see which companies a buyer actually contracts with, not only which tenders were announced.

Greek buyers deal with suppliers who can invoice in Greece, deliver across the mainland and the islands, and respond in Greek. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 99% of the winners in the 1,660 notices from buyers in Greece were companies registered in the country (96% across the 30 EU and EEA countries); those local winners include distributors and dealers as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries — see our methodology. A foreign manufacturer enters by being listed with one.

Lawful first contact

Greece requires consent, and its data protection authority says so plainly. Article 11(1) of Law 3471/2006, which transposes article 13 of the ePrivacy Directive, permits unsolicited communications by e-mail for direct marketing "only if the subscriber consents expressly in advance" (our translation). The Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA) describes this as an opt-in system and states that, without a previous transaction with the recipient, you must have the recipient's consent, in writing or electronically, before sending any message.

The HDPA also lists sources of addresses that make marketing e-mail unlawful. They include bought lists collected without consent; directories of professional associations and trade fairs; and addresses harvested from websites, explicitly including generic company addresses of the "info@company.gr" type, whether collected by hand or by a crawler. The authority has fined senders of unsolicited e-mail, fax and SMS in the past.

The one exception, article 11(3), covers your own customers: contact details obtained lawfully in a sale may be used to market similar products, provided an easy, free opt-out is offered at collection and in every message. Every marketing e-mail must also identify the sender clearly.

What works: a letter by post to the owner or commercial director, in Greek, with a one-page sheet on your range and a clear reason why it fits what the distributor already sells; a stand or a visit at the sector's trade fair; an introduction through a chamber, an association or an existing Greek partner; and a fast, complete reply to any enquiry. Once a distributor has written to you, e-mail is fine.

What local distributors expect

• Greek-language documentation for tenders and end users: technical sheets, instructions, safety information and price lists.
• Conformity evidence for the category — CE marking and declarations where the product is regulated, and test reports against the standards buyers specify.
• A clear commercial structure: margin, exclusivity, and who serves which regions and islands.
• Clear payment terms between you and the distributor, agreed before the first tender rather than after the first award.
• Reliable lead times, spare parts and after-sales support.
• References and samples.

How to enter, step by step

1. Prepare a Greek file. Translate technical sheets, instructions, safety information and price lists into Greek; distributors need them both for tenders and for end users.
2. Assemble conformity evidence. Have CE marking and declarations ready where the product is regulated, plus test reports against the standards Greek buyers specify.
3. Find who already wins your category. Start with the award notices above the EU thresholds on TED for your CPV codes; Cresques reads these and lists the winning companies. Below the thresholds, search KIMDIS, which records awards, contracts and payment orders, so you can see which companies a buyer actually contracts with.
4. For health products, check EKAPY. The National Central Authority for Health Procurement (ΕΚΑΠΥ) coordinates and runs central purchasing for public health services and keeps electronic registers of suppliers, products and services. Ask your distributor whether your products need to appear there.
5. Make the first contact by letter, fair or introduction. Do not send a cold marketing e-mail. Write by post, in Greek, to the owner or commercial director with a one-page sheet on your range and a clear reason why it fits what the distributor already sells; or meet at the sector's trade fair, or ask a chamber, an association or an existing Greek partner for an introduction.
6. Reply fast, then move to e-mail. Answer any enquiry quickly and completely. Once a distributor has written to you, e-mail is fine.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring a clear structure for margin, exclusivity and who serves which regions and islands, payment terms you can agree before the first tender, realistic lead times, a plan for spare parts and after-sales support, references and samples.
8. Follow the distributor's tenders. Electronic tenders run on ESIDIS; keep your documents current and watch KIMDIS and TED for new awards in your categories.

Where the evidence comes from

Above the EU thresholds — EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public authorities from 1 January 2026 — Greek buyers must publish contract award notices on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. Each notice names the winning company and carries CPV codes, so the distributors that repeatedly win, for example, hospital consumables or laboratory supplies contracts can be identified from the public record. Below the thresholds, KIMDIS holds the awards and contracts.

Cresques reads the award notices for the CPV categories you choose and shows who already sells that category in Greece. It does not help you bid for the contracts; the notices are evidence of who the buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.