ECONOMY

The pandemic had a serious impact on the commercial activity and consumer behavior. Entire sectors of the economy remained in pause for a large period, some of them like the retail stores closed or operated under specific conditions, e-commerce developed significantly, as in many cases this was the only channel to have access to certain goods and services, necessary, for example, for tele-education and tele-working.

The companies of Quest Group are active in key sectors of the economy, serving thousands of clients, consumers, businesses and organizations. The Group's companies never lost contact with their market and stakeholders. The clients, the partners and the providers of each company were regularly updated regarding the safety measures and the actions to be taken to overcome the obstacles, while the seamless provision of products and services was safeguarded. Especially the clients of retail stores and the service center where continuously updated about the status of operation (open, closed, click away etc).

Except from masks and gloves for the employees who contacted clients, plexiglass protection safeguards, sanitizers, special signaling to keep distances and contactless payment possibility were put in place.

The e-shops of the retail stores were upgraded, safeguarding high quality customer service.

Modern Workplace & Process Automation services for businesses were implemented to make tele-working possible and achieve safety of infrastructure, digitalization of processes and data security.  

Finally, special services for the facilitation of clients of every company were designed. For instance, Info Quest Technologies offered free of charge pick up and return of the Apple and Xiaomi devices that required service, 3 months extension of guarantee and +45 days DOA (dead on arrival) for Xiaomi smartphones, free of charge return after service by courier for all other products. iSquare created  www.i4u.com.gr, a new digital channel for Apple clients service, while Cardlink served its clients through telephone and online through the Cardlink Apollo platform, where clients could follow their transactions in real time. The e-shop www.you.gr continued its development, by incorporating new product categories, while it upgraded its infrastructure and developed new services, like phonetic search, help chat bot etc., to respond to the huge demand, but also to help new users to familiarize with e-shopping.   

Especially at ACS the demand for courier services was so massive that led to further invest in human resources, vehicles, logistics and equipment, providing its services 24/7 even during holiday. The companies’ investments overcame 4 million Euro and involved, among others, two avant-garde package sorter machines in Athens and Thessaloniki, support of the agents, recruitment of 400 employees, 1200 new wheeled carts, leasing 100 new cars and 30 motorcycles, expansion of the storage space over 4000sm, raise of the itineraries and upgrade of the call center.

The companies of Quest Group continue their pathway having a holistic plan for business continuity which is regularly updated in order to continue supporting the market. There are investment plans on an ongoing basis – for instance, last year a new iStorm store opened in Rhodes, while the construction of the ACS HUB, a substantial investment of 43 million Euro to be completed in 2021, is a work in progress.