Pyrkal

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EPK (Pyrkal) Machine gun (1939)

Founded in 1874, Pyrkal is one of the oldest Defence Industries (in the modern sense) in Greece and the main producer of ammunition and explosives in the country. Throughout its history it has been one of the largest Greek companies, in fact a reflection of the history of Greek Industry itself. Moreover, since its foundation it has been a crucial supplier during all the military conflicts this nation faced, and historically a well-established exporter to five continents.

The company "Elliniko Pyritidopoieio A.E." (Greek Powder, Chemical and Industrial products) was founded in 1874 and "Maltsiniotis Brothers" (Cartridges and metal products) in 1887. The merger of the two companies in 1908 was done to overcome an odd "competition" between the two for ammunition orders by the Greek state. Thus, a new company was formed, named "Etairia (Ellinikou) Pyritidopoieiou kai Kalykopoieiou" with the initials EEPK or EPK (ΕΠΚ) - the acronym Pyrkal used later; internationally it has been known as "Greek Powder and Cartridge Company" (GPCC) in English, and "Poudrerie et Cartoucherie Hellenique" (PCH) in French. In addition to ammunition and explosives, the company has been engaged in a variety of additional activities including arms manufacture (which included own development of the advanced EPK machine gun type immediately before Greece's entrance to WWII), construction of machinery (including Diesel engines), vehicle bodies, tools, factory infrastructure, boilers, aircraft parts (for the AEKKEA-RAAB company) etc.

Heavily damaged during WWII, Pyrkal soon recovered after the War and developed new products. The company suffered a serious blow when the Greek state decided to create EBO in 1976, which initially undertook production of the Heckler and Koch G3 rifle adopted by the Greek Army in place of the FN FAL that Pyrkal had already started producing under licence (a number of FN FAL's had originally been bought by the Greek Military from Belgium, and about 30,000 built by Pyrkal were exported to other countries). The development of EBO seriously hurt Pyrkal's performance, as the two companies offered partially overlapping products. In 1982 Pyrkal, largely shrank and almost bankrupt, was nationalized. Ever since, its financial performance has been shaky at best. The company has nonetheless invested in diversification and Research & Development, expanding its activities beyond production of a wide range of ammunition types, mines, bombs, fuzes for high explosive large caliber ammunition, electronics, etc. to participation in programs like the Stinger missile European post-production program and, as an equal partner, in the development and production of the IRIS-T missile. Moreover, it introduced its own advanced cluster bomb in the early 1990s and constructed Greek-designed modern wind generators in 2002. In a move reflecting one made almost a hundred years earlier, it merged with EBO in 2004, to eliminate the odd competition between the two companies for state orders, forming EAS.

[edit] References

L.S. Skartsis and G.A. Avramidis, "Made in Greece", Typorama, Patras, Greece (2003)
Christos Sazanidis, "Ta opla ton Ellinon (Arms of the Greeks)", Maiandros, Thessaloniki (1995)