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Sfakianakis SS500/B100 city bus, a type ordered in the early 1990s by the Thessaloniki City Transport Authority

Sfakianakis group of companies is a Greek conglomerate with a wide range of activities employing (in 2005) over 1600 in three countries; its origins were based on vehicle manufacture. Originally called Bussing Hellas (after the German manufacturer whose engines it used) it was founded in 1961 succeeding earlier trading companies founded by the same family. Initially building bodies on imported chassis, it soon developed its own chassis family (undoubtedly utilizing German MAN technology, the latter having acquired Bussing). The company's SS500 chassis ('SS' standing for 'Stratis Sfakianakis') was subsequently further developed, and a great variety of bus types was designed and built over it in the following years, with limited exports to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Other industrial activities included construction of truck bodies and Japanese Hino chassis assembly. The company was renamed Sfakianakis S.A. in 1993 and among the last types it designed and produced were the SS400 and SS380 minibuses and a new series of SS500 inter-city and coach variants. The Sfakianakis industrial division had managed to survive for decades without any state support, despite fierce competition from imports; a flood of cheaper imports, though, eventually made bus manufacture unprofitable. Production ceased in February 2006, after the group had very successfully diversified into other business areas including vehicle import and sales and the services sector.