Your Iconic Image : Metaxa : The Family Behind the Brand

Zika Metaxa

writer

Zika Metaxa grew up in an internationally known family spirits business, founded by her ancestors in 1888. As a marketer, she traveled the world promoting the family spirit, as a member of the family business and then, for the multinational company that acquired the Metaxa brand. 

After becoming a mom Zika left a career in marketing, advertising, and retail and turned her attention to more intimate, creative pursuits. She first penned a children’s book in her native Greek language. Her new book, an English language memoir, “Metaxa Stars: The Evolution of a Greek Spirit Within Generations,” shares stories and lessons growing up Metaxa. She is currently developing her third book.

Metaxastars.com

https://www.amazon.com/Metaxa-Stars-Evolution-Spirit-Generations-ebook/dp/B0BJCDHCSX

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Transcription : Vision In Word

Marlana  

Metaxa, the name is iconic. Founded in 1888, the spirits brand spanned generations as to the stories and lessons shared. Today, we had the honor of speaking with Zika, daughter, marketer and author, as she says a bit of what it was like growing up as part of the family behind the brand. Welcome, Zika. 

Zika  

Hello, very nice to see you. Hardly, I'm very happy to be here with you.

Marlana  

So, you know, as I read your memoir, I thought there are a lot of different ways we could take this conversation. But what I'd like to do is I'd like to actually start with the women because I feel that in society, and also in certain cultures, that it's very difficult for women to find their way, you know, find their voice, all of these things, but you come from a long line of very strong women. And sometimes that strength was a good thing, and sometimes not such a good thing. But tell us a little bit about your mother and your grandmother, who you are named after.

Zika  

Yes, thank you very much indeed. Basically, it all started of the woman of the family, my great grandmother, she was really, really a very dynamic personality. Now we are talking in the 88 is of course, that was a thinkable of woman to have to speak their mind at the time, especially in Greece, which I'll come to that later on. So, she was very dynamic she was working in. It was not a factory yet in the business, whatever business it was, at the time, it was at the very beginning. She raised her children, she had nine children single handedly with her husband, but she was in care of everything. And she even had a say in politics, and was able to issue a law. She was also a great philanthropist. She lived in a house, in the suburbs in Paris, airport, very well-known port in Greece. And every day she would have, she would give up free food in big plates for the people who did not have money to buy food for the poor. And there were queues and queues of people waiting for the food. Despina, that was her name, was giving out. So that was my great grandmother. 

Then my grandmother Zika, whom I am named after, because this is the family tradition. We are named after the father's usually parents. She was also extremely dynamic. She had a very, very strong personality. People in at the time we had the factory so she was coming to the factory every day, people the factory, the employees were always almost scared of her because she was always walking around looking around poking her nose, everywhere, literally. And she has a big nose. And obviously she was not working with finances or the marketing's but she was taking care of the other house. Can I say this The other aspect of the business she was going around making sure the gardens work, yay. We had chicken at the time in that factory that Hans had laid the chickens. She was always around, she knew who was working were in one place. She was walking up and down all day. Like a surgeon that would say, so she was very, very dynamic. 

Now my mother, Karina, she was less dynamic in the business area. Because she left my father to do that, as it was his parental business. She stepped aside. But she was very dynamic and that she grew up also single handedly without help three children, me and my two brothers. And she had her presence was let's say, low key. But she was dynamic in an invisible way. Always making sure her way, eventually, you know past

Marlana  

and sometimes, you know, the quiet strength is usually under rated, and it's seeming like your mother had a lot of quiet strength.

Zika  

That's true. I think it's very intelligent to have a quiet strength. I have tried a lot of times to imitate her but I have never succeeded because I'm very spontaneous. And I always speak out the my mind sometimes even faster than I should.

Marlana  

But your grandmother and your mother didn't have a great relationship in the beginning.

Zika  

Not at all. My grandmother was very, very difficult in her relationships. And the weird thing is that's why the book is about you know, patterns going on again and again through generations. She didn't have a good relationship or either with her in laws, and her husband's siblings. She never approved of my father's marriage, and never, because she wanted my father to marry someone from a wealthy family, which my mother was not. And she never, never accept the fact that he went on and did what his heart told him to do, without taking into consideration her words. So that was very unforgettable in her mind, she felt her son had betrayed her. 

And now remember, bear in mind, that was in the 1960s. Still, in those days, and especially in Greece, it was a very big thing, who marries whom the parents had a tremendous say in it. And it was really answered, I'm not comfortable that my father went ahead and did what married the girl he loved, although his parents did not approve. So in that way, they had, they really did not have a very good relationship, not at all. But after the year, many, many years past, we were quite old, all of that. Towards the end, I would say over the life of my grandmother's life, the relationship did finally take a good turn. And at least towards the last, the last years of her life were peaceful in that manner.

Marlana  

What was different about what you saw? Growing Up Female versus male in your family?

Zika  

Oh, my God, different, like black and white. But not only my family, in Greece, in all families, and can I tell you, even nowadays, it still is the case. Not so prominent as it was those days. But still. So the thing is that in Greece, it's whenever the as soon as the wife becomes pregnant, everybody in the family except herself a praying for a boy, in order to take their families name, and a surname and the last name and to continue the business that was always in the mind all these years in the 1960s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s onwards, to the point that in the villages in the provinces, this still applies today. Let's say for example, someone has four kids, and he has two boys, two girls, they asked him, someone will ask him how many children who you have, he will say, Oh, I have two children. And two daughters. Like the daughters are not even considered children. And even today, it's, they say, for example, oh, she did very well, for a girl she became a lawyer, or a doctor still may think it's something very major that a girl accomplished, to finish his studies, and to become a doctor or a lawyer or politician. 

So, that was very, very much the case in my family. And since I was the first grandchild born into the family, from I mean, the first grandchild to my grandfather and my grandmother, the fact that it was a doctor was very disappointing to them, they will expect to the first grandchild to be a boy. So, it was a quiet event when I was born. When my brother, my first brother, and dress was born four years later, now was a huge event. I mean, they didn't have the time. I think there's fireworks if they would have a little mouth. Yes. And excuse my English again. But it's not my native language. That's why I have to think sometime.

Marlana  

Now, you're doing fantastic. And it's actually very engaging to listen to what you know; your book talks a lot about family patterns and things like that. What patterns do you hope to continue, and which ones do you hope to break?

Zika  

Now this is very difficult, this is really challenging for me, because the patterns I'm trying to break, I'm being completely honest here. I have to fight to break because subconsciously, I repeat them every day with my exam. And I have to make a very strong fault and like restart and say, now you're being your mother, you're being your grandmother, you're being your father, you're saying exactly the same things. Sometimes I even catch myself doing the same. You know, not remarks, figures and how do you say expressions on my face like my mind, I roll their eyes I got all these things. I hated; I do the more. 

When, for example, my son tells me oh my god, you sound like grandma. Yes, I do. And then I try to do restart and talking with friends, I have realized that all of us more or less do the same thing. And this is the balance and the difficulty to try and break this circle because I feel I feel this intuitively and in my heart that if we can break the circle, it will not be repeated also after us.

Marlana  

Right? Which patterns do you hope to continue? Because there has to be some wonderful things that you remember as well.

Zika  

Yes, I hope to continue being generous in the heart, and kind, and above all, human and decent person with a low profile, not arrogant, or snobbish, or all the opposite. 

Marlana  

So, what's your favorite family story?

Zika  

My favorite family story, let me see, because there was so many, definitely it was from during the World War Two, when the Germans were here, and they were raised in Greece, my grandmother Zika, trying so hard to obtain food for her children, everything about this. And it was so difficult to find a piece of bread. If they found an egg, it was a luxury, they had to exchange things in order to get food. And she was telling me how she was running from one corner to the other, trying to find a piece of bread or some not even vegetables, just like maybe one green leaf or something, while the Germans were raiding the city with bullets, basically, she was running out amongst the bullets, while the food hidden in her coat or in her dress, to go and feed her sons, this will may have stayed, it has stayed with me, whenever I go grocery shopping, or whatever, and I buy something for the house, I always think of this. 

I'm always grateful of what we have now, of all the years that we've been through the generations before me for generations to come, take for granted, things like not so I get all the groceries, or having a good life. That's one of those things I really remember. And

Marlana  

and, you know, what's so interesting too, is as your grandmother is trying to navigate the streets and go past bullets and things like that, the men in your family, we're actually still making this liquor.

Zika  

they were trying to make it not to present it. The liquor it was to, let's say, downsize the whole story, because the Germans at the time knew that this lecture was happening faster, and definitely wanted to obtain the rest of the team. So, my grandfather, at the time, tried very, very hard and he managed not to give the exact recipe because they really pushed him to the rest of the team. They wanted to go and do the identical thing in Germany or whatever. But they manage the men in the family managed to keep it as a secret. One way of cheating the Germans and till the end of their career. This recipe was a secret recipe. Only thing you know, and it went from mouth to mouth from man to man. My grandmother didn't know the secret person, but she was a woman.

Marlana  

Yeah. Did you ever kNwo, 

Zika

No. 

Marlana

That's funny. And I remember reading in the book too. It was actually pretty brilliant, what they did with the brass spec.

Zika  

Yes, because at the time they had it was in barrels, it was still in barrels that they didn't have time. 

Marlana

Do you have to bottle a lot of bottles? 

Zika

Just a few bottles. And mostly it was from barrels and they would open them a little tap, let's say there was a tap around staff and people would either go with empty bottles of their own if for example, water bottles or something else fill it in, because this was the war. All they would the ones who had some money to buy a bottle would buy a bottle. So when the Germans but they knew my ancestors knew that this brown stack was not very good for the product because it sort of ruins the taste and the quality. But at the time, they didn't have either the means or the you know that the people and the time to concentrate and make it as they should, which they did after the war. So when the Germans came demand I'm going to obtain the recipe of the product. Listen, of course, come in, we'll welcome you, we'll give you a drink, try this product before we give you the recipe. And they made sure they gave them the product from the tap the bronze tap, which was not good also in taste. 

So, the German method was a color now somebody would start drinking, you spit it out. This is all stuff. Why are people talking about this stuff? This is disgusting. So, he thought that people were just drinking it or buying it, obtaining it because they were desperate. It was the wall. And they thought, you know, it's better than nothing, we can have some alcohol. So, he totally took it out of his mind. And he said to everybody, all his other followers and German friends or whatever soldiers, that this is just a rumor. It's not at all a good product, this product is awful. We don't need to spend another moment on this project. And then as they say, in the book, little did they know that many years later, it was exporting this product from Greece to Germany. And actually Germany was one of the first countries in exports in Metaxa that they drank lots of it, they loved it, they still do.

Marlana  

So funny. You talk about that. You know, this was a very male dominated business, this family business. So did you have difficulty carving out a path for yourself within the business?

Zika  

Yes, I had a lot of difficult days. And I think it has still stayed with me all these years, I have been always trying to prove that I am good enough, business wise that I can do it like a man. And I think we have this has stayed with me and it's not a good, not something I'm proud of, I'm trying to fix it to make it better. But after all these years struggling to prove that you know, as a girl, as a woman, I can also do it. I can handle the liquor, I can sell the liquor, I can market the liquor. It was quiet, they never took me seriously, especially in the beginning.

Marlana  

You know, which is funny to me, because when the business was eventually sold, you are part of the sale. And that was you had to have some work? 

Zika  

Yes, that was something I chose to be, but they thought, you know, the people who bought the company at the time, okay, they didn't think I would last, let's say, okay, she will stay for a month or two. And they were extra suspicious. They thought I was maybe staying there in order to I don't know, find out their secrets or something which was not at all the case, of course, I decided to stay on because I thought and it was eventually an immense lesson for me to work for a multinational company. It was totally a different approach, an extremely professional approach. Plus, the company had a big brand of products except the brand day they had bought because they had whiskies they had liquors, which was very challenging. They everything all the marketing was restricted from the beginning. So, there were a lot of briefing and advertising agencies, I loved all that. I learned so much in marketing, which was like having a master's degree in marketing. So much. They worked very hard on all hours, not like obviously we were working on so many hours as a family and on a different level. But I think after the first, let's say six, seven months near a year that they realized that I'm okay. Okay, I'm not the enemy.

Marlana  

Did you find it difficult when the company was purchased, to kind of climb out from the family name? Because I mean, you still were a Metaxa?

Zika  

Yes. Yes, I found it difficult. I think it was more. I understood that completely the reasons the company was sold at the time, the timing, everything. And I think it was more disappointing for my brothers and dress manglers as they were much younger than me they didn't have the opportunity to start working in the company or not, but they were I mean, they were teenagers at the time, almost finishing school, my brother and dress and they always thought, of course, being brought up in this male orientated company that they were the successors that would be one day the continuous I mean, since the day they were born. This was what they were. Everybody was telling them in the family. So, I think for the boys, it was more disappointing. For me as I was a bit l was l Jerell older, I realized the way my ankle my father explained it to me the business aspect of the timing, I realized it's a good time. And of course, it hurts also emotionally. 

I thought it was an opportunity for me, again, to prove myself and to work hard. And which you did, it did actually work out like that it didn't turn out like that. In the end, after the years I spent them. It was appreciated. And by that time, and because the people who work for my work were I think only one was great, all the other will burn foreigners. They didn't have...