My career in the aggregates industry began in the early 1990s when I joined my father, Costas Latouros, who was running then, a small quarry. Fast-forward to the present day and the Latouros Group, under the holding company M.S.C. Latouros Investments Ltd, operates 3 aggregates quarries (Latomia Latouros Limited, Latomio Pyrgon Limited and Elmeni (Latomia) Ltd) and 1 gypsum quarry (Latouros Gypsum Ltd), a Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste recycling plant (Recycling Point Ltd) and a holistic chemical laboratory (Veltia Cyprus Ltd) and I am the Managing Director of the whole group since 1998. Our group is the largest quarrying group in Cyprus, and one of the biggest independent players in Europe, selling around 1.8 million tonnes of sand/aggregates and gypsum products produced each year and generating around €20 million in annual sales revenue.
I am the President of the Cyprus Aggregates Producers Association since 2013. In June 2021, I was elected as the President of the European Aggregates Association (UEPG) for a mandate of three years. UEPG has its offices in Brussels and has members in 26 European countries and under its umbrella has 26.000 quarries around Europe with annual sales of around 3 billion tons of aggregates and a turnover of around €30 billion.
The UEPG presidency demands a lot of time and commitment to attend important meetings, presentations, congresses etc. all across Europe. I am travelling a lot to fulfill the UEPG’s new three-year business plan, which focuses on ensuring the highest standards for healthy, safe and pandemic-resilient workplaces in the industry; promoting compatibility/co-existence of responsible aggregates extraction and environmental protection/management; demonstrating the low-carbon footprint of the industry and its contribution to climate-change mitigation and adaptation; and contributing to the EU circular economy through progress on raw materials efficiency and recycling.
My time at the Academy has 2 parts. From 1981 – 1988 as a student and from 2011 – 2017 as a member of the Council, where I served as the Vice Chairman from 2014 – 2015 and as the Chairman from 2015 – 2017.
AAL has helped me in a number of ways. It has helped me to learn how to learn. It opened my mind to different ways of knowing, which helps in problem-solving effectively through life’s problems, and thinking critically about life and the world. What’s more, the AA’s moto “to grow and to serve” cultivates its students’ moral behavior. AA students are educated about their role as responsible members in the community
My memories from AAL are “mixed”! And this because, many of the teachers that I had during my student time at the academy, whom I was admiring for all what they have taught me, happened to be retiring during the 2 years that I served as Chairman of the Council. It was a very strange feeling to deliver the speech, as the Chairman, at their farewell parties but at the same time I was so glad that I was there at these specific moments and have the chance to thank them once more for what they have offered to me, to our school and to the community in general!
Being an AAL student means being part of a very big organisation, a member of a real family.
