Helma marks 40 years in business and 5-year Hitachi partnership
According to a company press release, since joining the HCME dealer network in 2020, Helma has played 'a vital part' in increasing the visibility of the Hitachi brand in Greece. The company has also contributed to the growth of the Hitachi Premium Rental programme in the country, most recently supplying ten ZX350-7 medium excavators on a rental contract.
Describing the Greek market's response to the brand, Helma CEO Iris Tsouma said, 'I truly believe we've succeeded in making Hitachi products not just known, but genuinely loved by the Greek market.'
Headquartered in central Athens with a service and after-sales department in Magoula, Attica, Helma employs 42 staff and serves a wide customer base — from large contractors to independent machine owners — primarily in road construction, quarrying, general construction, earthmoving and recycling.
The company was founded in 1985 by Iris Tsouma's father, Dimitris Tsoumas, who had a background in the used equipment sector. Iris joined the company in 2019 after completing her studies, noting in the release that she "always knew" she would follow in her father's footsteps.
HCME President and CEO Francesco Quaranta offered congratulations, saying, 'We appreciate Helma's commitment to quality and the dedication it has shown in providing excellent after-sales service to our customers.'
Looking ahead, Helma is preparing for expansion. 'We are creating a dedicated Hitachi showroom for stock machines, renovating our existing facilities, and growing the Helma family,' Tsouma said.
"Helma marks 40 years in business and 5-year Hitachi partnership" was originally created and published by Leasing Life, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
The Pharaohs Built Pyramids—We Build Data Centers
Aldie, VA - January 20:On what was recently farmland, Amazon data centers have been built as close ... More as 50 feet from residential houses in the Loudoun Meadows neighborhood on January 20, 2023, in Aldie, VA. A Microsoft data center is under construction in at top right. As the data center industry expands its footprint in Northern Virginia, often building massive commercial structures near residential neighborhoods, communities push back with their concerns.(Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania, a sprawling 1.5 million square foot data center hums on the site of a long-shuttered steel mill. It offers no plumes of smoke, no visible workers—just server racks, a security guard or two, and a tax-exempt policy fiction that cost the state $75 million. Its purpose, to the Keystone State, is symbolic. 4,600 years ago and 5,800 miles away, the first pyramid emerged from the desert as much a radical act of statecraft as a feat of engineering. In the golden age of Egypt's Old Kingdom, each new pharaoh faced the same problem: how to prove he was as worthy, or indeed more worthy, of the throne as compared to his predecessor. Pharaoh Djoser built the first pyramid, his successor built bigger. Then came Sneferu, who built three. Khufu built the Great Pyramid—the largest building on earth for nearly 4,000 years. And then, slowly, the building stopped. Paper Legitimacy in Stone What had begun as an architectural innovation became an arms race of ego and excess—each king, desperate to outshine the last, drained the treasury, strained labor systems, and redirected resources away from daily functioning of the state towards construction. Returns diminished, projects shrank, and the civilization collapsed into economic instability and political fragmentation. By the end of the Sixth Dynasty, Egypt's centralized control bureaucracy had begun to fracture. The state could no longer command vast labor forces and construction slowed to a crawl. The monuments that once signaled divine order could no longer be built. As the systems theorist John Gall once wrote, identifying the underlying systems at play in Egypt, 'Snofru, in expanding the scale, unwittingly exceeded the engineering limits.' His pyramid fell down. His son, Cheops, built more carefully—but his strain wasn't merely architectural. Gall concludes: 'The Egyptian State, subjected to unbearable stresses by the building of these monsters of pride, collapsed into anarchy. Egypt fell down.' To draw a causal line from pyramid-building to the fall of the Old Kingdom would be a stretch. Civilizations are rarely undone by a single habit or policy. But as allegory, the story is useful. It reveals how even the most advanced societies can exhibit symptoms of the underlying pathology—investment in spectacle at the expense of sustainability and allowing ambition and innovation to drift into excess. The pyramids were more than tombs; they stood as symbols of power, permanence, and political legitimacy. Over time, that symbolism demanded ever greater sacrifices of labor and resources, until the system that produced it could no longer bear the cost. Modern Monuments Today, American states are building monuments to excess of their own—not from limestone, but from steel, concrete, and server racks. The sacrifices demanded are not of labor, but tax revenue, electricity, and water. Across the country, governors and legislators are clamoring to offer ever more generous tax incentives to lure data centers to their state. Sprawling, resource-intensive facilities owned by some of the world's wealthiest tech firms, sprouting up in defiance from regions with power grid and water constraints. These projects are pitched as engines of economic development and modernization. But, like the pyramids, their true value lies as symbols—proof the state that houses them is a competitive, forward-looking, and open for business. But when the realities of limited resources collide with the demands of symbolism, everyone loses. Progress as Mirage In ancient Egypt, signals of modernity and legitimacy entailed diverting grain, labor, and administrative capacity toward ever-larger monuments. Today, it means hollowing out tax bases, depleting aquifers, burdening already-strained electric grids, and subsidizing private infrastructure with public tax dollars. The shape of the monument has changed—in 2025 it has LED lights and makes kind of a whirring sound—but the political impulse remains the same. Consider Pennsylvania, which quietly passed a law in 2016 exempting data centers from sales and use taxes. At the time, the projected annual cost was $75 million. In Texas, forecasts for similar exemptions swelled from $130 million to more than $1 billion in less than two years. These aren't one-off giveaways—more than 30 states now offer tax incentives for data centers, with many sporting automatic subsidy policies with little oversight and few long-term guarantees in terms of job creation or revenue growth. And what do states get in return for these lavish subsidies? Often, some fiber optic cable and little else. Despite their massive physical footprint, most data centers don't actually employ that many full-time workers. The bulk of spending goes towards construction and equipment purchase, not long-term employment. That's kind of the whole deal with artificial intelligence, after all. The Bill Comes Due These facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, often requiring new outlays for infrastructure—paid, at least in part, by ratepayers and taxpayers. U.S. utilities have already requested $29 billion in electricity rate increases in the first half of 2025, which is up 142% from last year, primarily due to surging demand from data centers. In places like Virginia and California, lawmakers and residents are already beginning to push back, citing grid strain, environmental effects, and agreements that leave locals footing the bill while tech giants harvest the benefits. So why, then, do states keep pursuing data center projects? Because, in the competition for prestige and plaudits, no one wants to be the first state to stop building. Much like the pharaohs who feared their legitimacy would be challenged if they were outshone by their predecessors, governors and lawmakers fear being perceived as uncompetitive, anti-tech, or not open to innovation. And yet, every dollar spent luring a data center is one not spent fixing roads, upgrading water supply systems, or building affordable housing. The opportunity cost is hidden in the glow of server lights, but it's paid daily by residents whose basic needs continue to go unmet. But when all else fails politically, a data center deal, even a bad one, offers the illusion of progress—a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a hardhat-clad walkthrough, a headline, and a chance to say the future is being built right here in Wherever-ville. It doesn't matter if the project creates ten jobs or ten thousand, what matters is the pastiche of growth. This is the fundamental danger of governance by symbolism and posturing and what is portable from the lessons of the Old Kingdom. In both ancient Egypt and twenty-first century America, the impulse to build—bigger, faster, and flashier—can become decoupled from the needs of the people the state is intended to serve. The pyramid became less of a tomb and more of a billboard. The data center has become less a public investment and more a monument to political ambition and modernization. In both cases, the public pays the price when the foundation of legitimacy is built on the sands of spectacle rather than the bedrock of substance. One day, centuries from now, someone might excavate the skeletal remains of a cloud facility on the edge of some forgotten exurb—its server halls fallen silent, its purpose long forgotten. They may wonder why so many resources were devoted to a structure that produced so little for the people that lived around it. The answer will be the same as it was in ancient Egypt: it wasn't built for them. It was built for the rulers, and for the illusion they were building something great.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Judge grants injunction against JPMorgan to Viva Wallet directors
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter. A U.K. judge has ordered JPMorgan Chase to stop suing the directors of Greek fintech Viva Wallet amid its international legal battle with Viva majority shareholder Werealize. JPMorgan sued four Viva executives, along with Werealize, for €917 million in damages in January, one year after Viva CEO Haris Karonis first sued the U.S. bank for allegedly impeding the fintech's growth. JPMorgan alleged that the fintech's executives deprived the bank of 'the value of its investment in Viva' through illegal actions starting in March 2022. JPMorgan purchased 49.5% of Viva earlier in 2022, and the balance of the fintech is owned by Werealize. But U.K. Judge David Foxton granted Werealize and Viva's directors an anti-suit injunction Friday on the grounds that filing the lawsuit in Greece violated the firms' shareholder agreement. 'We welcome the Court's finding that JPM breached its Shareholders' Agreement (SHA) with WRL and must discontinue its baseless Greek proceedings against certain Viva board members, in which it claimed €917 million in damages (the amount invested in Viva),' Karonis said in a prepared statement. 'Today's judgment exposes JPM's strategy for what it is: a targeted campaign of lawfare, aimed at pressuring WRL and intimidating Viva's directors through meritless litigation, solely to obstruct WRL's contractual right to exercise its call option and assume full control of Viva.' He added that the bank 'must now step aside and allow Viva to continue growing and reach its full commercial potential.' JPMorgan, however, also claimed victory following Foxton's ruling. 'We are pleased that the court ruled predominantly in our favor, and that WRL/Viva can no longer unjustly target our colleagues who served diligently on the Viva board,' a spokesperson said via email. 'It is worth noting that Greek courts independently dismissed their baseless charges against our colleagues, as well.' 'The UK court also rejected any claims of JPM acting abusively or in bad faith,' the spokesperson said. 'While we will continue to address their litigious tactics, and many matters are still being resolved by the courts, our commitment remains steadfast to the business and our investment.' While Karonis called on JPMorgan to 'bring an end to this pattern of self-embarrassment and engage in productive discussion,' JPMorgan's spokesperson said the bank hopes the rulings encourage Werealize 'to redirect their focus and energy towards the success of Viva.' In May, JPMorgan withdrew its claim that Werealize breached its shareholder agreement with JPMorgan by allowing Viva to take certain business actions without obtaining JPMorgan's consent. The claims were specific to the U.K. lawsuit.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Skanska CEO says its selective strategy reduces risk
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter. Remaining selective and planning for risk have been key to Skanska's profitability. CEO Anders Danielsson said the firm has been more discerning about only taking on projects and clients in sectors where it has seen success in the past. 'We took important strategic positions some years ago to be more selective,' Danielsson told Construction Dive. 'We have the right team in place.' The chief of the Stockholm-based contractor spoke to analysts during a second quarter earnings call July 18, where the results showed that U.S. construction has continued to be the anchor of the firm's success. However, continued changes around tariffs have raised questions on pricing for materials, and that uncertainty has impacted project timelines and the ability for contractors to break ground. Danielsson said Skanska has seen minimal impact from the tariff policy thus far, and remained bullish for the future. In part, that success is due to sourcing U.S. materials, he said, noting he hasn't seen increased competition for those domestic products. headshot of Anders Danielsson 'We haven't seen a lot of [impact from tariffs], but we are careful to not to end up in a situation where we suffer from, like price increases,' Danielsson told Construction Dive after the call. 'And so we are very careful before we bid for a project, we secure the prices from our suppliers.' When price hikes do arise, Danielsson said Skanska has had success passing the difference back onto the client. As an example, he cited the firm successfully doing so when construction costs spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Priority sectors Within construction, the U.S. civil market remains one of the major success areas for Skanska. Danielsson anticipates 'strong demand for traditional infrastructure' in the states. He cited confidence for public funding to continue to flow to critical sectors such as schools, hospitals, airports and data centers. In recent earnings reports, a sticking point for the firm has been commercial property development, especially as workers in the U.S. largely continued to work from home following the pandemic. Though the firm's outlook on commercial development for the next 12 months remains weak, Danielsson said a shift to quality, where companies target nicer offices in more attractive areas, continues to show promise. 'I'm sure most companies want their employees back to office,' Danielsson said. 'So that trend will continue.'
