G.P.I. S.A.

Greek Phonographic Industries (GPI) was a record and cassette manufacturer in Athens, Greece which manufactured product for numerous labels such as 'Lyra'. Founded in 1975, it was later acquired by Phonogram/PolyGram. In 1995, it was acquired by 'Digital Press Hellas', who continued to pressed records until 2001. The G.P.I. factory was located in Agioi Anargiroi (Greek: Άγιοι Ανάργυροι), a suburb in the north-central part of Athens. The plant had an inhouse lacquer cutting studio with a modifed Neumann VMS 80 lathe and a Studer A80 with mechanical delay as master machine. Known cutting engineers were: Δημήτρης Νικολάου (Dimitris Nikolaou) Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης (Yannis "Dinos" Ioannidis, brother of John Ioannidis) John Ioannidis (until 1988) The plant operated six Polygram presses and eight extruders (two spares). Appears also as "G.P.I. S.A. 410" or just "G.P.I." and may be misread as "G.P.I.S.A.". Records cut and pressed by G.P.I. often have "MT410", "MT 410", "M.T. 410", "DT410", "CD 410", "CR 410", "CRT 410", "CT 410" or "D 410" etched in the runout grooves, where 410 (a code initially used by Helladisc S.A. until 1975) identifies the PolyGram disc cutting facility (the '410' however ceased to be used sometime in 1992), which is followed by a 3- or 4-digit number. Records pressed for PolyGram Records S.A. (Greece) labels carry the 3- or 4-digit pattern. Records pressed for other Greek companies have the first digit replaced by a letter identifying the customer: A for Diski CBS AEBE/Sony Music Entertainment (Greece) A.E. E for Eros Music Α.Ε./Eros Music FM for FM Records L for Εταιρεία Γενικών Εκδόσεων Α.Ε./Lyra P for Panivar Α.Ε./Panivar V for Virgin Greece W for WEA Records Ltd. (2)/WEA Records S.A./Δίσκοι WEA Α.Ε./Warner Music Greece S.A. The letter 'S' or the letters 'MS' that precede the number that follows '410' indicate Single or Maxi Single respectively. [u]Add to LCCN[/u] (for vinyl pressings between 1975 and 1995): Lacquer Cut At the sequential number/letter+number that follows '410'. If '410' is not etched in the runouts, please do not add anything.