Papaderos is the brand of WPS, Vassilis Papaderos SA, a Greek wooden packaging manufacturer and timber processor based at Peania in Attica. The family’s work in wood began in 1968 with Dimitrios Papaderos, and the current company was formed out of the division of G&V Papaderos Ltd.

Where are the boxes made?

At the company’s own site on the nineteenth kilometre of Lavriou Avenue in Peania, east of Mount Hymettus on the Mesogeia plain, where design, machining, assembly and finishing all take place.

What sizes are available?

The paspartou range runs from a two-bottle box at 21 by 12 by 37 cm through three and four bottle formats to a six-bottle case at 58 by 37 by 13 cm. There is also a small single-item box at 10 by 10 by 17 cm and an oak box at 41 by 31 by 16 cm.

What is the difference between the natural and dark-aged boxes?

The finish. The dark-aged paspartou 4 and paspartou 6 share the dimensions and capacity of the natural versions, with a darker, aged surface and engraved branding for a more formal presentation.

Can the boxes be personalised?

Yes. Laser engraving and digital printing are offered as a separate service for a name or a company logo, and the company’s wider business is built around customised wooden packaging made to order.

Do the boxes come with anything inside?

No. Every box is supplied empty, so you can fill it with the bottles, jars or other items you have chosen.

What certifications does the company hold?

ISO 9001 for its quality management system, and authorisation as an ISPM 15 processor under registration GR-0074 from the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food, which covers heat treatment of wood packaging for export.

Papaderos Wooden Gift Boxes | Gourmet Groceries

Discover the Unparalleled Quality of Papaderos

Most gift packaging is folded from board and designed to be thrown away. Papaderos works the other way round. The same workshop that produces heat-treated pallets and heavy duty crates for export also makes the paspartou range of wooden gift boxes, which means the presentation pieces are built with the tolerances and the joinery of freight packaging rather than the shortcuts of display.

The result is a set of boxes with real weight and real capacity. The paspartou 2 measures 21 by 12 by 37 cm and holds two bottles. The paspartou 3 is 30 by 11.5 by 36.5 cm, the paspartou 4 is 39 by 11.5 by 36.5 cm, and the paspartou 6 opens out to 58 by 37 by 13 cm for six bottles at 3.4 kg empty. Those figures are not decorative. They are the specifications of a company whose main business is getting goods to arrive intact.

What makes Papaderos special

A family tradition in wood and wood processing that began in 1968 with Dimitrios Papaderos.
Boxes cut from solid natural timber, with engraved lids rather than printed labels.
A graded range from a 10 by 10 by 17 cm single-bottle box up to a six-bottle case.
Dark-aged finishes offered alongside the natural wood, on the same box dimensions.
An oak version with a working lock and key, hand made at 41 by 31 by 16 cm.

Attica is not a forestry region, and that matters to how the company works. Timber arrives to be selected, processed and made up rather than felled on the doorstep, so the value the workshop adds sits in the machining and the assembly: planing, grooving, edge rounding, cutting and surface configuration, all done on site at Peania.

VIEW PRODUCTS

The People Behind Papaderos

Dimitrios Papaderos began the family’s involvement with timber in 1968. The business that carries the name forward today is led by Vassilis Papaderos, and trades as WPS, Vassilis Papaderos SA, from the Peania site on the road that runs from Athens down to the old mining port of Lavrio.

The company is unusually direct about its own lineage. It was formed out of the division of G&V Papaderos Ltd, and rather than presenting itself as a fresh start it describes the continuity plainly: different branches, one trunk, one root system. The founder is referred to in the company’s own text as the trunk and the roots.

How Papaderos began

The starting point was wood processing, not gift packaging. A workshop that planes, grooves and cuts timber for construction, roofing and industrial use accumulates a particular kind of knowledge: how boards behave, which sections hold a corner, how a case takes a load without racking.

Presentation boxes came later, as an extension of that skill rather than a departure from it. The promotional and display side of the business now sits alongside industrial packaging and the timber trade, and the three feed each other. A wooden display stand, an export crate and a six-bottle gift case are the same problem solved at different scales.

Heat treatment and the ISPM 15 mark

Wooden packaging that crosses a border is regulated. ISPM 15 is the international phytosanitary standard governing wood packaging material in trade, and compliant material has to be heat treated and marked before it can travel. WPS is an authorised processor under that standard, holding registration number GR-0074 from the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food, and operates its own disinfection service.

For a gift box this is background rather than a selling point, but it explains something about the workshop. A company that has to satisfy phytosanitary inspection on its pallets is running documented processes on its timber generally, and the same stock, the same kilns and the same joiners produce the boxes.

Why this matters

The workshop is a timber processor first, so the boxes are made from selected and machined stock.
ISPM 15 authorisation, registration GR-0074, covers heat treatment for export packaging.
ISO 9001 certification applies to the production processes across the site.
Boxes are made to order as well as to catalogue, with laser engraving and digital printing available.
The family has worked in wood continuously since 1968, through more than one company structure.

“A Papaderos box comes out of a working timber yard in Attica, built to the standards of freight packaging and finished to sit on a table.”

A Gifting Ritual from Attica

Greek gift-giving leans heavily on food and drink: oil from a particular grove, wine from a particular estate, honey from a particular hillside. The container carries some of that meaning. A Papaderos box gives a bottle the weight of an occasion, and then stays in the house afterwards holding tools, papers or the next set of bottles.

Solid natural timber with an engraved lid, sized from one bottle to six
Dark-aged finishes for a heavier, more formal presentation
Oak with lock and key for the pieces meant to be kept
Laser engraving or digital printing for a name or a company mark
Made in Peania, Attica, by a family that has worked timber since 1968

Papaderos brings together a Greek timber tradition, the discipline of export packaging, and the simple idea that a good bottle deserves something better than a printed sleeve.

Papaderos: What Sets a Solid Timber Gift Box Apart

The differences between wooden boxes are easy to feel and hard to photograph. They show up in the thickness of the walls, the way a lid seats, the weight in the hand, and whether the piece survives being carried across a city.

Quality	Description
Solid timber construction	Cut and assembled from natural wood rather than folded board, with the machining done in the company's own workshop at Peania.
Engraved rather than printed	Lids carry an engraved design cut into the wood, and personalisation is offered as laser engraving or digital printing for a name or logo.
Graded sizing	A single range covering one, two, three, four and six bottle formats, so the box can be matched to the gift instead of the gift to the box.
Choice of finish	Natural wood and dark-aged versions are made on the same dimensions, the six-bottle case measuring 58 by 37 by 13 cm in either finish.
Oak with lock and key	The hand-made oak box at 41 by 31 by 16 cm and 5.2 kg is built as a keepsake, with a functioning lock rather than a decorative clasp.

The boxes are supplied empty, which is the point. They are chosen to hold something the buyer has already selected, and the range exists so that the fit is close.

Daily Use: Choosing the Right Papaderos Box

Picking a box is mostly arithmetic followed by a judgement about tone. Count the bottles or jars, check the dimensions, then decide whether the occasion wants natural timber or something darker.

Use	How to Enjoy
A single bottle or jar	The small box at 10 by 10 by 17 cm and 0.4 kg suits one item, a jar of honey or a small bottle, without the presentation overwhelming the gift.
A pair or a trio	The paspartou 2 and paspartou 3 hold two and three bottles respectively, the natural choice for an oil and vinegar set or a short vertical of wine.
A full case	The paspartou 4 and paspartou 6 take four and six bottles, useful for corporate gifting where the same box goes out many times over.
A formal occasion	The dark-aged versions of the paspartou 4 and 6 give the same capacity with a heavier, more finished look for weddings and anniversaries.
Something kept	The oak box with lock and key works as a gift in itself, taking on a second life as a storage piece once emptied.

Keep a wooden box out of direct damp and it will outlast almost anything you put in it. A wipe with a dry cloth is enough, and the engraved surface needs no treatment at all.

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at Papaderos

At WPS, Vassilis Papaderos SA, environmental protection is written into the stated vision alongside growth: the company commits to customer-driven business practices while maintaining an environmentally and socially responsible approach, and lists individual and corporate social responsibility among its founding principles.

In a timber business those commitments are practical rather than abstract. The workshop runs a repairs and conversions service, restoring and reworking wooden items instead of replacing them, and pallet recycling is part of the operation. Off-cuts and reprocessing are the ordinary economy of a joinery, and a box that is built to be kept is itself the least wasteful form of gift packaging.

Their approach

The company works to strict criteria for its chosen suppliers, clear production processes and ongoing staff training, which is how it describes its own quality system, and holds ISO 9001 certification alongside its ISPM 15 authorisation from the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food. It works across three connected sectors, industrial packaging in the form of pallets, crates and custom projects, promotional packaging and wooden display stands, and the timber trade covering industrial, construction, roofing and round timber, using materials including WBP and MR plywood, OSB, particle board, MDF and concrete form plywood. Customisation runs through all of it: the company’s position is that packaging should be tailored to what it protects, whether that means a crate designed around a machine part or a gift case sized to six bottles. The Peania site handles design, machining, assembly, heat treatment and packing services, and the company shows the promotional side of its work at Greek and international packaging exhibitions, including SYSKEVASIA at the Metropolitan Expo in Athens.

VIEW PRODUCTS

Certified Wood: ISO 9001 and the ISPM 15 Authorisation

Papaderos holds two credentials that say more about the workshop than any description could. ISO 9001 covers the quality management system across production, and the ISPM 15 authorisation, registration GR-0074 from the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food, permits the company to heat treat and mark wood packaging for international trade. Both are audited rather than claimed, and both apply to the same timber, the same machines and the same joiners who make the gift boxes.

VIEW PRODUCTS

Frequently Asked Questions About Papaderos

What is Papaderos?

Papaderos is the brand of WPS, Vassilis Papaderos SA, a Greek wooden packaging manufacturer and timber processor based at Peania in Attica. The family’s work in wood began in 1968 with Dimitrios Papaderos, and the current company was formed out of the division of G&V Papaderos Ltd.
Where are the boxes made?

At the company’s own site on the nineteenth kilometre of Lavriou Avenue in Peania, east of Mount Hymettus on the Mesogeia plain, where design, machining, assembly and finishing all take place.
What sizes are available?

The paspartou range runs from a two-bottle box at 21 by 12 by 37 cm through three and four bottle formats to a six-bottle case at 58 by 37 by 13 cm. There is also a small single-item box at 10 by 10 by 17 cm and an oak box at 41 by 31 by 16 cm.
What is the difference between the natural and dark-aged boxes?

The finish. The dark-aged paspartou 4 and paspartou 6 share the dimensions and capacity of the natural versions, with a darker, aged surface and engraved branding for a more formal presentation.
Can the boxes be personalised?

Yes. Laser engraving and digital printing are offered as a separate service for a name or a company logo, and the company’s wider business is built around customised wooden packaging made to order.
Do the boxes come with anything inside?

No. Every box is supplied empty, so you can fill it with the bottles, jars or other items you have chosen.
What certifications does the company hold?

ISO 9001 for its quality management system, and authorisation as an ISPM 15 processor under registration GR-0074 from the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food, which covers heat treatment of wood packaging for export.

JOURNAL

Know What You’re Tasting

The Journal is where we go deeper into the stories and knowledge behind the collection, so you can understand what makes a product distinctive before it ever reaches the table.

It is a place to understand the details that matter, and the reasons a product earns its place with us.

View all

PREVIOUS NEXT

Papaderos: Solid Timber Gift Boxes from an Attic Family Workshop