Greek Phonographic Industries (G.P.I.) was a record and cassette manufacturer in Athens, Greece. It was established by Digital Press Hellas, who continued to press records until 2001. The factory was located in Ághioi Anárghiroi (Greek: Άγιοι Ανάργυροι), a suburb in the north-central part of Athens and still stands empty in 2024 after it was vacated by DPH in 2001.
The plant had all facilities in-house, including label printing. The disc mastering studio featured a Neumann SP272 mastering console with PolyGram equalisers installed, a Neumann VMS70 lathe with SX74 cutterhead and SAL74B amplifiers and a Studer A80-PRE 1/4" tape machine with tape speeds of 15ips and 30ips. As a typical full service facility, the plant also had a galvanic department for the production of stampers. The plant operated six fully automatic PRA (Philips) presses and eight extruders (two spares).
Known cutting engineers were:
Δημήτρης Νικολάου (Dimítris Nikoláou)
Appears also as "G.P.I. S.A. 410" or just "G.P.I." and may be misread as "G.P.I.S.A.".
Lacquer cut
Records cut at G.P.I. often have "MT410", "M.T.410", "CD410", "CDT410" "CR410", "CRT410", "CT410", "D410", or "DT410", 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 cut for PolyGram Records S.A. (Greece) labels carry the 3- or 4-digit pattern.
Records cut for other Greek companies have the first digit replaced by a letter identifying the customer:
A for 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.
Add to LCCN (for vinyl pressings between 1975 and 1994): Lacquer Cut At + the number/letter+number without space or dash (between 1975 until 1992 this followed '410').
For double (or triple etc) albums, please use two (or more) separate fields.
(The same pattern, without the '410' identifier however, was ed on to Digital Press Hellas, that continued the numbering from where G.P.I. left off)
Other Greek company Maxi Single example
Vinyl press
12" pressed at G.P.I. had a unique characteristic: a 30mm diameter inner pressing ring and an elevated outer ring at 88mm, of approximately 5mm width, example.
7" did not have that characteristic.
Some G.P.I. pressings may show printed identifiers on labels and/or on outer sleeves referring to Columbia/EMI Greece manufacture, i.e. A/A xxxx on labels (example). The exact grounds for inclusion of these job numbers cannot always be ascertained.
See Note 2 for what to enter in LCCN & BaOI.
Add to LCCN (valid for 12" only): Pressed By if the vinyl has an elevated outer ring AND "Made in Greece", "Mfd. By G.P.I. S.A." or "Made by G.P.I. S.A." printed on the centre labels.
Note 1: 410 in runouts identifies the lacquer cut and NOT the pressing plant. Please, do not add "Pressed By" solely based on 410 on labels or in runouts.
Note 2: For presence of Columbia, Athens-job number(s), please add:
To LCCN: Pressed By: G.P.I. S.A. and Made By: Columbia, Athens + xxxx (only the numerical part of the A/A xxxx identifier).
To BaOI: Other A/A xxxx with description "Labels, Columbia, Athens job number" and/or Other MT xxxx with description "Master Tape, [where this info is found on the artwork, i.e. cover rear], Columbia, Athens job number".
