Agricultural cooperatives vs. public companies in the Greek wine industry

Agricultural cooperatives and public companies exist within the wine industry of the Greek economy. The hypothesis tested in this paper is whether statistically significant differences exist in the financial structure, as measured by financial ratios, of the companies belonging to the various groups investigated, during the 1981–1983 time period. The main conclusion of the paper is that agricultural cooperatives and public companies differ significantly in terms of liquidity (inventories exempted), in the percentage of total capital employed used to finance fixed assets, in gearing and in total profitability. No significant differences were found in current liquidity, in the coverage of current assets with working capital, in cash liquidity and in profitability on own capital.