Welcome to the Stambo’s family. A proud Australian family-owned and operated foodservice company which has serviced metropolitan Melbourne and Victoria for more than 39 years.

Our focus is on the quality of our “food” and the efficiency and constant improvement of our “service” by realising your need for reliability, consistent commitment and innovative solutions. Whether you’re a school, take-away, fish shop, sports club or social club, our dedicated team conscientiously strives to understand and fulfill your requirements with our one-stop deliveries and extensive range of products including: seafood, frozen goods, dairy, groceries, chicken, snacks, packaging, drinks, juices, coffee, cleaning and smallgoods range.

Our new dispatch, manufacturing, distribution and storage facilities now cover an area of over 55,000 square feet. Along with our well maintained refrigerated fleet, our service improvements continue and since 1985, we have sustained an average annual growth of 35%.

Our recent invitation to join the National Food Distributors Association (NAFDA) serves as both an acknowledgement by our peers to the high standard of commitment and provides our valued customers with further ideas and buying power benefits.

Welcome to our family.

In 1985, from humble Reservoir leased premises, an old refrigerated truck began its frozen food deliveries early every morning. Together, Greg and his father, Haris Stamboulidis quickly acquired a number of loyal customers, and in 1986, the new brother-in-law, Ben Panotis joined as a partner.

In the next year the business outgrew the building which resulted in the leasing of the premises next door, in addition to recruiting another partner – this time the older brother-in-law, Nicolas Athanasopoulos.

By 1988, distribution to take away stores, fish shops and canteens was well established, and processing of shark commenced as a speciality sideline.

The company acquired its own premises in late 1988, and by 1989 had already doubled the size of the factory, installed new freezers, offices and processing areas.

By this stage, wives, Olga, Helen and Kris were also fully involved. This togetherness undoubtedly proved to be a successful and much sought after team. Diversifying into processing, manufacturing (Courtgem Pty Ltd) café market (Coffee Affair with Mocopan) and importing (Stambo’s International) was a natural progression towards self reliance and controlled growth.

In 2005 another family member, Rita Earl, joined the team brining with her marketing and promotional skills to an ever-changing school market. Her goal was to help schools make the transition implementing the new nutritional guidelines in Victoria.

In 2008, after over 20 years as a director, Ben Panotis has moved on to pursue other interests.

Times may have changed since our humble premises and solitary truck service of old, but the Stambo’s family feel and uncompromising commitment to customer service still remains.
Stambo’s has earned the respect and praise of its peers and customers by adhering to the basic philosophy of the family: we make sure EVERYONE is kept happy, from the customer’s initial order right through to the final delivery. Customers are able to talk to us immediately and decisions are made promptly and efficiently.
Our long-serving staff, customer retention and constant acquisition of new customers tells us that our basic philosophy is working well.

Stambo’s Foodservice acknowledges that much of our growth and success is attributed to the continued support of our loyal clients, suppliers and staff. We believe that our staff, suppliers and clients will not only mature and grow with us, but also be an integral part of our future success.

Stambo’s is a progressive and ever evolving company with constant upgrades to our marketing, technological capacities and efficiency skills.

Our commitment to food safety has seen us become the first foodservice company to offer an in-house accredited food-handling course to health conscious clients. The course is presented by a qualified food/health inspector, with a certificate awarded upon completion.

Our new demonstration kitchen and showroom serves as a venue for health authorities, suppliers and customers to come together to understand and implement the correct methods required for dealing with food, from deliveries to processing, sales, handling and, finally, cooking.

A new era of intense customer service and high labour costs created the need for portion control products. Hence Courtgem Pty Ltd was born in 1989.

More than just a fresh seafood (flake specialist) processor, Courtgem developed a wide range of quality, convenient and innovative Heat ‘n’ Serve products side-by-side with its sales/distribution and marketing departments.

A value-added manufacturing venture, Courtgem harnessed Nicolas Athanasopoulos’ brilliant capacity for developing and building prototype food processing equipment in-house. Our new manufacturing fully automated production lines allow consistent product quality and portion control in the most hygienic conditions.

Contract packing for various small and large companies, as well as supermarkets, have become an integral part of Courtgem’s make up as the hassle free, ready-to-eat product market continually grows.

Most importantly however, Courtgem Pty Ltd represents the basic philosophy of the family to strive towards continuous improvement in quality, variety, value and total reliability.