In early 1896, a risk-taking Frenchman of his time, Maurice Mallet, ventured on the longest balloon trip ever, travelling from France to Germany in three days. In a century where flight in the skies was a dream, the eccentric Frenchman's pioneering step automatically attracted the international spotlight.

However, Maurice Mallet's next step proved to be even more successful, as on 22 December of that year, a few years before the 19th century ended, he and two friends founded a company to build airships for advertising and entertainment. The restless Mallet doesn't stop there.

In 1909 he launches the first airship, the Zodiac 1, expanding the company's activities into the construction of airplanes, monoplanes, biplanes and seaplanes. This explains the company's original logo, a plane that crossed the zodiac. A few years later, Zodiac surprised its competitors with another innovation.

It was in 1937, just before World War II, when engineer Pierre Debroutelle became the inventor of the first inflatable boat and Zodiac conquered another element of nature. Initially aimed at military use, the inflatable became popular as a life-saving device when in 1952 Alain Bombard ventured across the Atlantic in a Zodiac Mark III, proving that this type of boat was the only one capable of offering complete safety.

From then on, the company has gradually grown into a world-class giant of its kind. However, like the living cell that it was, it never stopped scouting the path of the future.

Based on a policy of modernisation and continuous improvement, in 1973 it changed management, acquired new blood and set out on an expansionary strategy, establishing subsidiaries around the world. Thus, after America and Spain, in 1977 Zodiac Hellas, a subsidiary of the company of the same name, was founded in Greece.