Estuz aims to reach consumers in minimum 20 countries by the end of 2015 Having an entrepreneur structure for his whole life, Bahattin Özdemir started his trade life as an artisan in 1950s and continued with white goods and furniture retailing. Then, he noticed the gaps in the industry in Turkey and started industrialism and established Estuz in 1982. In the next periods, second and third generations took over the flag and brought the company to its position today. Serving as the Board Chairman of Estuz A.Ş. since 2003, Vedat Özdemir gave accelaration to branding process of Estuz. He increased the production capacity and variety. Company is one of the biggest manufactured salt producers of Turkey with a production capacity of 12.000 tons/year. Estuz brand is the most demanded brand of the industry. Özdemir aims to move Estuz’s success in the industrial field to retail as well.
“We became specialized in salt production for all branches of food industry”
The most clear and distinctive demand came from brine industry. The companies producing olive, cheese and pickle demanded sea salt from our company. Based on this demand, our facility started producing food industry salts from sea salt in Çiğli/İzmirin 2003.
We picked İzmir as our second production spot since Çamaltı Saltworks which is the source of raw salt is located in İzmir, agricultural industry enterprises are mostly located in Aegean Region and İzmir is a port city.
We included boiled salt in our product portfolio in 2008. We commissioned our third production facility with the investment made in Dazkırı/Afyonkarahisar. In this facility, we produce salts for retail industry and boiled and dried salt for different industries.
Can you please mention your production facilities and capacities?
Our first production facility was established in Eskişehir. The production capacity of Eskişehir facility which was far from source of raw material was decreased as of 2011 after establishing our facilities in Çiğli/İzmir and Dazkırı/Afyonkarahisar and boutique production model was started in Eskişehir. Nonetheless, Eskişehir facility continues its operation with a capacity of 1.500 tones/month.
Our second production facility, Çiğli/İzmir Sea Salt production facility has a production capacity of 5.000 tones/month. This facility produces salts for especially food and brine industry.
“Acıgöl closed basin has the most clean and natural sodium potential of our country”
I will first mention the geographical structure of the region where our third production facility is located. Acıgöl was operated as salt basin for long years during Ottoman Empire and it is a closed basin which has the most clean and natural sodium potential of our country.
The amount of raw salt produced in this basin is nearly 250.000 Tones/Year. Our Dazkırı facility, located in this basin, produces washed salt and raw salt and particularly boiled and dried salt.
Apart from refined salt capacity of 3.000 tones/month and dried salt capacity of 2.500 tones/month, this facility produces salts for food-forage-textile-chemistry-metallurgy industries. We also offer road salt for fighting against icing.
“Today, Estuz is among the biggest manufactured salt producers of Turkey”
Our company produces salt in 3 different regions with 3 different facilities. Estuz is among the biggest manufactured salt producers of our country with a production capacity of 12.000 tones/month.
“We will move our success in industrial field to retailing”
What is the share of Estuz in the industry?
Our industry is divided into two parts, industrial and retailing. We are the leader in industrial field with our services offered to the food industry. We aim to move Estuz’s success in the industrial field to retail as well. Our share in the retail industry in which we have been operating for the last 4 years is around 7%.
We continue our sales and marketing operations for rapidly increasing this share in the upcoming years. We have completed our dealer network in many cities.
Our products are offered to the consumers through National Chain Stores and Local Chain Stores such as MİGROS, CARREFOUR, KİPA, REAL etc.
Do you have any new investment in last one year?
We have had investments for increasing the capacity. We have started to replace the vertical filling machines used in the packaging line with more efficient machines. Besides, we have increased the capacity of our saltcellar filling line by purchasing rotary system salt-cellar filling machine.
“Estuz’s 2015 export target is 4 million dollars”
Can you inform us about your export? Will you expand into new markets?
There are salt producers in many countries because there are salt sources in many regions of the world. Although salt has a low value as a commodity, our company had an export of nearly USD 2.5 million in 2013. Becoming the export leader in salt market, Estuz was ranked the first among the salt exporters of our country according to data from Turkish Republic Undersecratariat of Foreign Trade. High added value table salt, products with salt-cellar and tablet salt varieties are among the products exported to 12 different countries.
“At least 20 countries of the world will meet Estuz”
The rich product groups and packaging variety to be introduced in the upcoming period will bring dynamism to our company. By this means, we aim to increase our market share in the domestic market and improve our brand value. On the other hand, we plan to reach international buyers in different geographies. European countries and Middle East countries have the potential market for our products in different price categories and different product groups. Our high added value product group will also eliminate the freight cost disadvantage which has been a serious challenge for us by now. While laying the foundation of these activities in the second half of 2014 in line with these objectives, our true attack will come in 2015. Thus, we plan to increase the number of countries to at least 20 by 2015 and we plan to raise our export from USD 2.5 million to USD 4 million. Moreover, we have started to work for Turquality certificate.
Is there any expo you attend?
We attend most of the national specialty exhibitions organized in Istanbul, Antalya, Bursa, Konya and Eskişehir with our stand and we have met both our customers and consumers. When we don’t attend, we follow them very closely. We have recently attended Interpack International Packaging Expo in Dusseldorf, Germany in May as visitor.
“We aim at 20% growth in 2014”
What about your turnover last year and turnover target this year?
Our turnover in 2013 was above TRL 20 Million. We aim at growing by 20% in 2014. “We will introduce brand-new products to the Consumer”
How was 2013 for Estuz and what is your expectation from 2014?
The sales volume in 2013 was quite well for both the domestic market and foreign market. This development increased our expectations from 2014. We will introduce brand new products to the consumer after the second half of 2014. We aim to increase our market share with a new brand, natural, healthy and gourmet product variety.
