Identifying themselves with the motto “We are ancestral ayran maker, yoghurt maker and dairymen” and discovering the value of milk made by yoruks at the clean and healthy atmosphere of Taurus Mountains years ago, Yörükoğlu has been offering the tastes made from these milks to the consumers for 42 years.
Ali Bulut, Chairman of the board of Yörükoğlu Dairy Products, details their success story in the sector for our readers in our interview:
Let’s listen the long experience of Yörükoğlu in brief from you.
Our ‘Yoghurt and Ayran’ adventure, which would be handmade by our mothers years before, started by our deceased grandpa Ali Yörükoğlu by selling ‘Yoghurt and Ayran’ on his barrow. Followed by my father Ziya Bulut, my uncle Mehmet Yörükoğlu and my elder brother Cihan Bulut as the second generation by developing production facilities more, and ended up with investing in technology thereby handing down to us as the third generation to build up Yörükoğlu brand under the developed conditions of our time to offer the most quality products in Turkey as well as in international markets. Following every stage of production and managing the personnel strictly, our Factory Manager Erdinç Yörükoğlu, who is my cousin, has been supplying the products with him team to our customers successfully. I have been personally attending all leading food fairs in the world and treating our customers with the best way. What’s important for us is to offer the products which ‘our customers’ demand. So, integrated with our R&D and production departments we have been developing our products and share with them.
How is the image of Yörükoğlu at the consideration of the consumer?
In Antalya, every dining table has Yörükoğlu brand. We are a brand that the consumers love as they homemade products. In addition, Antalya is the tourism pearl of Turkey as you know. We are admired by world tourism with our blue flag coasts and ultra luxury hotels. Millions of tourists coming to Antalya every year enjoy their breakfast with our cheese variety and butter. They drink our ayran with the kebabs they eat. In general the tourists who taste our products, reach us and want to know the points which they can reach our products in their countries.
How do you manage your foreign market structure? Which countries will be on your agenda in the near future?
Our export activities mainly dominate in Middle East, Gulf countries and North Africa for 8-9 years. We have exports to 17 countries. You can find our product variety in neighboring Iraq, in Mauritania of West Africa, in Qatar in the Gulf.
Our foreign structure would function through the importers we supplied until two years ago. We started to work directly with the ‘market chains’ two years ago. Currently we have been strengthening our position in the countries we exist and we have been projecting to develop new markets as well. We have concentrated to develop markets in EU countries, China and Russia. We are about to complete our “Dairy Products” export documents. So, we are anxiously waiting to be on the tables of the Turks living in Europe. As soon as we complete our EU certificates, our target will be Russia and China. As you see we are always in new excitements with a pleasure of fulfilling our responsibilities.
Is there a new product you are planning to add on your product range?
There always exist new and different tastes that we don’t have in our portfolio in the countries which we penetrate. As an example, the flavor of Yorükoğlu still lingers of those who taste once. But since the shelf life of fresh ayran is not lasting as much as to go to far regions, we started to produce UHT Ayran which has 6 months of shelf life. It is a products which is especially loved in North African and Middle Eastern countries. With the same token, we are producing cream for breakfast which has a shelf life of six months on our UHT line. By using different varieties and herb in our cheese varieties in line with the suggestions offered by our customers such as cheese with black sesame. We care for producing our products from natural milk with the most plain methods ‘special to Yoruks”, which is the main reason why our customers prefer us. Especially the inhabitants of Antalya and its surroundings, everybody buy our products comfortably as if they were made in the homes of their moms. We are certainly very lucky and proud by having such a loyal customer mass.
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