Edible oils are an important part of the delicacy and quality of foods we consume and enjoy. All human beings eat them in one way or another at almost every meal. It is even more so in the Mediterranean culture. There are some leading oil brands offering excellent tastes adding delicacy to the foods. SUNKOY edible oils brand is one of these professional brands working in accordance with international standards in all production processes. The company continues its activities with the mission of profitable and sustainable growth by offering innovative products to consumers with its brand, primarily in foreign markets. All phases of the production are strictly controlled until they are bottled. The product range of the brand consists of sunflower oil, corn oil, canola oil, herbal blend oil and olive oil. Sunkoy has a respectful place in foreign markets. We asked the details of their success to Mikail Cosar, CEO of the company.
Let’s start with your product range. What does your product category include and where do you source them?
Our product range includes sunflower, canola and corn oils and so on… They are gathered and processed from the harvesters in a specific time of the year in Turkey. However, we also import if needed. It especially depends on the supply and demand equilibrium of the domestic market. We get them and then we process them in our facilities to present to the appreciation of the consumers.
Our oils under our brand SUNKOY, or as private label basis are obtained in two ways. Domestically, we have sunflower oils from Marmara and Black Sea regions where sunflower seeds are densely grown, corn oils from especially Black Sea and Anatolian region. Canola oil from Mediterranean and Aegean regions. Olive oils are gathered and processed from the harvest of olive trees located in the Aegean Region. At this point, it is important for all countries to meet domestic market’s needs. Consequently, as we take our production capacity size in consideration, we do not only get seeds from domestic suppliers but also from other countries to keep up our production line and to enter targeted-markets and meet the potential countries’ demands.
The unfortunate war broke out between Russia and Ukraine affected all industries. To what extend has it influenced your business?
The war has certainly affected our production plans and supply chain. However, it is obvious that the problem has been recovered substantially throughout the markets all over the world. I do not agree with the idea of shortage in the markets caused by war. To my opinion, the main reason why we can’t find oil varieties in the market is because intermediary companies are holding products in their warehouses purposely as they wanted to increase price per unit in the markets. I, on behalf of my company, can say that we do promise to meet any order quantity and any demands as we trust our production line. As I indicated above, we do not have any supply problems at the moment. I can confirm that we are at the capacity of meeting any size of order quantity.
What superiorities do Sunkoy Oils have over other alternatives?
We care about consumers’ experiences. We research consumer behaviors of the markets we aim to enter. In this way, we can offer the desired quality, naturalness and tasty products to our customers. The most distinguishable differences of our products are thickness, color and the zest!
How is it different from what we see on supermarket shelves today?
The most important part we pay attention is to enable consumers to reach the most quality products with reasonable prices! Therefore, we trust that our products are competitive when it comes to the balance of quality and price.
How different are your products from other oils in terms of nutritional value?
Let’s take sunflower oil as an example. It has a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acid. In addition, it has monounsaturated fatty acid and saturated fatty acid. It has not only Omega-6 and Omega-9 fatty acids but also a rich source of Vitamin A, D, E and K. Specifically Vitamin E property is higher than any other edible oil kind. We present our sunflower oils which are very light and rich in vitamins to our customers’ appreciation. I don’t find comparing our oils with other brands appropriate. However, I can assure that our oils are a rich source of vitamins and very nutritious. That makes them among the ones which are the best quality!
Do you have plans to develop your worldwide network? What strategies are already underway?
Our market is already very saturated with oils. It is not enough only if you have quality products as you want to take place in the markets all over the World. What we do is to establish a solid network in the target markets and collaboration with distributors. From the consumer’s point of view, we have to build a demanding perception for our products. With this aim, we do marketing on traditional and digital platforms to take step forward among our competitors. I do not doubt that we are going to be one of the most demanded brands all over the World in the near future.
What are the growth targets for the Sunkoy oils?
Percentage growth monthly, annually, for 2023? For the first half of the year, Turkish edible oil exports reached 1.7 billion USD. It is predicted to be the same for the upcoming half of the year. Parallel to these statistics and the agreements that we do with our collaborators’ we aim to get up to %3 to %5 share on the overall export stats for this year. For 2023, we plan to get up to %5 to 10 shares overall.
Would you like to mention any feedbacks from consumers and any communication with them?
The vital part is gaining customer’s trust and being able to sustain the quality. We care generating powerful brand perception by gaining our customers’ trust. Thanks to that, we receive good feedbacks and order demands from many counties. In the aim of reaching to the end-users, we use different communication instruments such as television, radio, social media advertisements and so on… However, there is another way of reaching the end-users as well! That is creating a solid network with the distributors on the targeted market. We are glad to see that we started to establish the implements mentioned above. On the other hand, our edible oils have become preferable products in restaurants, hotels, etc. This is to say, we do not only focus on end-users but also B2B trades! Especially food serving in the restaurants and hotels is significant measurement scale for their guest to evaluate their service. Therefore, they would like to offer the most delicious plates to their customers to earn their loyalty. In this way, oil quality affects the taste of the food. We trust our oils quality that make foods taste better!
Finally, we would like to hear about your R&D studies.
SUNKOY is mainly focused on the international market rather than domestic. Therefore, our R&D research comply with international standards to meet demands of our collaborators from different countries. We can say that this process has lasted for 1 years and is still going on as our distributors and importers’ needs evolve each day. Lab studies are carried out to create suitable formulations for different tastes in different markets as we keep doing research and studies intensely to preserve quality assurance for our current product portfolio. SUNKOY proceeds with the mission of making a difference in the industry by developing brand-new products corresponding to sectoral tendencies and customers’ demands beside R&D studies on existing products in its portfolio. It aims to meet the customer’s needs as it offers the most effective solutions and wide-range product portfolio. Extensive R&D research consists of raw material and last product microbiological controls, fat and moisture determination, pH determination, brix, ash, salt determination and product quality assurance. Predetermination of shelf life has been held by shelf-life testing equipment and product recipe is prepared accordingly to designate accurate packaging properties. On the other hand, all products are tested according to the consumer’s point of view in the professionally equipped kitchen with the experts. Based on our principles, we adopt practical delicacies that would ease the lives of consumers and continue production that comply with Turkish Food Codex and country regulations.
