TURKEY IN A NUTSHELL

Turkey’s diverse agriculture production and strong trade links have drawn international agribusiness investors, particularly in the hazelnut industry.

our first iskender kebab restaurant in 1995 in Ankara. We did not expect it to eventually become a brand, but it became the cornerstone of our expansion. In 1995, there were only five or six shopping malls in Turkey, but hundreds opened over the following decades. Given these market conditions, we decided to turn our brand into a chain. At present, we have four main brands: HD İskender, HD Döner, Pidem, and Pideko. Pidem is a pide restaurant, which is one of the other classic Turkish dishes. Pidem opened in 2010, and at present we have 170 stores and will have over 200 stores by the end of 2019. We established Pideko as a competitor of Pidem to quash the competition before it can begin. We have over 270 restaurants across Turkey, and just 2% of them are franchises. We are the leader in the Turkish market, and we plan to have more 300 stores by the end of 2019. In 2018, we were in around 30 cities and in 2019, the figure grew to 50. In the food business, there are not many companies like us, because often, after opening five or six restaurants, companies start to franchise their brand. That often leads to a lack of control over the system, resulting in lower quality. That is one of the reasons we are so selective. Just in the pide business alone, there could easily be 2,000-3,000 stores in Turkey. There is great potential for growth.

MY FATHER OPENED

around 70% of Simit Sarayı’s revenue comes from abroad. Our goal is to increase that figure to 90%. We will do that by differentiating ourselves from the competition. All global brands produce in the countries where they sell; we do not think that model is necessary. In our Turkey and UK factories, we produce enough for 2,500 stores globally. This is one of our competitive advantages: to be completely self-sufficient from a production standpoint. We even complete the construction of facilities ourselves. Because of these capabilities, we have been able to reduce our costs by up to 10% compared to the cost of our first stores. We have approached 25 countries and have signed 220 contracts in 2019 thus far. We have signed agreements for 150 new franchises in Germany and aim to open them in five years. We are expanding in North Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The Middle East has always been strong for us, especially in the Gulf, and we now seek to open in Palestine and Israel. At present, East Asia excites us the most. Our growth in the UK is based in London, where we have 22 stores. Our target is to have 150 shops in London in five years. It is a different situation in the US—there is a large demand for franchises there. We are trying to figure out the system in the US, and we have come a long way.

AT PRESENT,

is sold to international consumers. Over half of the customers who come to our store are foreigners, and we send many products internationally by cargo. Our strongest presence is in Arab countries, and we are particularly interested in growing our presence in the GCC market. In particular, we have seen growth in Qatar, in part because the former Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani visited our store and encouraged us to expand into Qatar. This is followed by Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, and Bahrain. We also have a strong presence in the broader Arab world in Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. On top of this, we have many Greek and Russian customers. I have received numerous offers to open foreign branches, including partnership offers from across the Arab world. We are not interested because we follow a specific production process that is difficult to duplicate elsewhere. We do not want to forsake quality in the name of expansion. Our e-commerce channel is working actively, allowing people around the world to order our baklava. Moreover, our R&D department has recently made high-quality frozen baklava a possibility in Turkey. As of February, we will be producing baklava with a long shelf life using frozen dough technology and sending it to Qatar and Dubai.

CURRENTLY, 60% OF OUR PRODUCTION