İpek Kağıt is a 50:50 joint venture between the Eczacıbaşı Group, a pioneer of products that promote modern, high quality and healthy living in Turkey, and Georgia Pacific, one of the world’s largest tissue paper producers. It was established by the Eczacıbaşı Group in 1969 to produce tissue paper products and promote their usage as an essential component of modern and healthy living. With the inauguration of Turkey’s first modern tissue paper plant a year later, İpek Kağıt initiated its long tradition of producing high quality and innovative products, this way securing its clear leadership in the Turkish tissue paper market. Since its establishment, İpek Kağıt has been the clear market leader in Turkey and continues to maintain its leadership.
İpek Kağıt primarily manufactures toilet rolls, napkins, handkerchiefs, kitchen towels and facial tissues for home and commercial use. Its plant in Yalova, 150 kilometers east of Istanbul, ranks among the leading production sites in Europe in terms of capacity, technological infrastructure and quality.
İpek Kağıt has four main consumer brands, namely Selpak, Solo, Silen, and Servis – one for each segment of the market. It also has private label brands and two away-from-home brands, Marathon and Lotus Professional.
Different brands in each market enable İpek Kağıt to target consumers from diverse socio-economic segments. Selpak is its flagship brand at the high end of the market whereas Solo is positioned as a value-for-money brand in the standard segment. For economy-focused consumers Silen in the toilet roll category, Servis in the napkin category offer acceptable quality at a low price.
Growing International Activity Towards Creating Global Brands
Besides being the foremost supplier of tissue paper products to the Turkish market İpek Kağıt is a major exporter of semi-finished and finished products to European, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Caucasian markets. Within the last three years, İpek Kağıt exported its products to more than 30 countries on three continents.
İpek Kağıt’s long-term goal is to become the market leader in the Caucasus and Central Asia through a “Geographical Expansion Project”. In 2005, in line with this goal, İpek Kağıt began to undertake marketing activities in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan as a first step towards globalizing its brands. First, it launched toilet paper, towel and handkerchief advertisements in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan to increase consumer awareness of the Selpak brand in these countries. Then, it established İpek Kağıt Kazakhstan in January 2006, thereby paving the way to becoming the leader in the Central Asian tissue paper market. İpek Kağıt’s investment in Almaty, Kazakhstan, enables İpek Kağıt to move from being an exporter to international markets to that of a direct, local competitor of global brands.
In November 2007, İpek Kağıt’s Selpak and Solo brands were admitted to the Turquality Support Program, a state-supported branding program that aims to “create 10 global brands in 10 years”. Turquality offers managerial training, consultancy and coaching to the Turkish companies that have the potential to become global players.
Continuous Marketing Support and Product Development
İpek Kağıt supports its brands with continuous and consistent advertising to sustain its leadership position and encourage greater tissue paper consumption. İpek Kağıt differentiates its brands by surpassing the standards in each segment of the Turkish market and introducing new products.
Product development is a fundamental strength of İpek Kağıt, thanks to continuous investments in new converting technology, a skilled research and development team and close collaboration with its international partner. Looking ahead, İpek Kağıt is committed to passing on innovations in the global tissue paper market to consumers in Turkey and neighboring regions.
Examples of this approach are the Selpak Sensitive Hanky, Turkey’s first hanky with vitamin E-based lotion embedded in the tissue that soothes sore noses from frequent wiping even during the heaviest cold; Selpak Compact Hanky, the first pocket-sized hanky in Turkey; Selpak facial tissue with double sided opening, the first and only box tissue in Turkey designed for car usage with an opening on the side as well as on the top; Selpak Powder Scented Bathroom Tissue with a sweet-smelling powder perfume and a pink flower design; Solo Super, a super absorbent napkin developed for the oily Turkish dishes; the Solo Pull-Up Napkin and Towel, the first and only pull-up dispensers for the consumer market which stand out with their “practicality” within their competitors; enMotion, Turkey’s first automatic towel dispenser and SmartOne, the most hygienic toilet roll system in Turkey.
Responsible Business Practices
Leadership has brought challenges and responsibilities. For over three decades, İpek Kağıt has been at the forefront of campaigns to raise consumer awareness of the hygienic benefits of tissue paper products through seminars, advertisements and the distribution of product samples. Since 2002, it carries out personal hygiene courses under the Solo brand for 5.5 million primary school students at 7.000 elementary schools in 42 cities around Turkey. In 2006, in recognition of the contribution made by the “Solo Primary School Personal Hygiene Education Project” to the UN Millennium Goals, İpek Kağıt received the prestigious World Business Award organized jointly by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF).
İpek Kağıt has also led the sector in quality assurance. It was the first tissue paper manufacturer in Turkey to receive ISO 9002 certification (ISO 9001:2000 since 2003) and to become a member of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). It is the only company in its sector to receive the national TÜSİAD-KalDer Quality Prize presented jointly by the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association and the National Quality Association.
Committed to eliminating all unsafe conditions and behavior that cause accidents at the workplace, İpek Kağıt has also received several Georgia-Pacific Safety Awards.
Last but not least, İpek Kağıt has been selected as the most appreciated company of the Turkish tissue paper sector by the pre-eminent business magazine in Turkey, Capital and a well-known HR corporation, Adecco.
