İbrahim Erdemoğlu, who took Sasa from Sabancı Family and took it to the league of giants with its investments, increased the production capacity of the company four times in five years. The businessperson waiting for approval for the Yumurtalık investment says, "If my country is in question, the rest is diffusiveness."

Having bought Sasa, one of the well-established companies of Turkish industry, from Sabancı Holding five years ago, Erdemoğlu Holding has virtually recreated the neglected company from the ashes. Erdemoğlu family, which started a huge investment in the facility in Adana Seyhan, continues its investments without interruption. Erdemoğlu Holding Chairman İbrahim Erdemoğlu, who said, "In 5 years, we have quadrupled Sasa" is one of the people who think that the businessman has great responsibilities towards his country. Stating that they put all their bodies under the responsibility, not their hands, Erdemoğlu said, “In the global economic war, we have great duties. We have to invest, produce and create employment without thinking for a moment. If my country is in question, the rest is diffusiveness”. Continuing to invest $ 2.5 billion in total, the company is waiting for approval to establish a petrochemical plant. We talked about the investment plans with Erdemoğlu, who said "Cleanliness is next to the godliness" while we were taking the facilities established on an area of 1 million 450 thousand square meters, which resembles a giant construction site, to Sabah Newspaper.

WE HAVE NOT EVEN THINK FOR A MOMENT Despite those who say "no investment is made in this environment”, you continue your investments What is your source of motivation?
Yes, there are those who are standing and waiting, but we did not even stop a moment to think about it. Because we trust our country, state, and nation. Today we need more work and investment than any other time. When investing, our motivation is not to make money. For us, the rest is diffusiveness when it comes to our country. If our country and our state are strong, we are strong too. Individual strength does not go beyond deceiving ourselves.
 Especially the investments you make in Sasa attract attention ...
We have invested approximately 900 million dollars in Sasa so far. At the end of the investments, we quadrupled Sasa fin terms of capacity. We increased our annual production capacity from 350 thousand tons to 1 million 365 thousand tons. The investment we will make after today shall be 1.7 billion dollars. In other words, a total of 2.5 billion dollars will be invested in the company in three years. With these investments, we will reduce our foreign dependency in raw materials. Sasa is now Europe's largest company in polyester. In the world, we are third great after India and China. The company, which achieved a turnover of 2 billion 763 million TL last year, reached a turnover of 1 billion 863 million TL in the first six months of this year.
 What will be the contribution of the investment to the current account deficit?
The investments we have made so far, we decrease Turkey's current account deficit 500 million dollars a year. With the ongoing investments in the next three years, we will hit the current account deficit by approximately 1 billion dollars.
 What is the share of exports in total sales?
We make 33 percent of sales through exports. European countries still have the biggest share in foreign sales.
 How has the increase in capacity reflected on employment?
We are a group that cares about employment. Today, we are the biggest employer of Adana. When we first acquired it, 1,200 people were working in the company. Now this number has increased to 3,500 people. When we complete the 1.7-billion-dollar investment, the number of our employees will increase to 5,000- 5,500 people. The number of employees in our group exceeded 12,000.

MERINOS IS THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD Merinos Halı is one of the companies within Erdemoğlu Holding. The company, which is the world's largest production facility in area carpet production, exports a significant part of its production. Stating that they still have a 5 percent market share in the world area carpet production, İbrahim Erdemoğlu said, "Our goal is to increase this share to 7 percent in two years with the facility in Russia". The company, whose biggest market is European countries and America, is producing for companies such as the world retail giant American Walmart.

WE ARE READY FOR YUMURTALIK Surely your investments will not be limited to these?
Of course it won't ... Because we want to provide the Turkish industry a giant investment facility. We are planning to establish the facility on a total area of 11.5 million square meters including the port in Yumurtalık. We prepared the settlement plan, master plan and port project. We received the EIA report. We are waiting for approval from our President at the moment. With this project, Turkey will be Europe's biggest polyester and petrochemical manufacturer.  What will be the contribution of it to the current account deficit?
Yumurtalık investment is of great importance in the sense. If we find the opportunity to implement our project with the will of our President, we will prevent Turkey's annual $ 1.5 billion deficit. When we consider the export of the products produced here, the indirect contribution to the current account deficit corresponds to a huge figure of 12 to 15 billion dollars. Therefore, I attach great importance to this investment. We are ready...

OUR FOLK SONGS MAKE ME REST İbrahim Erdemoğlu, who said that he was in business life from a child age, started by selling rugs in Trabzon, where he went to business for university education. Stating that he worked day and night in the following years, Erdemoğlu said, "My biggest hobby is listening to folk songs. This is the only way I can rest. I listen to the folk songs of all regions very fondly. "I sang in the choir for a while,"

Sabah Newspaper

September 20, 2020