"Youth Energy"

10.10.2016

Forbes Magazine, Eren Günhan Ulusoy

 

Taking over the management of the family company Ulusoy Un 13 years ago at the age of 23, Eren Günhan Ulusoy succeeded in increasing the turnover of the company from 50 million TL to 1 billion TL. His target in the next decade is to create the biggest the agro-industrial company in Turkey.

When Eren Günhan Ulusoy graduated from the Boğaziçi University’s Department of Business Administration in 2003, he had not devised any plan to take over the management of the family company. He was intent to go abroad for his master’s degree education and wished to continue his educational life for at least a few years. However, there was another scenario awaiting him: the industrialist father was dreaming of his son who was studying business administration to take over the company and grow it… The events turned out the way he wanted. At the request of his father Fahrettin Ulusoy, Eren Günhan Ulusoy took over the family company. This heralded a process that would take the turnover of the 15-year regional family company from 50 million TL to over 1 billion TL.        

This year is a cornerstone for Ulusoy Un. The family transcended a hurdle by purchasing a factory in Çorlu, Tekirdağ. Eren Günhan Ulusoy states that they would sell 25% of their production to the Marmara Region. In addition, 20% of the wheat was being purchased from the Thrace. The factory with a daily capacity of 400 tons remarkably reduces the logistical costs of the company. However, the real impact is on the export side. Being able to carry out the shipments over the Ambarlı Port, the Ulusoy Company has started a speedy export initiative extending to the Africa, Middle East and Far East Asia.    

The export period that lasted for a few years aroused a new business idea in Eren Günhan Ulusoy. Ensuring the growth of the company by increasing the turnover of the company with the launch of the wheat export in 2007, Ulusoy states that “while exporting wheat to the Far East countries, we saw that they were importing all the wheat they needed from India and Australia”. For this reason, he created a significant alternative in the region by marketing the Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish wheat.      

Privatization of the Samsun Port in 2010 has been one of the reasons booming the trade volume of Ulusoy Un. The reason was that the Ceynak Group that was awarded he bidding opened a container line in Samsun with a 50 million investment. Ulusoy states that “If the container port had not been opened here, we would have built the factory in Çorlu instead of Samsun”.

While developing the institutional structure of the company growing fast, Eren Günhan Ulusoy understood that he would be appreciated if the company were traded on the stock market. The initial public offering process developed faster than he previously thought. 27% (this rate decreased to 23% with the repurchase) of Ulusoy Un started to be traded on the stock market in November 2014 during the “Initial Public Offering Campaign” launched in 2011 by the İstanbul Stock Exchange, CMB and the Union of Chambers and Commodity.   

The Ulusoy Un brand is not a well-known brand among the consumers because they sell most of their production to the institutional companies manufacturing bread and biscuit. Its engaging in retail may enhance the profit margin of the company but Eren Günhan Ulusoy is of the belief that there is still time for that to happen because there is a new field of activity being prioritized by the Ulusoy: licensed storage. Stating that they would grow in the business of licensed storage, Ulusoy is continuing the construction of a storage with a capacity of 60 000 tons in Samsun and a storage with a capacity of 40 000 ton in Alaca/Çorum. Furthermore, they plan to invest in storage with 100 thousand ton capacity in Samsun, thus increasing the overall capacity to 200 thousand tons.       

Eren Günhan Ulusoy, just 36, proved himself by increasing the turnover of the company from 50 million TL to 1 billion TL in only 13 years. This success proves that the target of being the biggest agro-industrial company in Turkey is not a delusion.

You can read the full article in the October issue of Forbes Turkey.