Dear Toros Family,

 

Toros Tarım was founded in 1974, 36 years ago as the second biggest investment of Tekfen Group after the light bulb investment. One of the hottest items in company’s agenda when I started to work for Tekfen as a young chemical engineer was the establishment of the fertilizing factory. Fertilizer market was very attractive. However, we were uncertain about where the factory would be constructed, with whom and how. Besides, economy was not so stable. Global petrol crisis was proving to be difficult at times for the economy. North Cyprus Peace Operation had just ended; USA had been imposing the embargo. The foreign aid had ceased and Turkey was left all alone by itself. Foreign exchange was an issue then. There was no foreign exchange in the treasury of the government for us to provide 900.000 US Dollars that we hopelessly needed as loan. High inflation rates were melting away the capital needed to establish the factory. It was almost impossible to find iron and cement. Construction equipments could not be used because there was no fuel. Ceyhan factory was brought to life in 1981 as a result of great effort and devotion, under such difficult conditions.

 

It has been almost 30 years since those days. It is impossible to put into words the road we have come. Our production that started in Ceyhan is operational in three separate locations now, in Ceyhan, Mersin and Samsun. Our production capacity that was 330.000 tons in 1981 has gone up to six times and reached to 1.930 million tons. Our market share that was about 4% in the years we started the production is over 30% today and we have been the leader since 1986. This rate represents our very strong distribution network, dealer organization and infrastructure in the production of fertilizers.

 

Toros Tarım is not limited to just being the leader in the fertilizer market. During the first years of establishment, all the products were bought by Turkish Agricultural Equipment Institution. Now, we can reach even to the very far corners of Turkey, thanks to our more than 800 dealers. We carry the service to the fields of Turkish farmers through our regional office structure, storage facilities and dealers. In addition to standard fertilizers, we also offer special plant nutrition according to the requirements of the product and the soil. We prove our difference with the diversity of our products. We also guarantee high yield and fertility by supplying the farmers with high quality seeds and seedlings.

 

Our activities not related with agriculture are one of the elements that has made Toros brand name known internationally. The jetty we built for providing the fertilizer raw material needed for our plant is, now, one of the biggest seaports of Eastern Mediterranean. We are intending to improve our port activities and make it one of the biggest terminals of Turkey by realizing new investments.

 

All these are the achievements we did not even dare to dream during the days we put Ceyhan factory in operation. “If you do your job right, you can succeed” is the culture we grew up with in Tekfen. Instead of following short term adventures, we chose to grow slowly with determined steps. This approach of ours brought us where we are today which is a point that exceeds our dreams of those days. Therefore, we are insistent on our efforts to make the values we have gained by now as an inseparable part of our company culture. We are going on carrying the Toros brand to the top as the greatest and most respected institutions of Turkey, by making no concessions to the values such as fairness, honesty, transparency, justice, patience and eagerness to serve.

 

We can see that the point we have reached has been achieved by the collective efforts of each and every one of the great and hopeful family member, from the general manager to the worker, from the dealer in the field to the researcher in the laboratory; we embrace our achievements on common ground by moving from the truth that things increase in value when shared. We take pride in our success and determine our future plans likewise, as our mutual targets. We believe that we will reach greater targets by sustaining this cooperation and solidarity spirit. We succeeded in realizing our dreams in the last 30 years. Most probably, 30 years later, we will succeed projects which we are having difficulty in even dreaming today. We will succeed this in the future altogether as Toros family, just like we did in the past.

 

I would like to thank all the members of Toros family, for being a part of our mutual dreams today as well as in the past and send my respects to them.