WASTE IS PRECIOUS FOR TURAN KAGIT A.S.

Through recycling plastic, aluminium foil, pitched and scrap papers, the company is making use of waste as well as creating new areas for the use of paper.

In terms of the paper and packaging sector, most of the lasting companies have a long history. Turan Kagit Ambalaj Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. is one of the long lasting companies in this sector. Turgut Turan, who had been in the paper sector since 1961, founded Turan Kagit A.S. in Eskisehir, moving a step forward towards institutionalization. Being a leading company in its sector, Turan Kagit A.S., has served throughout Turkiye with branches and distributers since its foundation, and finally in 1998 opened its Izmir branch in order to broaden its service in the Aegean region. Turan Kagit A.S. achieves to be in service of all kinds of sectors. "Each and every industrial and commercial company has to use paper and packaging materials in a way" says Turgut Turan, the founder and the president of the executive committee of Turan Kagit A.S. and adds: "It is important to use strong, high quality and good looking packaging materials to keep the products healthy, delay expiry date and to raise the sales of the products."


Minumum Influence of the Crisis

Companies working on the paper and the packaging materials are highly influenced by the change and development, the rise and increase of other sectors. Consequently, the economic crisis in 1998 inevitably influenced the paper sector.

Emphasizing that although 1998 was stagnant compared to the past years, Turan said that the crisis did not influence Turan Kagit A.S., because the company has a very wide variety of products and serves to a wide range of sectors. He stated that the year 1999 is coming with new hopes and expectations and Turan Kagit A.S. is developing new packaging materials for the coming years. With its great importance on research & development and new perspectives to packaging, the company pioneered to many innovations in its sector. Pressed boards, cornerpieces, decoration materials, furnitures and prefabricate elements produced from paper are some of the products on which Turan Kagit A.S. will concentrate on in 1999.

"Our company cares about the environmental pollution, which is one of the most important problems today. Just like in the past years, we continue to make use of the industrial trash like scrap papers and plastic, aluminium which are very hard to recycle. Therefore the company has no difficulties in terms of raw material and we make use of the trash while creating new areas for the use of paper. " states Turgut Turan. He expresses that especially the prefabricate elements and decoration materials produced from paper will arouse great interest in 2000's, although they are not yet known very well.


Plans for 1999

Chief Executive Officer Turgut Turan states that the Izmir Branch of the company will supply all paper and packaging materials needed by the exporters and companies that work in the agricultural and food industry in 1999, just like it did in 1998. Secil Turan, the director of the Izmir Branch, said:"Izmir Branch, which serves all of the sectors with its wide range of products, will increase its variety of the printing papers in 1999. Our aim in the coming year is to supply the best quality products with optimum prices and to offer alternative solutions to the changing packaging needs."


Problems of the Paper Sector in Turkiye

Turgut Turan emphasizes that the number of the companies that produce paper in Turkiye has been increasing rapidly in the recent years. As a result, there is not a shortage of paper in Turkiye and the conditions of competition which is important for the devlepoment of the sector are achieved. He states that the production of some kinds of paper with special areas of use (such as pergament paper) is not possible in Turkiye, or even if they are produced the quality of the paper is not as good as the imported ones (such as printing papers). High cost of the technology which could be brought from abroad, high interest rates of the bank credits are some of the reasons why the companies have difficulties in committing new investments.

"The improvement of the conditions of investment and the support of the state to the industrial institutions would assist the paper and packaging sector" says Turgut Turan, adding that: "Especially the development and increase in export in every field will influence our sector positively"

"Because of all the factors mentioned above", Turan explains, "observing the developments in all other sectors, trying to provide alternative solutions to the changing needs of the companies helps to improve the paper and packaging sector."

Turan states that they hope and expect that all the sectors in Turkiye will develop; the production and export in every field will increase and the state provides proper conditions for investment.