İpek Kağıt, a subsidiary of Eczacıbaşı Holding, opened two state-of-the-art factories, one in the Manisa Industrial Park and the other in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, with a total investment of 300 million TL.
Manisa Governor Erdoğan Bektaş, Manisa Industrial Park Chairman Sait Cemal Türek, Manisa Yunusemre Mayor Mehmet Çerçi, Eczacıbaşı Holding Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Eczacıbaşı Holding Vice Chairman Faruk Eczacıbaşı and Eczacıbaşı Group CEO Erdal Karamercan and Eczacıbaşı Group senior executives and employees attended the meeting.
Eczacıbaşı Holding Chairman of the Board Bülent Eczacıbaşı announced that they will increase their production capacity by 65 percent with two new investments and bladder pad production will be made for the first time in Turkey. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Bülent Eczacıbaşı said that they are happy to realize two new investments. Stating that they stepped into the sector at a time when tissue paper was unknown, Eczacıbaşı said that they grew up with an understanding of continuous innovation. Emphasizing that they aim to become a regional power, Eczacıbaşı noted that in addition to the factory in Manisa, they also opened at the same time in the city of Astana in Kyrgyzstan, which is 4 thousand kilometers away. Stating that İpek Kağıt will increase its production capacity by 65% with new investments, Eczacıbaşı said, “Ipek Kağıt has been making us proud as the pioneer and leader of the tissue paper industry with its products that add value to the lives of consumers with its understanding of continuous innovation since the day it was founded. We are further strengthening İpek Kağıt’s quality, technology and innovation with our facilities in Manisa and Kazakhstan, which are 4,000 kilometers away from each other, that we opened at the same time today.”
İpek Kağıt General Manager Sertaç Nişli stated that they took the leap with the aim of becoming a regional power in 2012 and said, “We achieved a very rapid growth momentum in this period, while maintaining our leadership in the tissue paper market in Turkey, we increased our exports to more than 60 countries in five continents. In 5 years, we aim to double our total domestic and international turnover while growing four times abroad with the same acceleration.” Nişli said they are focusing on new markets. Providing technical information about the new paper production facility, Nişli said, “The facility investment in Manisa, where the latest and advanced technologies are used, was completed in 20 months. The new paper machine, which constitutes the most important part of this investment, increased its paper production capacity by 65 percent with a width of 5.60 meters and a speed of 2,200 m/min. With the addition of the new facility, which produces over 3,000 kilometers of paper per day, İpek Kağıt’s total annual production capacity has increased from 110,000 tons to 180,000 tons.”
MIP Chairman of the Board Sait Türek said, “It is seen that İpek Kağıt has built an environmentally friendly facility by using the latest technology in its new facility of 24.000 m2. We would like to see more environmentally sensitive companies that take part in social responsibility projects in our Region. Eczacıbaşı Group is among our exemplary companies in our country with its social responsibility projects. For this reason, I congratulate the Eczacıbaşı Group with all my heart.”
Manisa Governor Erdoğan Bektaş also said that Manisa is a very suitable city for investment. Governor Bektaş said, “We will realize two important investments of one of the important industrial establishments of our country in distant geographies but in spiritually integrated geographies. In fact, Manisa is the right address for investment. Maybe an address that will be mentioned more in the future. It is a center of attraction for serious investments. We have problems arising from the multitude of investments. We need to carry out various studies in order to put the investments in a certain line with a certain strategy and to meet the needs of our investors in a healthy way. In this context, we continue to work in the field professionally in order to contribute to the future of our industry as a whole.”
Simultaneously, the factories in Kazakhstan and Manisa were opened.
