Miller Magazine Issue 110 / February 2019

69 INTERVIEW MILLER / FEBRUARY 2019 Eksim Investment Holding was founded in Istanbul in 1986 as a foreign trade company. It achieved to be one of the biggest players in this sector in a short period of time, thanks to its flour, wheat, barley, oat, soy bean, sunflower seed and maize trading operations. Eksim invested in Turkey and abroad in order to build flour, soybean, bran and feed production and storage facilities. It has become a company that is active in the whole supply chain of flour industry: From producing staples to marketing for the end user. Serdar Ayçiçek, the Production and Quality Director of the company gave an interview to the Miller Magazine. His company is among the top groups that come to mind when you talk about Turkish flour industry. Altınapa Milling and Sinangil are among pioneering brands which this Eksim In- vestment Holding have created. Here are the answers of the Production and Quality Di- rector of Eksun Food, Altınapa Milling and Sinangil to our questions: Mr. Ayçiçek. Would you please give us some details about Eksun Food and other brands of your company? Eksun Food was established in 1995 in Muratlı/Tekirdağ. It has a monthly crushing capacity of 21,750 tons, a well-or- ganized distribution network and a wheat storage capacity of 40 thousand tons. Eksun has one of the largest and most modern production facilities in its region. It has a big share in wheat flour production industry and also an important share in retail sector for grain flour, whole wheat flour and brown bread flour. Eksun Food employs a significant num- ber of food and agriculture engineers. Thanks to its high quality standards and after sales support, Eksun achieved a high level of customer satisfaction and it continues to follow the highest health and safety standards in flour production. Sinangil has become an important flour brand since it was created in 1963. Sinangil was added to Eksun Food brands in 2004. Sinangil also was the first brand that offered pac- kaged flour in Turkey in 1970. Altınapa Milling was the first flour factory producing high quality flour in 1950. Altınapa became an Eksim In- vestment Holding in 2001. Altınapa has a monthly wheat crushing capacity of 19,500 tons and storage capacity of 35,000 tons. Altınapa also has silos with a total capacity of 4,000 tons. Advanced production technology, special whe- at types, and continuous after-sales support are the basis of quality standards and brand strength of the company. All products have quality certificates as halal certificates from Turkish Standards Institution and GIMDES. Let’s talk about the technology you utilize at your production facilities... Our Konya facility utilizes Bühler machinery from top to bottom. Our factory in Tekirdağ-Muratlı has a line with Bühler machinery which was built in 2000. The other line that was renewed in 2015 was built by a domestically ow- ned firm called Yükseliş. When we built the line in 2000, it was one of the first fully automated flour mills in Turkey. Our renewed line also was founded with cutting edge te- chnology. Sinangil, first packaged flour brand of Turkey, is also among your brands. We would like to know about R&D and innovation efforts performed by Sinangil, its product range, quality and market penetration… Sinangil flour was first produced in 1963 and it was the first brand offering packaged flour in 1970. Sinangil always prioritized quality and safety of its products. Therefore, Sinangil has always been a reliable brand for generations. According to a 2006 survey, Sinangil was the most well- known brand in flour industry. Sinangil has various products within ‘multi-purpose’ flour category such as flour types for baklawa, bourek and cakes. Sinangil produces special types of flours in order to make it possible to have desired dough textures for specific end products. As Sinangil is the leader brand of this sector, it also carries global and European trends to Turkey. For example, various bread mixes enable customers to cook their own breads at home with traditional methods or bread machines. Whole wheat flour, rye flour, village bread flour, bread flour with different cereals, bran bread flour as well as bran flour mixes for making bran cakes or cookies are all available now. We also offer traditional products like semolina, rice flour, rice starch, corn flour, corn starch, wheat bran, and wheat germ. We also sell products for pastry sector and flour im- provers. We produce instant deserts like profiterole and tartlet.