Miller Magazine Issue 110 / February 2019

70 INTERVIEW MILLER / FEBRUARY 2019 We also have functional product groups for people with metabolic intolerance like gluten-free flour, gluten-free plus, gluten-free flour with Buckwheat and low-protein starch mixes. We continue to conduct research and development stu- dies for new flour types. We are going to launch ready-ma- de mixes soon. We have a share of 18.2% in retail flour market in Turkey. In Marmara region, our share hits 31.7% and we are the sector leader. We penetrated into all chain markets selling branded products. Eksun Food also produ- ces private labeled products for most of the chain markets. What is the position of Sinangil Flours in the sector now? And what do you foresee for it in the future? We already have an important market share in retail sec- tor and our aim is to get more. We also want to expand our brand with new products. On the other hand, we need to increase our share in industrial flour market which is also a very large market. Our Tekirdağ based Eksun and Konya based Altınapa (ALPA) factories produces industrial-scale flour for making baklawa, bourek, phyllo, lavash and other bakery products, bread, toast, crumpet etc. We also have Atbazar brand es- pecially for making pittas in holy month of Ramadan and Atbazar also enjoys high demand during Ramadans. Do you have any preparations for frozen product market which has been growing rapidly? We supply flour for some of the industrial scale frozen food producers. But we only supply the raw material. We do not produce ready-to-eat food. If our company decides to produce ready-made food sector, we have technical te- ams to do all necessary feasibility analysis. How do you evaluate the sector you operate in? How will it evolve? We often see that the government intervenes in our se- ctor today. And this is a positive thing for Turkish flour in- dustry which has become the world leader for consecutive years. We hope to see that the government will continue to support this sector. In the future, we expect that small scale companies will disappear and larger and financially stron- ger companies will prevail. Therefore, the number of flour mill companies will decrease. We already see this trend. The number of mills continues to decrease while flour producti- on keeps the pace. Turkey is by far the biggest flour exporter in the world. And your company is among the biggest exporters in Turkey. How has Turkey shined out? Turkish flour has mostly been exported to the Africa for making various types of breads. So, diagrams of our facto- ries and wheat types we use are all shaped according to this phenomenon. As a result, we can meet their demands. And our prices are a bit lower than competitors can offer. The support of our government also plays an important role in this achievement. How do you differentiate yourself from your compe- titors? Kindly please give us figures about your produ- ction capacities and exports. We can summarize it as “Human resources and quality”. I think we show our difference at procurement decisions for wheat, sorting out the wheat, preparing quality plans for flour production in line with each one of the end products, production processes that all aspects of the food safety is fully observed and after-sales technical support provided 24/7 by our engineer teams for our customers. Our teams of food engineers conduct visits to each of the export markets in order to collect information about end products and manufacturing plants and they analyze pros- pective competitors. Quality maps are prepared for each of those destinations and production processes are arranged according to quality plans. If any concerns come up, this technical team on the ground can solve it immediately to help our customers. Our government has paved the way for the flour industry with export incentives and enabled us to be the global export leader for many consecutive years. Thanks to those incentives, our company has also realized significant export figures. We export 100 thousand tons of flour with a turno- ver of 35 million dollars in a year and we have a satisfying place among the flour exporters.