Cagla Cikolata invests 35 million for cake production

 
 
Products of Cagla Chocolate firm will be exported to 70 countries. The company will export its new cake with the brand name of Volume. It is expected that Volume cakes will be very welcomed by the consumer. Umut Beyazpinar, chairman of the board of Cagla Cikolata informed about their new products and investments to grow more in the cake market.
 
First, we would like to hear from you about the story of your company.
The story began when three entrepreneurs, Miktad Beyazpinar, Temel Beyazpinar and Sener Albayrak, decided to produce flour based products in a small family business Kara Firin, established in 1978 in Kocaeli. Then it moved to its own building, a factory of 240 sqm. in Tutunciftlik, Izmit, in 1983, where packaged products are cooked. In 1994, cocolin and wafer production started in the factory.
 
You emphasize on exports. How was the start of exports? To which countries do you export your products?
Before that I would like to touch upon the cake exports of Turkey. A rising star in Turkey’s food exports, cake business is growing fast year after year. 567.5 million dollars worth of cakes were exported from Turkey in 2015, representing an increase of 9%. The cake market in Turkey is forecast about 100 thousand tons.
First exports of our company were to Slovakia in 1998. We targeted to be one of the top five companies amount the chocolate producer in Turkey. We produce 60 thousand tons of chocolate, wafer, hazelnut cream and cake annually. In our factories in Kocaeli and Hendek, we annually produce 20 thousand tons of chocolate, 10 thousand tons of wafers, 6 thousand tons of hazelnut cream and 18 thousand tons of cakes. We deliver our products to 70 countries under Volume and Truffino brand names.
 
What would you like to say about your recent investment?
Despite the recessions in Turkey and in the world we invested 35 million TL to expand our cake producing facility by getting supports of our business partners. We cooperated with leading experts and consultants in the industry in Turkey and in abroad. The studies that extended up to the packaging phase, we made attractive products.
 
Do you have any market or country that you targeted for the sales of cakes in the world?
Cake is a good complementary product for our present product portfolio. Cake has a huge market. There are brokers acting as buyers in the USA, they expressed their interest and intention to buy. Buyers in Irak constitute a great market for chocolate and cakes. It is hard to sell chocolate in African countries because of high temperature, however, cake may sell better in these countries. Cakes are more durable than chocolate, besides they are more affordable to buy than chocolate.
 
Natural materials and ingredients in food products are important for health reasons. What do you want to say in this regard?
We do not consume trans oils in the production of our products. Natural production is another point and a separate market segment. We have to invest more for the production natural products at larger volumes.
 
What are the percentage of cocoa and cocolin in the production of chocolate?
Chocolate and cocolin are two different segments. Cocolin addresses to cheaper segments and made of vegetable oil. Chocolate is made of cocoa oil. Since export markets demand more, half of our chocolate production is composed of cocolin products.
 
What do you want to say about the candy industry in Turkey?
It has two dimensions. One is domestic and the other is export markets. Domestic market is still a large market, though players in it may change. Turkish companies are not so active in export markets, because they have a good share in domestic market and spend their efforts more in Turkey. Some companies produce only for exports. We are exporting large portion of our production.
 
Do you have you any activity to get incentives from Turquality program of the government that supports exporters?
As one of the companies who believe in the marketing power in competition, we have prepared our application for Turquality program. We expect that formalities will be completed by 2017 to have Turquality certificate. This will improve our competitive power in export markets against global competitors.
 
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