TWM interviews Parteks Paper Industry general manager Fatih Çapar
TWM/1: What tissue markets do you operate in?
Fatih Çapar: “Established in 1996, Parteks Paper Industry is a fully integrated manufacturer of virgin pulp parent reels, consumer tissue and AfH tissue together with corrugated
cardboard and paper board production. Our plant is located in Kayseri, the Central Anatolian Region. Our plant covers an area of 150.000 square metres. Parteks has a high-tech machine park. We have two tissue mills which manufacture 45,000 tonnes of tissue per year. Our converting facility is close by the plant and we convert 12,000 tonnes per year. Sofa, Purpy and Senta are well-known tissue brands produced by Parteks. We also have one board paper mill and two corrugated cardboard lines. We manufacture 50,000 tonnes of corrugated cardboard per year.”
TWM/2: How are the tissue sectors developing in Turkey?
Çapar: “At Parteks, we are equally concentrated on consumer, private label and AfH products. Although the consumption per capita is still very low, there is a great potential for the future. For instance, the consumption per capita is around 5,9 kgs, but the average growth rate of the market is around 7,9% in the lastthree years. This is the result of fast economic development. According to The World Bank, Turkish GDP per capita has raised from USD$3,660 to USD$10,714 between 2002-2017, so there is a long way to go for Turkish tissue manufacturers. As the GDP per capita raises, Turkish people are beginning to spend more time outside the home. As a result, AfH and private label products are getting more share in the total consumption.”
TWM/3: You started up a Toscotec line in 2014, what was the reason for this investment?
Çapar: “We focus on adding-value to our brand name and products. Additionally, Toscotec is one of the market leaders for tissue machines. Besides, they are a family company with high levels of professionalism, performance and ethics. Consequently, we decided to cooperate with them. We are quite satisfied with this cooperation. Our Toscotec line produces 100% pure pulp high quality facial, toilet, napkin and towel grades.”
TWM/4: What are your growth plans for the near future?
Çapar: “Parteks has a huge investment process in the last four years. We have an investment plan in a new tissue mill and AfH converting lines. We are also conducting a feasibility analysis in order to invest in a new tissue mill in Western Europe.”
TWM/5: How is the Turkish economy impacting the local tissue market?
Çapar: “The Turkish economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the Turkish tissue industry is not an exception. Turkey is the second main exporter of tissue in Europe. As a result of its geographical location, Turkey is becoming the tissue capital of the Middle East and Europe.”
TWM/6: Do you export and what are your future export plans?
Çapar: “We deliver paper all around the world. Our main export markets are the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe and Africa. We export tissue parent reels, tissue converted products and corrugated cardboards like pizza boxes. We are doing feasibility studies to export to new regions.”
TWM/7: Do you produce many environmentally friendly products? Is there much demand for that in Turkey?
Çapar: “We are an environmentally-friendly company. We are focused on reduced energy consumptions, recovery and reusage of the process water, low emissions (noise and pollutants) as well as on green energy adoption with the application of a Steel Yankee dryer technology. All of our products are FSCcertificated. “On the other hand, we recycle 50,000 tonnes of waste paper in our board production. We have partnerships with local universities and schools.
“There is an increasing awareness of environmental issues in Turkey and the demand for these types of products is raising day by day.”
TWM/8: What are the key opportunities for you in the Turkish market?
Çapar: “We are located in Kayseri, which is in the middle of Turkey and very near to middle eastern boards and international ports. Consequently, we have a wide range of customers, to whom we need to supply wide range of products.
“Our wide range of products keeps our customers one step ahead of the competitors.
“Our main goal is to supply optimum quality products with competitive prices. As a family company, we acknowledge the values of quality, customer care, flexibility, and tradition.”
TWM/9: And the key challenges?
Çapar: “Of course there are many challenges in Turkey, as it is in the rest of the world. The main problem is the unstable raw material prices, which occur roughly once every ten years. On the other hand, there has been some devaluation of Turkish lira for a couple of months. It forces Turkish tissue manufacturers to rearrange payment terms and prices. But there is a Turkish proverb that says “there is no rose without a thorn”. We love paper so we need to compete with challenges when we need to.”