Selpak, which was able to fit great investments, initiatives, innovations, progressive moves, visionary marketing efforts into its fifty years and has always managed to be Turkey's leading brand in its field, has been developed and grown by managers and employees who worked hard in its past and present. Selpak has turned into a global brand with its partnerships with the largest international organizations in its field and foreign investments. The brand, which introduced cleaning paper to Turkey, contributed to social awareness in the field of cleaning and health with its social responsibility projects. It has always been one of the brands that consumers favored.

Erdal Karamercan, Baki Gökçümen, and Sertaç Nişli, who all made great efforts in carrying the brand to today by serving as the general managers of Selpak, which has maintained its leadership position throughout its half-century history, provide inspiration for the future by telling the story of Selpak’s yesterday.

Erdal Karamercan said that since the first day of its launch, the marketing, promotion and support of Selpak to influence consumer habits are the most fundamental factors that have carried Selpak to this day. He also said that Selpak not only pioneered in terms of entering the market but also with its high quality, highlighting that this high-quality has been sustained. Karamercan stated that Selpak's greatest achievement is the fact that its product quality meets global standards, even exceeding those standards, and emphasized that this should be seen as the success of managers who prioritized this issue in Selpak's 50-year history.

Karamercan continued his words as follows: “Turkey has a very interesting toilet culture. The process of transforming that culture into a different one took a lot of effort. During my management, the manager of a very large international organization came to visit me one day. We were focusing on the quality of toilet paper. We were in an American partnership at the time. Our toilet paper was considered top quality in softness. But there was also an element of durability. ‘Why do you have durability, why are you producing such a solution?’ The manager of the international organization was trying to understand this. He thought about it and he said, ‘Could I see one of your toilets?’ He went and came back. He said, ‘Now I understand.’ Because he saw the bidet. The element he says ‘I understand now’ about is actually one of the most important elements of our toilet paper. It's easy to make just a soft toilet paper. You do it, it just falls apart in your hand. It must be durable for wet use. Also, when you flush, the toilet paper should melt as it enters the drainage system. This, of course, was a model unique to Turkey. Since we achieved this quality at Selpak, Selpak was able to rise to this point. It has become a generic brand in Turkey.”

“To adopt superior quality in everything we do is an Eczacıbaşı value.”

Stating that as Eczacıbaşı, they are a Group that has adopted the 'kaizen' model, which is the total quality management approach of the Japanese. Erdal Karamercan stated that the essence of this model is to build the steps on continuous development and improvement. Mentioning that they have adopted an integrative quality approach as a group, Karamercan explained that they received the TÜSİAD - KalDer Quality Award with İpek Kâğıt, the producer of Selpak, where he was the general manager at that time. Noting that other organizations of the Group also showed success by receiving this award, Karamercan added that Selpak's success is the result of continuous improvement, quality and process development efforts.

Saying that he became the general manager in 1987 and that he was the first to experience foreign partnership that was launched in 1988, Karamercan said the following words on the subject: “I see the foreign partnership as a kind of 'postgraduate education' in our papermaking process. Our partner had very large R&D institutions. Extensive research was being conducted there; we took advantage of that. We learned about the fundamentals of product development. Foreign partnership has been a process in which we have achieved great gains in terms of transferring those foundational aspects to ourselves and also in terms of management processes. These management habits still continue to this day. Foreign partnership has also changed our view of the world. Yes, maybe our emergence in certain regions was restricted, but we were able to see how marketing was done in those regions within the foreign partnership. These teachings have been of great help to us even after we left the foreign partnership. We learned to develop our own products and to follow the technology closely. We were able to have information about foreign markets. I see the contributions of the foreign partnership extremely positively.”

Noting that Selpak is a brand that was first introduced to the market for becoming a leader in the country and that it has been maintaining this leadership position for a long time, Karamercan said, “Of course, after reaching a certain stage, especially when we parted ways with our foreign partners and arrived at the point of making our own decisions, we could then expand abroad, which has become an important part of the strategy for us. I think there is a lot of potential to become a leading brand in our surrounding area. Because there is an environment in this surrounding geography where a top quality product can be positioned by Selpak. We are already in a period of time when Selpak is making a breakthrough in leadership in these markets. This requires very important marketing support, communication support, promotional support and, of course very importantly, distribution support. With these supports, Selpak will be a brand that plays for leadership in the surrounding countries it goes to.”

“Environmental sustainability was very important back in our time and continues to be critical.”

In his talk in which he relayed anecdotes from his career, Karamercan also touched upon the issue of environmental sustainability and emphasized that Selpak is a pioneer in this area as well. Emphasizing that they established waste water treatment facilities at a time when sufficient awareness was not the norm in Turkey and when the rules were not yet established, Karamercan said, “The factory had a fish tank and freshwater fish used to swim in the water we had treated. This is a very beautiful memory from my management period. Environmental sustainability is extremely important to us and still continues to be critical. In each of our facilities, our treatment systems continue to perform beyond regulations and expectations.”

Erdal Karamercan pointed out that the tissue paper industry has a very big potential and showed a very rapid development; he stated that they increased the annual usage per capita four times in about 20 years, but they still have not reached the level of half of Europe. Therefore, underscoring that there is still great potential for the future, Karamercan said, “We know that Selpak will maintain its leadership with its strategies, quality, distribution and communication superiority. It will maintain its leadership by making the best use of all these marketing factors. At the same time, the production of tissue paper will increase significantly in Turkey. I think that if we continue at this pace, we can be very close to the European averages in the next 10 years.”

Erdal Karamercan, also talked about Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı's visionary personality, saying, “He was a great visionary, an excellent entrepreneur. Mr. Nejat, when entering the hygienic paper business, saw that Turkey needed this. Atatürk had said when launching the first paper production of SEKA, ‘This is the dough of civilization. Mr. Nejat was very fascinated by this statement. Perhaps this is why he entered the sector of production of tissue paper. At that time, our colleagues in the marketing department said, ‘As long as you produce it, we will distribute it immediately and we will sell it.’ They had high hopes. Mr. Nejat immediately imported the best machines and realized the production with the best engineers. The initial production was around six thousand tons per year, but the product was not sold. There were no cultural habits around it. So the beginning of the venture was a bit of a disappointment. Then, of course, the business came to a very different point with promotional efforts and penetration studies. Mr. Nejat’s dream came true. If Mr. Nejat could see what we have accomplished today, he would have patted us on the back.”

Baki Gökçümen stated that they work hard to prepare the consumer for the use of cleaning tissue papers and that they are one of the biggest advertisers in Turkey. Saying that their main goal with this is to accustom the consumer to cleaning tissue papers, Gökçümen said that Selpak helped them a lot in this regard, because everyone recognizes the Selpak brand as “the best quality”. Gökçümen stated that not only the quality of Selpak product, but also the quality of Eczacıbaşı Group supports them in achieving this.

Gökçümen continued that in the pre-competition era, the quality would not have improved so much without Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı, he described those years with the following words: “Mr. Nejat used to give us orders, ‘Increase the quality,’ when there were no competitors. Mr. Nejat was this kind of person. Those who knew him know this, those who did not know have difficulty understanding this, especially in today’s circumstances. I will give an example: Mr. Nejat is the man who comes to the factory and asks, ‘Which treatment plant do you use?’ when there was no treatment plant in Turkey. That’s why İpek Kağıt is one of the factories that built the first real treatment plant in Turkey. I worked with the late Kriton Curi from Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Civil Engineering. He was such a wonderful person, we lost him at a young age. He told me, ‘The first treatment plant built in Turkey is in Ataköy. I don't know if it works or not, we can see it as a reference point, Baki.’ We went and the Ataköy administration said that they did not have such a facility. We looked at the blueprints and we saw that there is such a facility. In those years, Ataköy area was empty, we found the treatment plant abandoned among the trees, among the grass, rusted. Everyone should know that when those apartment buildings and gated communities were first built, a biological treatment plant was also built, but it did not have the opportunity to function even for a day. In 1981, with the participation of the ministers and governors of the time, we opened the treatment plant under the chairmanship of Mr. Nejat. That treatment plant still functions to this day.”

“We developed numerous products, because the team was great.”

Emphasizing that their staff is very compenent and that’s why they were able to develop many products, Gökçümen drew attention to the existence of managers who were educated abroad, were very well-trained and spoke two or three languages. Gökçümen said, “There is Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Erdal Karamercan, Osman Erer, We were working on a new product together, we were conducting research. In Turkey, there was very little information on ‘fast moving consumer goods’ in the 1970s and 1980s, but our team had a lot of knowledge. They would say that it is necessary to improve the product every year. Maybe that’s why they made me the general manager. I would contribute to product development.”

Saying that the product is advertised in every product development project, and that their advertising agencies are the most advanced agencies in Turkey, Gökçümen pointed out that the ads were filtered by Osman Erer and Erdal Karamercan and continued his words as follows: “These are the first and the oldest generation in ‘fast moving consumer goods.’ Everything passes through Bülent Eczacıbaşı’s last filter at the very end. Once approved, the advertisements would go on the air. Our broadcasts would be long. I was the only one who complained that it was too long. I used to think that 20-30 seconds of commercials, or even advertisements that just said 'Selpak, Selpak' would be enough instead of 50-60 seconds of commercials. Because when I went to the US, I never saw ads with long stories like ours.”

“May God grant everyone such success.”

Gökçümen stated that Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı founded the Referral and Administration Association with Vehbi Koç and that he attended quality management training there, and that Erdal Karamercan also went to Europe at this time and was trained in quality management. Explaining that they realized that contribution to society is as important as advertising in quality management, especially in fast moving consumer goods, Gökçümen said that they evaluated what they could do about hygiene in Turkey.

Stating that they decided to provide hygiene education in all primary schools and to distribute toilet paper to all students, starting with the villages in the far east of Turkey, Gökçümen conveyed the process as follows: “It was a project that was very expensive and that required a lot of effort, but it was also a time when İpek Kâğıt was at its strongest in terms of profit, productivity, quality, and promotion. We collaborated with the Hacettepe Faculty of Medicine. The teachers there trained the nurses about hygiene. Nurses taught hygiene in schools. We started with places furthest east: Kars, Hakkari, Van.

The United Nations had heard about us: There is this company in Turkey and it provides education on hygiene in primary schools and distributes free products. Moreover, they do this without a brand name. Because the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Education said, ‘You cannot use a brand for this training.’ We said that this was not a problem at all and we launched the program.

The United Nations gave us the ‘2006 International Private Sector Award.’ We all went to New York. Ambassador Nabi Şensoy from Washington and Kemal Derviş, Head of the United Nations Development Programme, welcomed us. We made a presentation at the United Nations Hall. All state representatives applauded us. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Chairperson of the Selection Committee, gave us the award. It was a tremendous success, may God grant everyone such success.”

“Investing is a great pleasure.”

Baki Gökçümen explained that they benefited greatly from their foreign partners in product development and R&D project and that they opened their production sites to them. He said “For this reason, I have witnessed all the stages that these products would go under in the future. Another benefit of the foreign partnership was that it provided the opportunity for benchmarking. So I reduced the costs. This work is thanks to team effort, thanks to both my senior and junior colleagues, we had the lowest cost when I retired.” he said.

In his talk, Gökçümen underlined that Selpak has great potential to become a global brand and said, “The reason is this: factories in Europe have been shutting down one by one since 2008, that is, since the global crisis. There are almost no paper factories left in France or the UK. They used to say this in our youth, ‘Europe left textile, Turkey took it over.’ Europe has stopped producing paper, we are taking over. This is why there is so much potential here.”

Explaining that his career, which started with product development engineering at Eczacıbaşı Cleaning Papers, continued as R&D chief, technical manager, factory manager, and then CEO for 10 years, Sertaç Nişli continued that while Eczacıbaşı’s leadership in the tissue paper industry continued for 32 years, they expanded the facilities producing the Selpak brand by 18 times with the investments made and that he was very happy and proud to have contributed to such large investments.

He said that the word innovation was not used in their daily life when he started working, but the word R&D was used often in the environment of Turkey that was quickly preparing for the European Community. Adding that the Selpak brand was the leader, and that it did not even have many competitors at that time, Nişli said, “Their facilities were producing and selling at full capacity. Considering that the Selpak brand is so successful, I remember many people saying, ‘What is the need for Eczacıbaşı Group to invest in R&D in tissue paper?’ I had heard the Eczacıbaşı family say in response: ‘We develop products there, if we cannot develop products, we develop people, we train managers.’ I can easily say that the years when our R&D activities were most productive were the first few years with the foreign partners.”

“We implemented more than 40 points of development.”

Expressing that he thinks foreign partnership for Eczacıbaşı Cleaning Papers was a very visionary venture, Nişli noted that a very valuable brand like Selpak should be together with the latest technologies and the best partner. Pointing out that the chosen partner, Georgia-Pacific, is the second largest producer in the world, Nişli continued his words as follows: “By establishing a 50-50 partnership system, a structure in which Turkish engineers were dominant in the management was established. In addition, this American firm had also established other partnerships in Europe. The Lotus brand with which it was a partner in France was a very high quality brand with a very high market share, a more or less similar structure to Selpak.

Therefore, for all these positive reasons, I find the establishment of the partnership very successful. I was the R&D chief at that time. I was given a task like this: ‘You will first go there and will stay and work for as long as you need in the facilities and the R&D center in France. They will help you.’ After that first long research visit, I remember, we implemented more than 40 points of development from material to product, from laboratory tests to devices at our facility in Yalova.”

Emphasizing that investment accelerated with the foreign partnership as there was a capital transfer on top of all these factors, Nişli conveyed the following information about the construction of the new facility: “The new facility had to use the state-of-the-art technology for making two-layered paper. This was something we had never heard of. We were able to go abroad with our managers and examine it there in person. It was really unbelievable, the top and bottom sides of 12 grams of paper could do feature different properties. We brought this technology, which can offer the most optimum product to Selpak consumers, with a new investment. Therefore, especially in the first years, there was a mutual exchange of information and we supported each other. We were producing in 12 countries across Europe. Selpak was seen as the softest paper and the most successful paper. This gave us pride.

An important leap for our work came as a result of our visit to the R&D center in the USA. An Indian researcher with a doctorate came up to us and said, ‘We are developing something in the laboratory. There is no need here for this product here, but it might suit you very well.’ We launched a project with the guidance of that Indian Muslim expert. There was a product development that really made an impact, called Selpak Aqua. We were the first in the world to do it. According to the consumption habits in Turkey, Selpak Aqua had a highly desired feature. Of course, it was not easy to implement. It needed technology, it needed investment. Afterwards, an excellent marketing strategy was followed. Our marketing work using the money test, which showed the durability of the paper even when wet, explained the qualities of this product in a very beautiful way, visually. Consumers perceived it very well.”

“Eczacıbaşı makes a huge effort to introduce contemporary products to consumers”

In his talk, Sertaç Nişli emphasized that his meeting Selpak began at a very young age and that the first meeting started with toilet training, which is why they started the “Hello to the Toilet” training project. Nişli stated that they are very happy to contribute to the well-being of society by working with expert teachers on how that transition should be executed psychologically, by communicating with the citizens in shopping centers; undertaking such a project with an impact is a source of happiness for the company, he stressed.

“Selpak will always have followers.”

No matter what rival Selpak is against, they definitely take Selpak as an example, Nişli mentioned that they have rivals who say “We will have our Selpaks too.” “Of course, we, as Selpak managers, are proud of this: We see that when they talk to companies, when they are buying machinery, they are buying laboratory equipment, they immediately ask, ‘Which machine does Eczacıbaşı have? What type of technology does Eczacıbaşı have?’ Therefore, as pioneers in the sector, our meticulousness, our efforts to produce, buy and do the best and highest quality of everything, actually raised the level of the sector as a whole.

We have the famous ‘Selpak elephant’ icon. The phrase “They’re not rings, they’re elephants”, which was developed by our marketing department together with the advertising agency, referring to the water absorbency of the paper towel, was very well-liked. We used to share all these works with the marketing teams of our foreign partner. Then we saw that they had fully imitated us. This of course gave us great pride,” he continued.

“Being a ‘first’ in Turkey is critical.”

Nişli said that in those years, they saw that the consumption of facial tissue paper in Turkey was very low in terms of the ratio of consumption and quantity, but interestingly, that they were used mostly in cars. He continued his talk by saying that consumers came with a demand at this stage: either the boxes didn’t fit in the car door compartments, or when you have boxes that fit, they tear and break when we pull the product from the inside due to the direction of the lid.’ Our R&D and marketing team developed an idea together. They said, ‘Let’s make a lid that opens from the side, because when you open that lid, you can easily pull the tissue out in the car.’ We launched such an innovation in Selpak facial tissue paper. Relevant patent and utility model applications were made immediately. A very simple example of innovation. I think it added value to our facial tissue.”

Talking about the importance of being the first in Turkey, Nişli emphasized that as a dream, establishing a facility for the production of a product that had never been used in Turkey and creating a brand for it revealed great entrepreneurship. Underlining that Selpak’s success started from that point, Nişli said, “Secondly, a first-class work was conducted on everything from determining the brand name to establishing the facility. Never did they think let’s do this for cheap, let’s do the budget version. The best machines were purchased, great importance was given to human resources, trainings were extensively done both in Turkey and abroad. On the other hand, there is the raw materials. While there are much cheaper cellulose types, Eczacıbaşı Group buys the cellulose that is most suitable for Selpak and best suited to the Selpak quality. Selpak never deviates from the standard of quality. These were very valuable efforts.

Then, the teams that determined the marketing strategy would work really hard. We used to see the Selpak brand as our child. We were meticulous and careful about the Selpak brand. Even before there was competition, it was important to establish a product development team at the facility where Selpaks were produced, and to employ and train engineers there. Again, in the same period, the creation of a production planning structure, the automation of all these with certain information processing systems, many of them are firsts... Working here is a great achievement in and of itself. I think we learned a lot at the Selpak school.” said.