Fastest Growing Turkish Company: KÇS Cement from Kahramanmaraş… 25 Fast Growth Companies of Turkey were announced at the “Entrepreneurship Summit.”

ISTANBUL – Winners of the Turkey 25 Project TEPAV carried out in cooperation with TOBB and the AllWorld Network of Harvard University were announced. The winner of the project which identified the 25 fastest growing companies of Turkey was KÇS Kahramanmaraş Cement and Concrete Industry and Mining Enterprises Co. which grew by 2.609%. Second and third places were won by Istanbul-based companies namely Network International Transportation and Trade Inc. and Çebi Construction, Architecture and Engineering Inc., respectively.

Winners of the Turkey 25 Project carried out by TEPAV and the AllWorld Network with the sponsorship of TOBB were announced during the Second Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Hisarcıklıoğlu: “Mothers will desire to marry their daughters with successful entrepreneurs.”

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu spoke, “We are working hard to become one of the ten largest economies of the world by 2023, the centenary of the Republic of Turkey. We will achieve this target with the help of entrepreneurs.” He continued:

“From this perspective, it is very important to highlight successful entrepreneurs. Today, in each Anatolian city are more innovative, productive and rapid companies. We have to improve the visibility of these companies in the global arena. This is why initiated the Turkey 25 Project. I sincerely congratulate these companies and the entrepreneurs who contributed to Turkey’s growth. These successful examples will help entrepreneurship to become the favorite in Turkey. Children will grow on the hope to become a successful entrepreneur one day. Mothers will desire to marry their daughters with successful entrepreneurs.”

Sak: “We have to provide the environment conducive to rapid growth of companies.”

TEPAV Director Güven Sak said:

“We used to think that insufficient growth performance of companies was one of the major problems of the Turkish economy. The Turkey-25 project has provided us with an extremely valuable dataset. We now know fast growing Turkish companies better. Turkey has to focus economic policies on providing an environment conducive for maintaining rapid growth of winning and other leader companies.”

Recalling that 500 largest companies of the global economy are in average seventy years old, Sak continued:

“500 largest companies of Turkey are in average forty years old. Average age of the Turkey-25 companies on the other hand is ten. If these companies can maintain present growth rates, they can become giants first in Turkey and then in the global economy. From this perspective, we have a lot to learn from the Turkey-25 companies in terms of economic policy lessons.”

Porter: “fast growing SMEs are the backbone of the economy”

Professor Michael Porter, Harvard Business School Professor and co-founder of AllWorld Network said:

“The Turkey 25 companies, led by dynamic men and women, represent the leading edge of a new approach to Turkey’s competitiveness. The purpose of economic development is to develop companies and help them generate employment. Companies with a prospect for growth and small and medium sized enterprises are the backbone of all economies.”

What are the characteristics of the Turkey-25 companies?

The Turkey 25 Project launched on April 26, 2011 with a press meeting in Istanbul received and evaluated hundreds of applications. Fast growth Turkish companies were decided as a result of this evaluation. Below are characteristics of the Turkey 25 companies:

Istanbul on top. 42 percent of the fast growth companies (10 companies) are from Istanbul, 25 percent from Ankara (6 companies), 13 percent from Kocaeli (3 companies). Kahramanmaraş and Izmir have two companies each on the list, while Osmaniye and Kayseri have one Turkey-25 company each.

Sectoral diversity. Turkey-25 companies operate in a variety of sectors:

Majority of companies have 5 to 10 years of operating history. 24 percent of Turkey-25 companies were established after 2006, that is, younger than 5 years. Majority of the companies (48 percent) have an operating history between 5 and 10. 28 percent of the listed companies were established before 2000.

Companies tripled employment in three years. Turkey- 25 companies have demonstrated a remarkable success in increasing employment. In 2008, an average Turkey-25 company employed 88 people. By 2011, this figure has reached 273. Therefore, Turkey-25 companies have grown by three times between 2008 and 2011. Total employment created by Turkey-25 companies today is 6,833 compared to 5,097 in 2010, 3,389 in 2009, and 2,411 in 2008.

250 percent average annual revenue growth. The annual revenue of an average Turkey-25 company grew from 9 million TL in 2008 to 51 million TL in 2010. Total 2010 revenue of the companies on the list is above TL 1 billion 267 million.

How were companies ranked?

• Employment: Applicants had to have 10 or more full-time employees in 2010.
• Revenue: Companies which had at least US$ 100,000 revenue in 2008 and US$ 500,000 revenue in 2010 qualified for application with their audited financial statements.
• Companies-To-Watch: Younger and smaller companies with at least $100,000 USD in the last 12 months can qualify for recognition as Company-To-Watch. Applications from these were not evaluated for Turkey-25 but these were added to the AllWorld global network.
• Legal structure: All independent, private, for-profit, corporations or partnerships, or proprietorships were qualified to apply.
• Holding companies: Holding companies could not submit an application whereas independently incorporated entities owned by a holding company were eligible.
• Other ineligible companies: Non-profit, franchise, auto dealership, bank or utility company, private companies established by any government, private companies owned 51% or more by a public company or 51% or more by local government were not eligible.

Eligible companies were ranked on the basis of gross sales revenue growth between 2008 and 2010 to choose the Turkey-25 companies.

What is next?

In the context of the Project and in partnership with Harvard University, a series of events to showcase the winning companies:

• Winning companies will network and build business relationships with leading fast growing companies around the world.
• Companies will earn visibility and expand client portfolios, supplier relations and opportunities for access to finance.
• Companies will be invited to join AllWorld Leadership Summit at Harvard University.

Harvard AllWorld Network

AllWorld Network (AWN) was established in 2007 by Deirdre J. Coyle, Anne Habiby and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter in Boston, USA and started to work first on Saudi Arabia. The AWN has now expanded the country rankings to Bulgaria, South Africa, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, Romania, Turkey and Jordan.

Among the partners of the AWN are Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Siraj Capital, JS Bank, Monitor Group and Endeavor Global. The Arabia 500 Summit that will combine the Arab country lists was under the Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania.

Please click here to read the story on AllWorld Network website.