Barry Callebaut Continues Investments in Turkey

Barry Callebaut Continues Investment in Turkey Barry Callebaut, a chocolate and cocoa products manufacturer that opened its first sales office in Turkey in 2005 and established a factory in Eskişehir in 2013, is continuing its investments in Turkey. The company has opened a fully-equipped Research and Development Centre with capacity to serve the entire world from Turkey, in order to expand its capabilities to be closer to customers and offer better solutions. The Centre is Europe and the Middle East's first and only Barry Callebaut R&D centre, housing under one roof a pilot production facility, an application laboratory and a sensory analysis laboratory where customer-specific recipes are prepared. Barry Callebaut held the official opening of its Turkey R&D Centre on 7 June 2022, Tuesday, with a press conference. The press conference was attended by Barry Callebaut EEMEA Vice President Fabian Stierli, Barry Callebaut EEMEA R&D Vice President An Parrein, Barry Callebaut Turkey General Manager Ahmet Turgut, Barry Callebaut EEMEA R&D Director Hatice Donga, and Barry Callebaut Turkey R&D Manager Gürsel Aykaç, who presented Barry Callebaut Turkey's capabilities. In the 2021 financial year, of the 3,948 pilot tests conducted at R&D centres in the Barry Callebaut EEMEA region, 294 were carried out at Barry Callebaut Turkey R&D Centre. During the same period, of the 1,217 application tests conducted in the region, 50 were performed at Barry Callebaut Turkey R&D Centre. A large portion of these tests have been implemented and today form part of the products that chocolate lovers cannot do without. Barry Callebaut EEMEA Region Vice President Fabian Stierli, emphasizing Turkey's strong and stable growth within EEMEA, stated: "Turkey is one of our most important markets. With its young population, geopolitical position and market opportunities, it holds great potential. Barry Callebaut Turkey continues to grow in line with this potential. The company ranks 2nd among 89 countries in the EEMEA Region with a 15% volume share. Particularly in the Gourmet market, covering the pastry & bakery, artisan, HORECA and semi-industrial sectors, it currently has the best 2nd volume growth and best margin growth within EMEA. Again in the Gourmet market, Turkey ranks 7th globally by volume, ahead of Belgium and not far behind Italy. Our Eskişehir production facility is an important step in benefiting from the potential of this rapidly growing region. It aligns with our strategy of expanding our geographical presence in markets offering above-average growth opportunities. At the same time, it also strengthens our position in the region. For this reason, we are continuing our Turkey investments with the R&D Centre and will continue to support our growth targets with investments going forward." he said.

"We will continue to grow through investment plans that will increase both our capacity and product variety."

  Barry Callebaut Turkey General Manager Ahmet Turgut, noting that Turkey's chocolate and confectionery market is approximately 455,000 tonnes, emphasized that per capita consumption in Turkey is around 3.1 kg and lags behind the world average. Turgut stated that these figures show Turkey's potential is still in its early stages. Turgut also said at the press conference: "Turkey is among the world's fastest-growing chocolate markets. For this reason, Turkey presents major opportunities for Barry Callebaut. Our market position is evidence of this. We believe Turkey's chocolate and confectionery market has a volume of approximately 455,000 tonnes. The 350,000-tonne portion of this market consists of industrial companies with the capability to produce their own chocolate. The 100,000-tonne portion we call the open market is supplied by chocolate and cocoa products suppliers like us that serve companies without their own production capacity. With our production volume of 40,000 tonnes, we lead a large portion of this 100,000-tonne open market. Turkey is also of great importance because exports can be made to Africa and the Middle East. We planned the factory capacity and capabilities to meet this export demand. When we made the factory investment in Turkey, we purchased the land in such a way that another facility of this size could be built. As Barry Callebaut Turkey, we are capturing growth opportunities both domestically and internationally." Regarding the Eskişehir factory and Barry Callebaut Turkey's capabilities, Turgut stated: "We doubled our factory capacity through line investments made over the last 2 years. In addition to existing chocolate lines, we have installed a confectionery and praline line. In addition to chocolate production, we also produce other frequently used product groups in the market such as confectionery, fillings and pralines at our factory. We expand the range of products we manufacture in Turkey according to market development and needs. Over the last 3 years we have developed more than 50 new products and recipes. Especially after our R&D Centre became operational, we gained significant momentum. We are working on and producing vegan, sugar-free or high-protein recipes demanded by our industrial and gourmet customers to meet market trends. In this way, we help our customers capture trends." he said. Continuing with emphasis on sustainability, Turgut stated: "Of course, we are implementing all these investments and activities within the framework of our sustainability strategy, which forms the foundation of our way of doing business. So that chocolate is in our lives forever, we conduct all our sustainability activities worldwide under our sustainability strategy, which we call 'Forever Chocolate'. We have guaranteed that the electricity to be used in 2022 will be 100% green energy. For this reason, our factory's electricity-related carbon footprint is "zero". Through energy efficiency work and certifications carried out over the last 2 years, the facility's energy-related carbon emissions have been reduced by 87%." he said, and added that they have collaborated with the Sustainability Academy to offset the carbon footprint of the press conference held.