Ulker

–Authored by Heidi Freund

I consider myself to be a well-composed person; with the exception of, say, a finance exam, I can keep it together incredibly well. However, during our company visit at Ülker, I found myself moved to tears. As a matter of fact, I believe I uttered the phrase, “I’m so happy, I think I could cry.”

What on earth made me have such a strong reaction? Before I go into details, I feel compelled to give a little background on the company itself. Ülker started as a biscuit (also known as cookies) company in 1944 with only 3 workers and has since grown into thousands of employees and multiple divisions with well over 280 products. Ülker first expanded their product line in 1979, when they added chocolate production, and have since added chewing gum, ready-to-eat soup, supplements, soft drinks, baby food, UHT milk, ice cream, and Turkish coffee. They’ve also begun collaborating with Kellogg’s for cereal production. Additionally, Ülker has acquired Godiva, partnered with Gumlink, and will soon be partnering with LHS, a German tea company. Quite the gentle giant!

What makes Ülker such a lovely company is their core philosophy: making happy moments. This core philosophy has been critical to the culture of the company, as well. Every single lovely person we came in contact with that was associated with Ülker just wanted to see us smile. And smile we did.

Imagine this: You’re in a foreign country, well aware of the fact that you’re currently at a ‘cookie factory’- or so you think. You are ushered into a building (out of a cold, damp rain, no less), up a couple of flights of stairs, into a room…that’s filled with tables of cookies, chocolate, and bottles of water.  You hope that, just maybe, you may be receiving an afternoon snack, but don’t want to make assumptions. After gathering in a meeting room off the side of the ‘snack room,’ you’re urged to once again enter the ‘snack room’ and eat…a lot. This is a lovely conundrum if you’re like me, a person with an intense sweet tooth that can take down the most disgusting amounts of sweets in one sitting.

After consuming what seemed like four pounds of chocolate and cookies each, we were shown a couple of inspiring videos about Ülker, what they stand for, and why they do what they do. Our wonderful new friends then handed us some stylin’ frocks, complete with hairnets for a once-in-a-lifetime experience: a tour of their facility. And we weren’t at the cookie facility, as I had originally thought: we were at the chocolate factory! Yes, it had seemed I had traveled to Turkey and then died and gone to heaven. Of course, the tour wouldn’t be complete without yet another table of chocolate bars of all shapes and sizes, fresh from the line, not even wrapped! After another pit stop at this lovely table (which is where my tearful quote comes in), we were shown the processing lines. Everything from melted chocolate to nougat to caramel was being pumped through various machines to make so many wonderful flavors of chocolate bars. Our ‘tour guides,’ most of whom were actually what I will call ‘sugar engineers,’ took the time to explain each step in the process, each part of the machines, and even to grab fresh chocolate bars right from the lines!

Following our extensive factory tour, we were once again ushered into the ‘snack room,’ which of course, following Turkish hospitality, had been freshly replenished. Not only were we encouraged to enjoy more of these treats, but we were handed boxes of delicious Ülker candies to take with us. Sadly, it was time to leave; we all climbed onto our bus with the most intense sugar rushes we’d ever had.

This amazing, tear-filled experience would not have been possible without the hospitality of Kakan Özkök and Sedat Erpek, and all of the other wonderful Ülker employees we met that day. As a group, we thank you for such a fantastic, unique experience! Additionally, we thank Canan Özkan for arranging the visit for us.

(In case you were wondering, my favorite Ülker treats are the Hazelnut Biskrem and the Ülker Golden Hazelnut Cream bar. I have yet to find either of these in the United States…so if you find them, please inform me immediately!)