Sarten to set up two facilities in the U.S. and Africa

BY IMAM GUNES

Operating in the metal packaging industry, Sarten Ambalaj has initiated to build two production plants in Africa and the U.S., according to Zeki Saribekir, CEO of Sarten Ambalaj. The company has 20 facilities at home and abroad.

Founded as a family business in 1972, Sarten Ambalaj currently makes production for three different sectors including food, cosmetics and industrial products, and exports to about 100 countries. The company, which continues manufacturing in 16 production plants in Silivri, Gebze, Karacabey, Gemlik, Manisa, Ayvalik, Adana and Corlu in Turkey and four production plants in Bulgaria, Russia and Netherlands, now has begun works to establish two new facilities in Africa and the U.S. “There are serious opportunities in the U.S. due to loss of production stemmed from Chinese imports. We consider few investments primarily in the U.S. and North Africa. We are at the research phase,” said Saribekir.

Employs 350 people in Bulgaria

Sarten employs 350 people in its facilities located in Pleven and Lyaskovets in Bulgaria. The company launched production plants in Russia and Netherlands to produce aerosol boxes for the cosmetics industry following its first investment abroad in Bulgaria. Today, it manufactures metal box and metal twist caps in Bulgaria and produces aerosol boxes in Nevinnomyssk in Russia and Roosendaal in Netherlands. “You receive ‘Made in Europe’ inscription when you manufacture in Bulgaria. We can export products via Bulgaria to the countries where we can’t trade with Turkey,” said the Sarten CEO. The company has acquired second facility in Bulgaria and aims to make it a EUR 50m turnover production plant. “We’ll complete the year with EUR 36m turnover, 25% of which will be obtained from customers in Bulgaria. The remainder comes from Greece, the Balkans, Austria and neighboring countries,” he added.

USD 500m turnover in 50th anniversary

Sarten Ambalaj aims USD 500m turnover in 2022, when it will celebrate the 50th anniversary. “We also plan to make USD 50m investment at home and abroad. We’ll continue to proceed in line with this goal,” said Saribekir. Sarten currently employs 2,900 people in Turkey and nearly 3,400 people abroad, while it has around 2,000 customers.

Exports to the U.S. on the rise

Sarten’s turnover totals USD 390m (some TRY 2.8bn) while it aims to grow by 20% on USD basis this year. “The pandemic showed the importance of our sector and value of usage of packaged products. Unpackaged e-commerce can’t exist,” said Saribekir, stressing that the U.S. was the country where the company’s exports increased most during the pandemic. “Our exports to the U.S., which totaled USD 2m last year, rose to USD 6.5m in the first half of 2021,” he added.

Sarten Ambalaj ranks 84th in the Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s Top 500 Industrial Enterprises List in 2020 and 147th in the Turkish Exporters Assembly’s (TIM) Top 1,000 Exporter Companies List in 2019.