24.Sayı Bir Asır Sabunculuk

The journey of the Sabuncu family in the soap industry begins with their grandfather, Mehmet Sabuncu, learning the trade from a Greek soap master. The late Mehmet Sabuncu was born in 1900 and is known by the family to have been the chief master at a soap factory owned by Italians in Kuşadası in 1935. Being a chief master in traditional soap making requires a lot of time and skill. The family believes that grandfather Mehmet Sabuncu started this work at the age of 18, but they estimate he began even earlier, in his childhood. Considering that he is thought to have started in 1918, the year 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Sabuncu family's profession.

Grandfather Mehmet Sabuncu's career in Kuşadası, and later in Söke, continued in Aydın after he moved there following his wife's passing in 1945. Later, grandfather Mehmet Sabuncu transformed his business into a collective company with his children, and the company continued to progress healthily until 1965. By that time, their father, Bilal Sabuncu, who had been working in his father's factory and occasionally as a day laborer in other soap factories in Aydın over the years, had become a sought-after master. In 1965, Bilal Sabuncu left the collective company and started soap production alone in a makeshift place rented in the neighborhood. He obtained his initial capital from his close friend Hüdai Özalp. The journey from having no capital and working from a rented place to the present day can be seen as a remarkable life story and success story.

The success story is narrated by Mehmet Sabuncu, Chairman of the Board of  Bilal Sabuncu Oil and Soap Industry and Trade Inc.

"We started to become a part of this story in 1979, together with my brother Haluk Sabuncu. In our childhood, we spent our summer holidays working alongside our father. When school closed, we would have a week off, and then we would go to our father. That was our vacation time. In the evenings, we would play football with our friends in the neighborhood. My brother and I would say to each other every day, 'Come on, let’s ask for permission from Dad.'

In the early 1980s, we became acquainted with machine soap production using very primitive machines that our father bought from the İzmir Tariş scrap yard. In the following years, we gradually developed this with local machines, and in 1991, we made our first export to Romania. After that, Iraq came into play, and we added Ukraine and Russia to our market from Karaköy, Istanbul. At the beginning of our first exports, we worked with intermediaries who handled the exports. In 1994, we transformed into a family company and became a joint-stock company. Later, our youngest brother, Ali Ulvi Sabuncu, joined our team and started to get involved in our export business.

For years, we have received numerous awards for our exports within our province. Today, with over a hundred employees, we export to approximately sixty countries across four continents. Nowadays, the importance of exports is understood by every individual and company. Our development is not possible without exports.

We are grateful to have completed our 100th year in the profession last year. Our father was the second generation, we are the third generation, and now the fourth generation has started to step in gradually."