İpek Kağıt Tissue Paper is the leader in the Turkish tissue paper sector with Turkey’s foremost tissue paper brands. İpek Kağıt primarily manufactures toilet rolls, napkins, handkerchiefs, kitchen towels and facial tissues for home and commercial use. It has four main consumer brands, namely Selpak, Solo, Silen and Servis. İpek Kağıt also has two away-from-home brands, Marathon and Lotus Professional, for the fast-growing tourism, catering and institutional customer segments. On 14 February 2012, İpek Kağıt started a new era with the Eczacıbaşı Group’s acquisition of the 50 percent shareholding of its longtime partner, Georgia-Pacific. As a fully-owned Eczacıbaşı Group company, İpek Kağıt aims to leverage its powerful brands, valuable human resources and advanced technology to grow more rapidly in global tissue paper markets while maintaining its leadership in Turkey. New investments strengthen leadership in Turkey and the region With its first plant in Yalova operating at full capacity, İpek Kağıt has constructed two new plants in less than five years to facilitate its expansion in targeted international markets and continued leadership in Turkey. In 2006, İpek Kağıt opened a plant in Kazakhstan to support its expansion in Central Asia. In 2009, it inaugurated the first $40 million phase of its new plant in the Manisa Organized Industrial Zone in western Turkey. When the entire project is finished, the plant will increase İpek Kağıt’s tissue paper capacity three fold. Becoming an international player In both Azerbaijan and Georgia, İpek Kağıt is the market leader in premium bathroom tissue, kitchen towels, facial tissue and hankies with its Selpak and Solo brands, thanks to its high product quality, powerful distribution network and continuous marketing support. İpek Kağıt’s globalization drive for the Selpak and Solo brands is receiving support from Turquality, the exclusive state-sponsored program for Turkish brands aspiring for global recognition. İpek Kağıt is Turkey’s largest tissue paper exporter, with exports to more than 20 countries. The company is now focusing its brand building efforts in new markets in Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa in accordance with its vision of becoming a successful international player. Innovative products İpek Kağıt supports its brands with continuous and consistent innovative product development. Innovative product launches in 2011 included the Selpak Antibacterial hanky, which eradicates 99 percent of the bacteria on its surface after use; biodegradable packaging; and Solo Compact bathroom tissue, a new member of the “Solo Smart Solutions” family that requires less storage space. Responsible business practices Leadership has brought challenges and responsibilities. Alongside activities to raise consumer awareness of the hygienic and practical benefits of tissue paper products, İpek Kağıt has continually strived to reduce the impact of its products and operations on the environment and set industry standards in resource efficiency and safety. İpek Kağıt has been treating its industrial and domestic wastewater since the early 1980s. In 2008, İpek Kağıt invested in a major upgrade of its treatment process to improve the quality of treated wastewater and comply fully with Turkey’s discharge limits, EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive, and the Reference Document on Best Available Techniques in the Pulp and Paper Industry. In 2009, İpek Kağıt launched the Eco-Promise label, which shows that it procures pulp only from certified suppliers who can prove that their product derives from sustainably managed forests. In 2010, İpek Kağıt became the first tissue paper manufacturer in Turkey to receive ISO 14001 Environment Management Certification, and in 2011, the first to receive ISO 50001 Energy Management Certification. In early 2011, İpek Kağıt received Georgia-Pacific’s first sustainability award, and in December 2011, Selpak bathroom tissue won the Sustainable Eco-Friendly Product Award of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. In early 2011, İpek Kağıt launched Turkey’s first biodegradable packaging in the tissue paper sector. Since February 2012, all Selpak-branded bathroom tissue and kitchen towels are being packaged in this biodegradable material, which breaks down into compost within five years. For over three decades, İpek Kağıt has also been at the forefront of campaigns to raise consumer awareness of the hygienic benefits of tissue paper products through seminars, advertisements and the distribution of product samples. Since 2002, İpek Kağıt has organized personal hygiene classes 7,743 primary schools in 55 cities around Turkey, teaching good personal hygiene practices to over six million students. In 2006, in recognition of the contribution made by the “Selpak Primary School Personal Hygiene Education Project” to the UN Millennium Goals, İpek Kağıt received the prestigious World Business Award organized jointly by the United Nations Development Program, International Chamber of Commerce and International Business Leaders Forum.