A Family Touching the Life of A City: Oruçoğlu Family – Dr. İlhami Pektaş

The commercial origins of the Oruçoğlu Family dates back to the late 18th century. Later with the beginning of the War of Independence in Anatolia, the family pursued activities in areas where the country needed development such as construction, transportation and tourism. The family’s investments in the field of food started with Oruçoğlu Oil, Türkiye’s first organized industrial enterprise. Later, feed and poultry enterprises were established and included in the structure to ensure the commercial integrity of this industrial facility. The Oruçoğlu Family, which has been actively involved in every facade of the struggle for the existence of these lands since the first day, continues its activities in many areas including transportation, food, construction and tourism under the roof of Oruçoğlu Holding.

The roots of the Oruçoğlu Family come from farming. Mehmet Oruç, who lost his brother in the war and his father at a young age in the 1800s, quit farming and started to work in a bakery. Mehmet Oruç’s son İsmail Oruç, known for his determination, diligence, courage and making use of opportunities, became the owner of the bakery where he worked in the early 1900s. This was followed by other bakeries and delicatessen. When the world’s biggest economic crisis broke out in 1929, its effect reached Türkiye. The lack of wheat lead to a bread crisis, and bakeries making bread, which was a luxury product for that day, were closed in Afyon. The family members, mainly Mehmet Oruç and his sons İsmail Bey, İhsan Bey and Ahmet Bey entered the service sectors such as movie theaters, cafeterias and hotels together and continued the development process in new areas within the city.

Yılmaz Oruç, İsmail Bey’s son, was born in 1936 and started to form the core of the Oruçoğlu Family with the teachings and experiences of his grandfather at a very young age. Realizing the delicious meat potential of the Afyon Region in 1958, Yılmaz Oruç started to serve daily meat to the luxury restaurants of Ankara and Istanbul with refrigerated vehicles from Afyon. Processed meat trade became a new business branch of Oruçoğlu at a great pace in those years.

Due to the high sensitivity required for processed meat, all family members, especially Yılmaz Oruç’s wife Tülay Oruç, personally participate in the sorting and classification of the meat.  While keep growing in the meat and livestock sector, which are the first steps of industrialism, the cinema service sector also developed and Türkiye’s most important theater artists and musicians of the time served Afyon in Oruçoğlu Cinemas. Various artists including Müzeyyen Senar, Cüneyt Arkın, Hülya Koçyiğit, Muammer Karaca performed in Oruçoğlu Cinema and entertainment centers in Afyon and regional cities.

While these services continued, the logistics sector, as known, provided significant opportunities due to the location of Afyon.

At that time, Afyon Cement Factory sent almost all of Ankara’s cement. Large newspaper printers in Ankara had to deliver the printed newspapers all around Türkiye, mainly Antalya, very quickly. There was need for transportation to take the fruits and vegetables growing in Antalya to Afyon and Ankara. The logistics organization founded by Yılmaz Oruç carried the cement from Afyon to Ankara, the printed newspaper and press publication group from Ankara to Antalya on the same night, and the fresh vegetables and fruits loaded from Antalya to Afyon. Yılmaz Oruç’s contribution to the regional economy in this way lasted for years.

In 1968, Yılmaz Oruç became a partner in the oil factory in consequence of a shopping. Considering the importance of the oil factory in the developing food sector of Türkiye, Yılmaz Oruç made great moves for both the technological development and growth of the factory and bought the whole factory and made it one of the few brands in Türkiye.

After the rapid progress of the investment process, he established a feed factory to use the pulp as the main raw material, which is the output of the oil factory. Later, the fattening feeds and small cattle feeds produced by the feed factory became the core of the poultry sector. He continued to grow as a pioneer in a new business and this sector with the companies he established in the poultry and egg sector in Afyon.

Oruçoğlu entered the brick production sector to evaluate the natural resources of Afyon in construction, the rapidly developing area in our country.

The whole world, especially America, was interested in the quality of Turkish marbles. Turning this interest into an opportunity, Yılmaz Oruç established a brand modern marble factory in Afyon with the Italians and started exporting by opening sales offices in the USA, Canada, England, Germany and Italy in addition to our own country’s consumption.

In 1980, Celal Oruç, the eldest son of Yılmaz Oruç, graduated from the electrical department of the vocational high school and took office within the factory. Besides, he participated in all activities of Oruçoğlu Holding. Celal Oruç was responsible for making new investments in this process and ensuring that the investments grow with the increase in capacity every year.

In 1992, the Oruçoğlu family turned geothermal water resources, one of the most important resources of the region and Afyon, into a service sector with an investment and entered the thermal tourism business of Türkiye and Afyon. Serving as a 5-star facility with 1000 beds for today, Oruçoğlu Thermal Resort Facilities pioneered Afyon’s thermal tourism investment, as well.

While maintaining the partnerships in all companies in the 2000s, Celal Oruç transferred the companies to professional administrations and young family members, and established Oruçoğlu System Consultancy Co. affiliated to Oruçoğlu Holding to develop projects and transfer technology in line with the interests of the country.

 

Initially, with a focus on using the technology transfer model they had developed in all their investments in Afyon for the benefit of Türkiye, they began working on topics that Türkiye suffered foreign currency losses for during those years and were not produced domestically. Oruçoğlu System Consultancy started research and infrastructure studies on subjects such as MR device production, defense industry, high-tech yacht production, museology and rail systems in Türkiye. As a result of the matching of needs and supplies both in the international platform and in the country, it was determined that rail systems would be the most important sector that could be invested in and needed, and the company received the representations of many international companies in Türkiye.

After the structuring process, the company won the tender for the Ankara-Konya High-Speed Train Line in 2005 and implemented the signaling system of one of the first high-speed train lines in Türkiye with the Spanish company DIMETRONIC, of which it is the representative of Türkiye. Shortly afterwards, the company won the MARMARAY Tender with DIMETRONIC.

The company started to market high-speed train vehicles in Türkiye by taking the representation of the Spanish TALGO in Türkiye, which has carried out major projects worldwide.

In 2011, the company won the tender for the Bandırma-Menemen line to connect Istanbul to Izmir. In the following years, it carried out 11 signalization projects with local engineers and workforce in Türkiye. The great successes of the company in Türkiye attracted the attention of other signaling companies in the world to Türkiye and resulted in Siemens’ acquisition of DIMETRONIC. Oruçoğlu System Consultancy is still the project-based representative of Siemens in signalization in our country.

Oruçoğlu Holding has also researched the issue of vehicle production, which is the most important need of our country in the field of rail systems, and has carried out studies to introduce Korea WOOJIN AGT RUBBER WHEELED METRO system, which is a very advanced technology product in which vehicle preference is directed rapidly all over the world, in our country and to invest in Türkiye.

At the end of this process, AGT Rubber Wheeled Metro entered into the Design Criteria accepted for rail system vehicles in Türkiye and was accepted by the Ministry of Transport.

Simultaneously, Oruçoğlu System Consultancy initiated studies to approach the museum and entertainment technologies in the world and to bring these technologies to Türkiye. First of all, the Çanakkale Epic Promotion Center was established in Çanakkale as the world’s first war simulation museum and opened to visitors. In the following period, nearly 30 museums were designed for various administrations, especially museums such as Sakarya Field Battles Promotion Center and Aviation Museum.

Çanakkale Epic Promotion Center, the first war simulation center of Türkiye and the world, attracted attention on many platforms and was deemed worthy of an award in the “Museum and Heritage” inter-museum evaluation held in England.

In addition, studies on all designs, preparation and construction of technical specifications of the project continue in the “Sakarya Field Battle Promotion Center” in Polatlı/Ankara, which was initiated in order to preserve our history and to instill historical awareness especially in young generations. In the Promotion Center, starting from the dates when the Turks migrated from Central Asia to Anatolia and embraced these lands as their homeland, the entire Ottoman history, the history of the Republic and the future vision of our country had the opportunity to be explained by us both with the objects within the framework of the traditional museology approach and with the latest innovations offered by technology. In the project, the stages of the battle are displayed including before and after battle by focusing on the Battle of Sakarya.

“Harbiye Military Museum Renovation Project” prepared for the General Staff’s Military History and Strategic Studies Department is an important project that will bring a more modern image without changing the historical texture of Harbiye, more than 30,000 works waiting in the archives will have the opportunity to be exhibited and will inspire other renovation projects in Türkiye, and similarly, studies on the 15 July Martyrs Memorial and Democracy Museum, 30 August Victory Day Memorial Activities and 3D (Projection) Mapping Systems continue at full speed.