Turkish biscuit king: Murat Ulker

Turkish industrialist and businessman. Born in 1959 in Istanbul, Murat Ülker is the Chairman of the Board of Yıldız Holding, a leader in the food and beverage industry. He is the richest person in Turkey according to Forbes magazine.

The source of his wealth comes from Yıldız Holding, which his father founded.

Murat Ülker, who started his business life in 1982, studied abroad at schools such as AIB College of Business and ZDS. He interned at Continental Baking in the United States.

He started his first job at Yıldız Holding in 1984 as Control Coordinator. In the following years, he assumed the duties of Deputy General Manager for Businesses and then General Manager.

Murat Ülker's family is of Crimean origin. His family immigrated to Istanbul in 1929 due to the oppression of Muslims with the establishment of the Soviet Union. In the 1940s, his father Sabri and uncle Asım entered the biscuit business. They named the biscuit they produced in 1944 as Ülker. The Turkish word for Ülker is Pladis. Although their surname was not Ülker, they changed their surname to Ülker in 1954.

Murat Ülker is the youngest of Sabri Ülker's 3 children. However, being the only son in the family put him ahead in business life. In the traditional Turkish family structure, boys are more important than girls.

As of 2021, he was announced as the 1st richest person in Turkey with 6.3 billion dollars in the list of "The Richest Turks" announced by Forbes.

Is Ülker a global brand?

In 2014, Yıldız Holding bought United Biscuits, the world's sixth largest biscuit producer. Yıldız Holding (Pladis) became the world's number three biscuit company with this transaction. Ülker previously acquired Godiva and DeMet's, the long-established confectionery company of the USA. 

United Biscuits owns many brands, including McVities, which bakes the birthday cake for Queen Elizabeth and the wedding cake for her grandson, Prince William. Among its most famous brands are McVitie's, Jacob's, Delacre, Twiglets, BN, Go ahead, Sultana, Penguin, Carr's, Verkade, DeliChoc, Mini Cheddars and Jaffa Cakes.

Yıldız (Pladis) Holding investments abroad

USA, Belgium (Godiva): Production and sales of Godiva brand chocolate products

Saudi Arabia (FMC): Production and sale of biscuits, chocolate, cakes, wafers

Egypt (Hi Food): Biscuit, cake products production and sales

Italy, (Nuroll): Food packaging production

Romania (Eurex): Production and sale of biscuits and pretzels

Ukraine (KBF): Production and sale of biscuits, sandwich biscuits, cream filled biscuits, pretzels, cakes

Kazakhstan (Hamle): Production and sale of biscuits, molded and bar chocolate, pretzels, cakes, wafers, chewing gum

Pakistan (UG Food): Cake production

USA (DeMet's): Production and sale of chocolate-coated snack products

https://pladisglobal.com/