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, kitchen towels, napkins, handkerchieves 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.

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.

Establishing brand leadership in Central Asia and the Caucasus
İpek Kağıt is Turkey’s largest tissue paper exporter, with exports to more than 20 countries. In Central Asia and the Caucasus, İpek Kağıt aims to become the market leader with its Selpak and Solo brands, starting with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. Thanks to its high product quality, powerful distribution network and continuous marketing support, İpek Kağıt is already the market leader in premium bathroom tissue, kitchen towels, napkins, facial tissue and hankies in both Azerbaijan and Georgia. 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.

Expanding the market through innovative products
To sustain its leadership position and expand the tissue paper market, İpek Kağıt supports its brands with continuous and consistent advertising and innovative product development that enables it to surpass the standards in each segment of the Turkish market.

İpek Kağıt launched numerous innovative products in 2010 including the “Selpak New Generation Hanky” series which features Turkey’s first and only hankies offering Antibacterial protection, Vitamin E-based lotion, micro-encapsulated menthol, flower scents and cotton embedded in the tissue. Other innovations introduced recently were the Selpak 1-Sheet Bathroom Tissue, with a patented technology that enables consumers to use a single sheet at a time; Selpak Spa Bathroom Tissue with a range of pleasing scents and colors; and Solo Mini Bathroom Tissue in a small-sized package that can be carried easily in a handbag as a smart and practical hygiene solution.
In recognition of its innovative achievements in recent years, İpek Kağıt was awarded the “Innovation Grand Prize” in the first innovation competition organized by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2010.

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 “Committed to the Future”, an initiative 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 ISO 50001 Energy Management Certification.

In early 2011, İpek Kağıt launched Turkey’s first biodegradable packaging in the tissue paper sector. By the end the of the year, all Selpak-branded bathroom tissue and kitchen towels will be 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 at almost 7,600 elementary schools in 53 cities around Turkey, teaching good personal hygiene practices to 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.