Union of chambers reward Turkey's 100 fastest-growing companies

Monday marked the conclusion of the Turkey 100 contest determining Turkey's fastest-growing companies. The contest was launched in cooperation between the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and the AllWorld Network under the leadership of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB). Maren Maraş Elektrik won first place after boosting its sales revenues by 8,754 percent in the 2011-2013 period.

TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu spoke at the opening of the award ceremony, held late on Monday. "We are giving huge importance to this contest and making it into a tradition because each growing company means an investment in Turkey's future," Hisarcıklıoğlu said. Entrepreneurship should be supported and appreciated more in Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed, adding that most look for businesses that can ensure money is made at low-risk but this perception has to be changed.

Hisarcıklıoğlu provided information about the top 100 fastest-growing companies as well. He said the total turnover of those 100 companies was $2.7 billion, the average company turnover was $25 million and the average growth rate of companies in the 2011-2013 period was 358 percent. He emphasized that the growth rate of the companies was 15 times faster than the entire economy's growth rate. Moreover, the companies employ nearly 18,000 people, and the average number of employees per company is 185.

Underscoring that the total number of employees increased by 88 percent between 2011 and 2013, Hisarcıklıoğlu said: "Companies provided jobs for more than 8,000 people during this period. The average age of the competition's entrepreneurs established was 32 at the time when they established the companies; their current average age is 43. Eight companies on the list were established by women, but this figure is not high enough; we need to increase it. One of the features of the companies' founders is that they are serial entrepreneurs. They continue to establish new companies, and 85 percent of company owners established at least one new company. The number of the companies established by the CEOs of the contest's companies is 600."

Maren Maraş Elektrik was followed by Karbil Yazılım, which increased its sales revenues by 2,501 percent, Emza Enerji by 2,361 percent, Lokman Hekim Sağlık Hizmetleri by 1,722 percent and PAYTR Ödeme ve Elektronik Para Hizmetleri by 1,196 percent.

While the winner of the contest was from Kahramanmaraş, Istanbul came first on the list with 45 companies in total. It was followed by Ankara with 12 companies, Kocaeli and İzmir with seven companies each, Kahramanmaraş with five companies and Gaziantep, Konya and Antalya with three companies each.

Companies offering information technology services topped the list with 15 companies. It was followed by foodstuffs manufacturing with eight companies, computer programming, consulting and related activities along with "other manufactures" with seven companies each, textile product manufacturing with six companies, "machine and equipment manufacturing - not elsewhere classified" with six companies and human healthcare services with four companies.