Success story Latro Kimya Founder Haluk Can Hur

EO Turkey’s latest member Haluk Can Hür shared his success story with EO Newsletter. A chemical engineer and the general manager of Latro Kimya, Hür is a successful leader who managed to gain a place with his business in a huge industry with giant players. Here is his entrepreneurship story:

“While I was working as a professional executive in a firm in the beginning of 2000s, I always wanted to have my own business. In 2009, I made my mind up and decided to talk to my boss. He liked my ideas and even decided to be my partner. We were to focus on chemical raw materials, because I could see that there were countless industries which depended on chemical raw materials but they were mostly lacking of know-how in terms of products and application. This is how Latro Kimya was born in 2010.

In the upcoming years, my partner exited the firm and I carried own the business alone. The main focus we determined in the founding phase was a success but it had its own challenges. It was difficult to get to know the raw material segment of the chemical industry, and try to establish and develop relationships with all potential customers and suppliers from scratch. Financial management was also challenging. But Central Bank’s going to monetary expansion at the time for trying to get out of the global crisis became our luck.

There are many local and international companies in Turkey that are very big and have been in the market for many years. As Latro, we had to find a way to do business differently, to be able to gain a place among these giant corporations. Unlike them, we focused on customer support. Today we are not only their chemical supplier, but chemical product consultants and solution partners. This model has been responded very positively in the market.

As we gained confidence along the way, we decided to establish our own chemistry lab, a laboratory specialized in research and product development.  This was a milestone for us, which made our technical support even stronger and made us stand out among the competitors. Now our goal is to expand our business to other countries and become a multinational firm.

I feel very lucky for being able to work in my own field as a chemical engineer. Latro Kimya’s motto is, “You are at the right place to enjoy chemistry”. I think this is not just a sentence; we really work and serve with joy. Today our team has 16 people and most of them are not only my colleagues but also my friends. Working in such an environment and seeing it grow makes me happy.”