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Success stories always draw attention and enjoy the listeners. And most of the time, they encourage us. We cannot hide the admiration within our eyes for the story. Stories of those who do not give up on despite of the obstacles they have encountered and keep their faith fresh in the route to the success are examples for us mostly. We will listen the praiseworthy life story of Mustafa Özpek who started salmon production as the result of the decisions he had taken while shepherding goats on mountains and lowlands and has prevailed in Turkish market then had a say in world market.

Mustafa Özpek, who came into the world as the kid of a farmer family in Güzelpınar village of Denizli in 1946 is the eldest one of 5 siblings.  This is way he has more responsibility in the family. His endeavors in the were born in very early ages. He had enjoyed his childhood like other kids until he turned into a school age child and he became successful in the school life. Furthermore, his teachers realized his potential and tried to convince his family for the rest of his educational life; however, their attempts were in vain. It is not easy to be the eldest kid in the family. Responsibilities are undertaken in early ages. His father engaged in husbandry desired Mustafa to take over the business.

However, Mustafa set his mind on continuing his school life. He saved up some money and run away for Isparta. His sole purpose was to continue his education and be a qualified person in the future. He passed the exam he had sit on; however, he could not continue his education and had to turn back to his father’s house. He was engaged in shepherding until he joined the army. He loaded the yogurts which they obtained from goats on their donkeys and tried to sell them in the city which was kilometers away from the village. Actually, he met with the commercial life in this way.

Time flied away and he turned the age requiring to join the army. Driving license of truck which he got in the army doubled his self-esteem. He turned back to his father’s house when the term of military service ended and he tried to convince his father to buy a truck. He tried to tell that they could not go on in this way with a shepherd's felt cloak on his back, but his attempts could not convince his father. Mustafa resorted to “German Turks” from whom he was inspired and excited because of the feeling of wealth and prosperity.

European Adventure

He set on his mind going to Europe and searched the ways of living in the Europe. His sole purpose was to save up the money which he wanted to buy with his whole heart. His searches gave result and he found himself in a train going to Europe in 1970.

He worked in a textile factory where guest workers worked in Germany for 14 months. Mustafa who could not earn his living became a manual labor in constructions after his working hours in the textile factory and he desired to be the boss of his own business facility as he witnessed the Turkish workers whose rights exploited.

First Being Acquaintance with Trout

Mustafa who saved up the money required to buy the bus which wanted after working in abroad for 5 years turned back to Denizli. He was engaged in passenger transportation for a while. Mustafa who leaned towards the suggestion of his uncle to become a partner for the trout farm in Sakızcılar Village of Çal at that time officially started business of trout production which he had tasted for the first time during his military service term.

He had some concerns at the beginning. After all, it was an unknown business field for him and he invested his all savings. While he was concerned that what if something went wrong and he turned back to the times when he was engaged in shepherding, he started to hear the bad news that trouts were dying. How was desperate and he could not be sure what to do. He searched the situation, consulted to the people around him and tried to produce solution and he finally found the solution in Ankara. He learned that deaths were caused by the fish-feeds of poor quality. Özpek who solved the problem and started to grow the business encountered with another obstacle. That obstacle was the marketing problem which they faced with. Özpek who realized that Anatolian people did not consume enough amount of fish gave up on fishing and started to sell white appliance.

He obtained successful statistics in the trade and earn high amount of money. However, he remembered how much he loved the business of fishing when his son brought the fish he had caught in the lake and tried to live it within a bathtub and directed himself towards fishing once again.

To become the best in the field

Özpek who started to establish trout facilities subsequently traveled the Aegean and Mediterranean Regions and detected the clean water resources. Stating that they could not sell any product in the domestic market in the crisis experienced after 1994, Özpek leaned that fume fish could not be made in Turkey and he directed his efforts towards this field.

He started his exporting activities upon the visit of an authorized personnel of a German firm who wanted to import fish from Turkey. More precisely, the first samples were sent to Germany. Even though the samples analyzed were better than the products of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, he found out that some rumors were spread that “Turks send best sample but worst products in the end”.

Özpek who got upset and offended by the situation did not ask any guarantee for his product because he was sure about his product. In the end, he was able to meet the export demand for 15 tones by working for 2 days and 2 nights without giving any break with his employees even though they were placed order higher than their actual capacity.

He established one of the first business facilities of fishing in a closed area for 496 square meters as a big step. Business person who grew in each day shared his knowledge and experience with his sons. They got the capacity to produce trout in 4 thousands of tones easily in 10 farms in different cities including Denizli.

Meeting with Polat Makina

Mustafa Özpek who grew his factory upon the efficiency he got established a feed factory to integrate production, feeding and processing. He found out that he was in need of a machinery to separate the protein and fat in the fish wastes. He searched and consulted to the people who have knowledge in this field and knocked the doors of Polat Makina.

Özpek who met with and realized the similarities of the life story of İbrahim Polat, the Chairperson of Board of Directors of Polat Group with his own life story wanted to work with this business person. Musraga Özpek who found the opportunity to visit the factory of Polat Makina said that: “I felt proud of the technology which I witnessed. The respect which I have had for the person who was engaged in cold iron processing and then established this factory got intense while I was visiting the factory. I felt myself like I was wandering around my own factory. And I wanted to worked with this person who caused me to feel in this way.”

We would like to extend our gratitudes for Mustafa Özpek who wants to grow his business, enable his country to gain more exchange earning, provide higher level of employment and works hard to enable Turkey to show his power to the world for sharing his valuable time with us and we hope that the story of this successful entrepreneur will inspire those who want to follow their dreams.