Being a senior student at the department of mechanical engineering, Hamdi Akin started his career with the encouragement of his father at Akfen Holding, one of the biggest investment groups in Turkey today, in 1976. We have put together the establishment story of Akfen Holding, the company that first started with a 10 square meter boiler making project and completed 41 years and entered its’ 42nd year, along with a photo album and declarations from Hamdi Akin for Strategy readers.

HAMDI AKIN was only 22 years old when he first established Akfen Holding back in 1976. He was a senior in college and therefore there was only a year left for him to graduate however he was not able to continue his studies due to the political situation in school. So he decided to jump into the business. With the help of his father, he opened up a small factory in Emek District, Ankara and everything started with this movement.

At a TV show, Hamdi Akin explains those days as: I wanted to be a Physics Engineer but my dad wanted me to be a mechanical engineer. So I took courses for it for a year. I passed the exam for the Physics department at Hacettepe University but I didn’t enroll and instead waited for a year. At last, I started my college education in the year of 1972. At those times, there were political issues at schools, therefore, we were given off from school many times. I was able to graduate in the year of 1977. I planned my graduation from college for June 1976. At that time, my father was working at a company named Ari Kazan. Ari Kazan was an atelier which was established by my aunt’s husband. It was very popular to make mechanical things like boilers, heating boilers etc.

Business people from different parts of Turkey were buying lands by using flat for a land method and constructing buildings in Asagi Ayranci, Kecioren, Emek District and Bahcelievler. Every building had to have a heating boiler, water booster, and a heat exchanger. As Turkey was poor in foreign currency and imports were not allowed, we were providing all needs locally. Therefore %50 -60% of mechanical engineers were getting into these kinds of businesses after graduation. I mean they were doing heating and ventilation mostly. My father also left Ari Kazan and got into this kind of stuff with the help of his foreman. They had an open field of 500 square meters. In this field, there was a closed area which included a table, a phone and a safe for cold air conditions. Almost all factories were alike. Their rent was about 500 TL in today’s worth. Almost all of the major industry’s districts what I call the main industries were leased in this way. Small businesses were also doing their jobs by paying their rent. “

“BUSINESSMEN OF GUNEYCE COFFEE HOUSE”

Let us break in here. Hamdi Akin not only talks about how he started his business but also points out the period that Turkey was in. Imports are not allowed, it’s very hard to find foreign currency, student upheavals are getting worse.

Let’s continue with Hamdi Akin’s statements. At my senior year in college, we were recently moved to Emek district. There was a coffee house at the entrance of our building. It was named Guneyce Coffee House. People from Guneyce town near Rize that moved to Ankara were hanging out here. Many contractors, concrete masters, and master carpenters were coming to that coffee house. They were almost creating a stock exchange. In the evenings, they all were coming here from work, played cards and talked about their days. You can think of it as a small lobby that is created when business people come together. I was hanging out with these people, I was playing games with them. When I graduated from college, they all knew me very well. One day my father told me that the field right next to our building emptied. he said “let’s rent that field, you being in charge, and start your business slow by slow. I have a partner, therefore it would not be right for me to do a second business here but if you’d like, I would pay for the first 3-4 months. The owner of the field is such a nice person, we could start it all for you here”.

THE FIRST STEP, THE FIRST TRANSFER

It was the year 1976 and I was not graduated yet and school was closed. We just needed to study to be able to graduate. We were going to go to 2,3 different schools in addition and take classes that we did not take before. That was the program. I said ok I will work and we rented the field as my dad suggested. I was only 22 at the time. We started with a safe and a table. I was going to school once or twice a week. There was a foreman called Master Asir. 5 out of 5 boilermen were interested in him. Work that he was doing was nothing similar to the others. He was very careful at what he did. He was a perfectionist. He was working at a place called Eser Boiler. His salary was 1500 TL and I offered him 2000TL plus bonus. And there was a guy that was bringing water to our house. We took him too as he was strong and we needed to carry very heavy materials such as pipes and plates. Constructors at Guneyce Coffee House told us to make a boiler for the mosque for a start. A 10 square meter tank was needed. I also did my graduation project in steam generators. Steam generators are the big brothers of generators. It was pretty easy for me to make a steam generator so I said yes right away.

I was going to make 10000TL. They gave me an advanced payment of 2000TL. So I was done with my 4 months of rent right away. Buy what you need and start right away they said. I didn’t pay in total for the supplies. It was very easy to buy materials such as pipes and plates by using vouchers as there was no such thing as an interest before the year 1980. A dollar was worth around 10 TL and was stable and the interest rate was about 1% per year.

WE WERE INSPIRED FROM THE NAME OF TEKFEN

Another curiosity about Akfen is where its name is originated. Well, here is the answer:

“Meanwhile, some may be curious to know where the name originates from. Akfen had a partner; I was not alone. We founded the company as 50/50 partnership. And my partner was a friend of mine called Kemal Aksu, my assistant at the university. He was four years older than me. When I began studying at the university, he was taking part in the technical drawing lessons. At that time, Nihat Özdemir, Sezai Bacaksız, Kemal Aksu, Yasin Ekinci and Nihat Özdemir’s wife were assistants at the university. We took the prefix ‘Ak’ present both in my family name and the family name of my partner and called ourselves ‘Akfen’ since we decided to engage in business having to do with fen (engineering). And at that time, Tekfen was very famous. Tekfen was in charge of the project Baku-Ceyhan-Tbilisi pipeline and it was a very big engineering company. We were inspired from them.”