Turkey's leading retail company Migros broke the record of the last 11 years in 2017 with a turnover of 15,3 billion TRY and a 39% of growth. In 2017, customers increased their purchasing at Migros as high as the total grocery expenditure of 11 cities. Evaluating the year 2017, Migros Ticaret A.Ş. General Manager Özgür Tort said: "2017 was a milestone for Migros. By incorporating Kipa and Tazedirekt to our organization, we have accelerated our growth rate of recent years. We have built a solid basis for our goal to achieve growth two times our size in 4 years. Except Kipa, we placed among the best examples in the global retail with our organic growth. Our Kipa integration process has the quality to be a course subject in terms of agility, speed and efficiency. We included 168 stores within our structure in only one day. After a long time, Kipa turned again its indicators to profit with us. " Underlining that they also made a jumpstart in 2018 by signing a contract on Uyum Market takeover, Tort stated: “At the beginning of 2018, we have signed a new takeover agreement with the power of our own growth and efficiency that we have created. We have taken steps to take over 56 Uyum Market stores throughout Turkey; 53 in Istanbul and 3 in Tekirdag, and 17 Makro Market stores in Antalya. We aim to continue our investments with a sustainable growth approach."

 

Reminding that next year, they will be celebrating 65^th anniversary of Migros, Tort emphasized: " Today we all pass through the gate of ’64.5’ together into the future. We are not only the most experienced retailer in this country, but we are the most energetic retailer with our innovative approach and our ability to present the future."

 

Tort continued his speech by stating that "Wondering is the element that carries energy to the future in science, in social life as well as in the trade. In the world, behind the major companies and inventions, there is always curiosity. When you are curious, you take a job and turn it into a passion. 64 years of Migros story can be summarized like that. 45 thousand Migros employees’ common characteristic is their interest in retail. There are many things we have learned with this curiosity from the peddler at our door, our suppliers, our competitors and the retailers all over the world. But, for 64 years, we mostly learned from our customers. We are curious about what our customers purchased, what they want to buy, how, where and when they want to buy them. Migros reborn every day with this curiosity and passion. "

 

Underlining Migros' access ratio to the Turkish households is 80%, Tort added, "The curiosity key has opened 64 million doors to Migros in 64 years. Every morning, in our 1898 stores nationwide, we say good morning to our customers. Our products, which pass through the hands of 1 million people, including our suppliers and employees, enter the homes of 64 million people every day. We are working with the understanding of the service that embraces and contributes to every segment within the ecosystem of the retail industry. "

 

 

Underlining the fact that Migros is a Turkish brand, Özgür Tort said: “Today, we are in 81 cities of Turkey. For 64 years, we have grown in our land with our producers, employees and customers. In the music of Migros, there are tunes of every region.”

 

Indicating that in Migros stores, they are presenting a wide range of products from fruit and vegetables to meat, from branded products to private label products, Özgür Tort said: " We take alone 38 thousand kinds of products to every city we visit. Among these products, besides the national big brands, we have the best priced private label products of the market with the best quality, the kiwi of Arhavi, the Aegean artichoke, the red meat we produce in our facilities and even Anatolia's forgotten flavors. Migros stores are also the stage of our suppliers. Brands are always competing with each other by presenting the best to customers and striving to provide higher quality, better and more affordable products in an effort to become the preferred brand. For the customer, this mean right to select, freedom, quality and affordability. That's why we are the guarantee of our customer’s freedom to choose in grocery shopping. It is our greatest strength to present our customers the latest products in line with the Migros quality and standards. Today, 40 of every 100 products we present for sale are new products.”

Tort, stating that major axis in Migros' customer-oriented service mentality is the effort to contribute more to the customer budget, added: "As Migros, we made a claim to address the heart and mind of our customers. In the last 3 years, we have provided an ambitious sale without sacrificing quality by offering the best price on the market in basic necessities with our private label products and with the promotions we have realized throughout the year in all product groups. With this effort, the average unit price of food products entering the customer's basket has decreased by 11%. With our advantageous prices and promotions, a customer who makes food shopping from Migros for the whole year, makes in fact free shopping for one month.”

 

 

Tort, indicating that they closely follow the changing needs and demands of the Migros customers, gave the following information: "We are the retailer having highest sales rate in fruits, vegetables, meat and fresh bakery products. Customers showed significant demand to our local breeding and healthy red meat, processed in our own facility which is the Turkey’s largest meat processing center. Our local farmers have also benefited from this. However, even though we have started to operate in 81 cities, unfortunately we still cannot make the sales of meat provided by Meat and Milk Institution. As happened in the previous years, it is important that all retailers having adequate substructure have access to this distribution."

 

Tort stated, "Where retail starts and where it ends? We have a service understanding that goes beyond the limits when our customer demands. Retail is our main business. We are constantly expanding the boundaries of our sector with our new products and applications.

To illustrate, in the last four months of the previous year, at the request of our customers, we started serving the meatballs we produce in our own facilities cooked hot and ready to eat”.

 

 

 

Tort, explaining that they are investing in innovative projects and multiple channels to make their customers' lives easier and give them unique opportunities, stated: "New applications in the world are not a surprise for us. Because, we have already started to research and begun to work on them, in order to realize beneficial technologies long well in advance. Our teams are gathering in our colorful, new generation halls and constantly producing new projects in small and large groups."

 

Expressing that they are simultaneous and pioneering with the global retail on digital and mobile platforms, Tort continued his words as follows:

 

"The Jet Kasa application that we started 9 years ago was very instructive for us and our customers. Through intelligent systems with learning algorithms, we are able to present new offers and treats to our customers that are exclusive to them. We have recently added the "M Easy" feature to the Migros Mobile application, which is now in the pocket of 4.3 million people. Thus, our customers scan barcodes during shopping and directly put products to their shopping bags and they can make payment without having spent time in the cash point. With our 8,000 cash registers throughout Turkey's 81 cities, we are the first and only retailer offering mobile payment option that much widespread in the physical environment.”

 

Tort stated, "We reached world standards of online sales in food retail with the Migros Sanal Market and we increased our same-day delivery rate to 60%. We have added "What Ran Out at Home" feature to Migros Sanal Market, which is constantly updated. In this way, we are reminding our customers about the products that are about to run out at their home with algorithms working according to the shopping frequency of our customers. What is run out at their home, we know before our customers."

 

Özgür Tort, who underlined the fact that they have been reinforcing the country economy, producers and retail for 64 years and will continue to do so, stated that with the employment, economic prosperity and benefits to producers that Migros provides in its regions of operation the company is one of the greatest supporters of the economy.

 

Tort mentioned that Migros reversed migration moves in the big cities with its stores opened in 81 cities, product purchase guarantee given to producers and employment provided to residents. Indicating that retail is the regional development locomotive, he said: “Migros store brings dynamism where it is opened, it adds value. Migros brings in fact life to wherever it is opened. Through our network of stores across Turkey, we offer employment opportunities in every city. The number of employees working in the Anatolian stores comprises 71% of our total number of employees. Besides, 54% of our employees are working in their hometowns ".

 

Pointing out that not just Migros itself, but the development of our community in general was important to them, Tort gave the following information:

 

"We are conducting free of charge vocational and skill courses in 33 different branches in our Family Clubs giving service in 14 locations in the 11 cities. With the knowledge and skills that they acquire in these courses, besides providing support to their personal development, they also build their own businesses and thus contribute to the welfare of their families. Thanks to our digital platform; Migros Women Ambassadors, which close to its first year, our 30 thousand women members are both socializing and contributing to the family budget with the scores they earn.”

 

Özgür Tort, who explained that with the support they provide to farmers they are pioneering the creation of new production areas in Turkey and helping to cultivate products that will provide additional income, underlined that: " We are now able to cultivate products like kiwi and avocado, which had been imported up to now, in our own soil to support the economy of our own country. Besides, with our brand Anadolu Lezzetleri (Tastes of Anatolia), we are having regional flavors that are all but forgotten being cultivated in our own land. New generation farmers are also rediscovering these products. The masters in these regions are applying recipes in accordance with their original prescriptions. Thus, we contribute in the regional development."

 

 

Özgür Tort, who stated that they are among the pioneers of the global retail sector not only with numerical successes but also with their work in the field of sustainability, added that they made the concept of sustainability a natural reflex. Emphasizing that Migros is working on being responsible and productive in all its works, Tort stated: "We are focusing on growing while living and reviving while growing."

 

Özgür Tort, who is also serving as the Co –Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), the umbrella organization of the world’s leading retail and producer companies, said that Migros plays an active role in determining the global goals in the field of sustainability.  He pointed out: "As all CGF member companies, we have committed to the work for community health. Migros has also accelerated its works in accordance with these commitments." Stating that, they started a major health movement today, Tort said: "In the 28 stores in 14 cities across Turkey we have established "Migros Wellbeing Journey" areas. We will conduct an awareness raising study on balanced nutrition by observing the shopping habits of our customers along with our nutrition experts. We will show our customers a breakdown of their own purchases through Migros Mobile App and offer them a personal discount on the food group that they appear to be lacking as a healthy living recommendation. At the same time, we will inform them to make their daily life more active with simple exercise proposals. "

 

Tort said “All of the CGF member companies are conducting an international effort to make product contents more transparent and to provide consumers with online and mobile access to these contents. Migros is leading the Turkey arm of this effort”.

 

Tort also gave the following information about the efforts to prevent food waste:

 

" Our priority objective is to reduce food disposal by 50 percent by the year 2025. To achieve that, we are making improvements by reviewing all of our processes and operations. We offer a 25 to 50 percent discount on fresh products with oncoming expiration date to avoid food waste. With the discounts made within this scope, we saved food product disposal in 2017 in an amount equal to one year's turnover of 3M Migros store. In 2017, we started delivering fruits and vegetables that protect their nutritional value to the Food Banks and social markets on a daily basis. Within the year over 138 thousand meals reached the tables of people in need."