Hacı Ömer Sabancı

Who was Hacı Ömer Sabancı?

Hacı Ömer Sabancı was a Turkish entrepreneur, who founded a number of companies, which later formed the second largest industrial and financial conglomerate of Turkey, the Sabancı Holding. He initiated the establishment of a dynasty of Turkey's wealthiest businesspeople.

He was born in Akçakaya, a small village in Kayseri Province in central Anatolia, Turkey. In 1921, a couple of years after the death of his father, the then fifteen-year-old youngster left his hometown and walked all the way to Adana to seek his fortune. He started his new life as a cotton picker. Soon, he became a broker for cotton harvesters. With the money he saved in a few years, Hacı Ömer entered the cotton trade, and in 1932 became a co-owner of a cotton spinning plant. At that time, the people working for him called him "Aga". In 1943, he became a partner of YağSA, and in 1946 of MarSA, both production plants of vegetable oil and margarine, respectively. In 1948 Hacı Ömer established his own bank Akbank. In 1951 in Adana he founded the textile company Bossa, which became the largest integrated textile facility in Turkey. In the following years, he founded Oralitsa, a roofing material factory, and Aksigorta, an insurance company.