UCUZCULAR GIDA MADDELERI SANAYI VE TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI

The story of Ucuzcular Spices started over 480 years ago in the city of Taif, which was an Ottoman province back then. The family, which was sent to Taif in order to populate the area with Turkish people after Ottoman Empire conquered this city. The family moved to Egypt after spending 30 years with trading. After spending a long time trading spices in Egypt, the family decided to carry away their decades of experience to Istanbul, the heart of the Ottoman Empire. In Istanbul, they continued their business in Misir Carsisi (Spice Market), which they are familiar with due to their previous endeavors. In the following period, they focused on one particular product, roasted chickpeas after they started exporting this product and, local people started to recognize the family as "Leblebiciler" ("chickpeas sellers"). Around 1840s "Leblebici Sari Ibrahim Efendi" (he was known as "Sari" because of his blonde hair and blue eyes) exchanged all his gold coins into Ottoman Empire's newly released paper money. Unfortunately, the validity of this new money was cancelled after a short while, but due to some injustices he could not exchange his money back to gold and therefore lost all his cash fortune. Due to this occasion, Sari Ibrahim Efendi burned all the paper money he had, sold all his properties which were located on "Leblebici Sokak" ("Leblebici Street") (this street, which is located near Eminonu belonged to Sari Ibrahim Efendi with the properties on it; thus was and still is named after the family) and moved to Malatya in eastern Turkey. Using the money from this sale, Sari Ibrahim Efendi purchased the whole area today known as "Niyazi Misri Mahallesi", which includes "Leblebici Street" in Malatya. "Haci Ali Efendi" (locally known as "Haceli") was grown to be a "Kadi" (a judge ruling in accordance with the sharia, Islamic religious law; the family's current surname roots from "Haceli" s job). His other son was a governing official of Malatya for a short time. After working as a Kadi for a while, Haceli opened a herbalist shop with the help of his father's knowledge; laying the foundations of Ucuzcular Baharat. Huseyin Efendi, one of Haci Ali Efendi's sons grew up helping up his father in this shop and later took over the management. Huseyin Efendi helped people of Malatya during World War I, curing them with medical herbs. Out of Huseyin Efendi's sons only Dursun continued after his father's footsteps. The family, which was known as "Leblebiciler" or "Kadilar" up to then started to be known as "Ucuzcular" in Dursun Efendi era.Although he started his education on early 1900's, he finished high school and attended to university, studying pharmaceutics; but after spending one year at the university, he had to return to Malatya due to his father's illness. After he started working, Dursun Efendi developed the business and established a store which is equivalent to a contemporary supermarket.Dursun Ucuzcu's sons started to work with their father in 60's and 70's. At late 70's, they all moved to Istanbul and started trading food products in bulk at the location called "Yag Iskelesi" those days, but due to inconsistent economy, they had to shut down their business. A short while after changing their surname into "Kadioglu" (son of Kadi) they bought the shop at Spice Market No51, they established the company "Ucuzcular Gida Maddeleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.". With the efforts of Dursun Efendi's sons, Ucuzcular Baharat became one of the most important spice sellers of the bazaar. With the establishment of the factory at Catalca at 1995, Ucuzcular started to process spices besides trading them. Until the death of Yilmaz Kadioglu at 1999 Ucuzcular maintained its place at the spice industry. Since June 2006, Yilmaz Kadioglu's children Ahmet and Bilge are managing the company and working in order to carry their ancestors' efforts and experiences.