Lütfü Doruk is the founder and first general manager of Arçelik, the Turkish white goods and home electronics manufacturer. Born in 1905 in Istanbul to a Turkish Circassian family, he studied in Germany at the Berlin Technical University in the mid 1920s. He then worked in Berlin at AEG and Siemens as a young engineer. Following his return to Turkey, he setup an office filing and storage equipment company under the name of Erel Çelik in Istanbul. During the war years, he managed the Dalyan fish farm in Köycegiz where he introduced modern farm fishing practices. After the war, having partnered with Vehbi Koç, he transformed Erel Çelik into Arçelik in 1955. Under his guidance, Arçelik became Turkey’s largest privately owned company. As one of the forefathers of Turkish industry, he captained Arçelik for another decade until 1970. Arçelik became a pioneer of many modern industrial practices in Turkey in many domains ranging from sales and marketing, research and development and the establishment of a country wide service and maintenance network for its goods. He was known for his entrepreneurial spirit having started the domestic manufacturing of many household goods including washing machines and refrigerators. But also for his care of the white and blue collar staff of Arçelik nick named “Baba” or father of the company. During his time, Arçelik also started the manufacturing of auto rickshaws but eventually the production had to be ceased because of the competition risk it created for the automotive arm of the Koç group of companies. Lütfü Doruk then sold the rickshaw production molds to a manufacturer in India which started to produce the TukTuks for the Indian market. He passed away on 29 October 1989 at the age of 85.
References 1. https://libdigitalcollections.ku.edu.tr/digital/collection/VGK/id/7667/ 2. https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2021/yazarlar/ege-cansen/bir-esegin-yaptigi-esseklik-6233559/ 3. https://www.capital.com.tr/is-dunyasi/soylesiler/isle-gecen-50-yilin-oykusu 4. https://www.milliyet.com.tr/yazarlar/gungor-uras/tskb-60-yasinda-1263700
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