The “Stars of the Year Award Ceremony,” where Yıldız Holding companies compete with remarkable projects, celebrated its 15th anniversary this year. The contest, which rewards projects that focus on business results as well as those that create social impact, received 236 applications in 10 categories. The winners were selected among these projects by the votes of 75 thousand Yıldız Holding employees and the main jury.

Yıldız Holding’s held its annual “Stars of the Year Award Ceremony” at Ülker Sports and Event Hall, bringing together employees worldwide.

After a moment of silence in memory of the Yıldız Holding employees and citizens who lost their lives in the Kahramanmaraş and Hatay earthquake disasters, Yıldız Holding Head of Global Legal and Public Affairs and Board Member İbrahim Taşkın delivered the ceremony’s opening speech, addressing the social contribution Yıldız Holding enabled based on its “Make Happy, Be Happy” philosophy throughout the year and the disaster relief efforts it implemented. Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper, who attended the event as a guest, also delivered a speech highlighting sustainability.

Mehmet Tütüncü: “We will continue creating value and enhancing social contribution.”

In his inspiring speech on leadership in a changing world, Yıldız Holding Vice Chair and CEO Mehmet Tütüncü said: “Demonstrating the value created through innovative projects driven by shared wisdom in line with our participative leadership approach, the 15^th Stars of the Year Award Ceremony is a solid example of our sustainable success. As a continuously learning and agile organization, we added new categories that reflect the spirit of our time to our award program this year. Under current conditions, no single person or organization can secure success independently. Our connections matter as much as our networks and the only road to success is through collaboration.”

Mehmet Tütüncü added: “As we navigated in a constantly changing and uncertain business world, we have always been open to relearning that is instilled in our DNA. In line with our philosophy of “Make Happy, Be Happy,” which serves as a compass that ensures we move in the same direction as an organization, we maintained our sustainable success, deriving our strength from Yıldız Holding’s global values. We will continue creating value as we reveal our potential with a focus on efficiency, digitalization, and people and maintain our profitable growth. The leading role of this transformation features our employees, that is, the stars of this year and future years. I urge everyone, including myself, to remain open for collaboration and inspiration, take brave actions, and create opportunities to celebrate our shared achievements as we are doing today.”

Ali Ülker: “We keep contributing to a sustainable future through our efforts.”

Highlighting the fact that he considers the Stars of the Year Ceremony, which encourages innovation and sustainability on a global scale, a point of pride, Yıldız Holding Chair Ali Ülker said: “Today, the companies’ success is measured not only by their financial performance but also talent management, social investments, and value generation to ensure business sustainability. We continue our efforts toward creating value across our entire ecosystem and transforming together through our sustainability vision of “This Is Our World.” The theme of this year’s Chair’s Special Award is Environmental Sustainability.”

Emphasizing the necessity of taking action and making more effort today to leave a better world to future generations, Ülker expressed his wish to reward projects devised through a holistic perspective and going beyond savings to add value to society. Congratulating the 16 finalist teams, Ali Ülker shared his expectation of projects that make a higher impact for a sustainable future.

The Holding nullified the event’s carbon footprint

Operating with a goal of “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050, Yıldız Holding nullified the event’s carbon footprint through a collaborative effort with Sustainability Academy.

The winners of the 15^th Stars of the Year Awards:

• Contribution to Growth: Kerevitaş - “SuperFresh’s Growth Strategy for the High-Discount Grocery Store Chain Channel”
• Operational Excellence: pladis Türkiye – “Ülker Çikolata Kalitede 1 Numara”
• Best Marketing Campaign: Kerevitaş – “Refika Birgül ile SuperFresh Bi’Yolculuk”
• Best Market Share Development: pladis Türkiye – “Ülker Çikolata Büyük Tabletler”
• Innovation: pladis United Kingdom (UK) – “Blissfuls brand”
• Digital Transformation: ŞOK Marketler – "QR Code Payment Platform"   
• Investing in People: Polinas Türkiye – “Employee Development and Employee Experience”
• Happiness: Corporate Social Responsibility: pladis Türkiye & UK-“Beyond Cocoa”
• Social Media Heroes: Kerevitaş – “Bizim Yağ Digital Leadership Project”
• Chair’s Special Award / “Environmental Sustainability”: Instead of rewarding a single finalist in this category, all 16 projects that applied were announced at the ceremony.