Our founder and beloved elder, the late Ömer Faruk Arıkan, was a successful member of the Arıkan family, which played a pioneering role in the social and commercial life of Kahramanmaraş. He entered commercial life in 1950. He established enterprises in every link of Çukurova's cotton-based economy; accumulating experience and capital through agricultural trade, ginning and oil production, and eventually spinning production, he gradually moved towards more industry-oriented and scaled stages of production.
In the early stages of industrialization, after establishing several sole proprietorship and partnership factories, he made investments towards scaling and modernizing production. Concurrent with Turkey's opening to the outside world in the 1980s, he brought many technological machines, equipment, and know-how from Europe to the region, thus raising the quality and efficiency level of local production to international standards.
During this period, he transformed Arsan, which he established in 1984 as a large-scale, modern industrial facility centralizing production, into one of Europe's largest capacity textile production facilities—not just regionally but continentally. This scale leap served as an early indicator of investment in technology, operational discipline, and sustainable production understanding.
Ömer Faruk Arıkan did not only develop his own factories; he encouraged local producers to help textile and machinery industries take root in the city, supported collaborations, and led efforts to facilitate access to financing and investment support. This approach made a significant contribution to Maraş becoming one of Turkey's exemplary industrial cities since the development drive of the 1980s.
Today, the disciplined growth, productive asset focus, strong cash flow, and prudent balance sheet management adopted by Arsan is the continuation of this foundation laid by Ömer Faruk Arıkan, now multiplied, diversified, and institutionalized. The industrial culture he established continues to shape not only Arsan's past but also its strategy, risk perception, and long-term value creation approach.