Honorary Chairman
Saim Tosun
was born in 1953 in Çepni Village, Mudanya district of Bursa, and completed his primary school education in Çepni village, his secondary education at Mudanya Demircilik School and his vocational education at Tophane Vocational High School. Achieving many successes during his half-century of business life, Saim Tosun today provides employment opportunities for more than five hundred people with four companies affiliated to the group.
A Success Story. Everything is like the embodiment of a success story... A person who was started in life at an early age without being able to live his childhood to the fullest... The years flowing from apprenticeship to mastery...
A workshop founded on a hope, a whim... And the lives that transformed from employee to employer... The story of self-confidence, doing one's job right, perseverance, hard work and of course a little bit of daring and courage... An example of what working people can achieve when given the right support at the right time and in the right way...
What we are about to tell is a success story... A story that started in Mudanya and ended happily in Bursa... This is the story of a joyful journey that starts with apprenticeship and leads to leadership.
Saim Tosun was thrown into life early... His father was a farmer... A middling, self-sufficient man... He wanted his son to acquire a profession... To learn an art... To add a a string to his bow... He was not even 12 years old when he was sent to Mudanya Apprenticeship School... 2 years later, he had already started working in a factory... On lathes, in press workshops... He worked, he struggled; he became a journeyman, he became a master... After doing his military service and returning to his old job, Saim Tosun said "it's time"... It's time to realize his dreams... But how was he going to tell his father? "I couldn't say, 'We're going to take a loan and get into this kind of business. Because my late father was afraid of debt. If you say such a thing to a person living on their own means in the village, you reduce their life expectancy from 10 years to 3 years. After we four friends decided and opened the shop, I bought the first lathe, and 4 months later I told him. Moreover, I told him the figures of the promissory notes divided by four. So if the promissory note is 100 liras, I told my father 25 liras so he wouldn't get worried. In those days we had no income, we were working in a factory on salary. Yes, four friends were on their way... Joining hands, joining forces... All of them are masters of their art. With what they save from their salaries. The year was 1981... ''We thought that we could do business together in the mold, production and rubber sector and started to work. We never thought about money when we started. We bought the presses we call arm rubber presses and started to work. The work we were doing, the field we were producing was still an uncommon field in Turkey. We started making sealing elements. We have made rapid progress. We spread very quickly because the market was demanding. We expanded beyond Bursa and started to produce parts for Adana, Ankara, Istanbul and almost everywhere in Turkey.''
They had come a long way, the place they had reached was beyond their dreams... It was necessary to expand their business, to speed up production... They said, "Let's build a factory"... But is it easy to build a factory when you have nothing? "The first thing we did was to buy a plot of land. Then we added one two machines. But land is not enough, we also need to do construction...'' Years pass... Every day their business grows more and more... But the four friends have come to a crossroads... They are separated from each other... Saim Tosun would walk alone from now on... And so he did...
"When we came to the year 2000, we thought of being a little more focused on automotive. I wanted to grow up a little more actually. There were risks, but we embarked on this path with the courage of our practical upbringing...''
Laspar is the name of his company... And it is developing rapidly... He will move forward with the determination of coming from scratch to today... At first, Laspar, which set out to fill the gap in the market by seeing the lack in Turkey, opens abroad in a short time after its rapid development... LASPAR; Audi, BMW, Ford, Volkswagen has become producing parts for world automotive giants such as...
A business life that started with apprenticeship at a young age... A person who progresses with his talents, self-confidence and diligence... A company that has entered the first thousand in Turkey and the first fifty in Bursa in exports from zero point...
Video Narration of Saim Tosun's Life Story