Esteemed stakeholders,

As one of Turkey’s leading food retail chains with 10,725 stores and a workforce of more than 46 thousand employees, we are growing steadily year after year. We take pride in being one of the largest employers in our country. We work continuously and tirelessly to render uninterrupted and quality service to our customers from the closest location to their homes. We were all deeply shaken by the devastating earthquake in early 2023. As ŞOK Marketler, we contributed our fair share to the rebalancing effort in our economy which was prompted in part by the global economic fluctuations. In this process, we continued our investments and locked arms with our employees and stakeholders. Despite rising costs and therefore prices globally, we froze our prices for one month in January 2023 in 1,000 products that are basic needs of a household, from rice, pasta, legumes, flour, tea, coffee, and sugar to cooking oil, margarine, potatoes, and onions, thereby supporting the economy and customer budgets. As we have done every year, we continued to support the fight against inflation in 2023.

We joined forces as a country to heal our wounds after the earthquake disaster in February. We acted as a pioneer in this effort with the understanding that the food retail industry has an important task as the provider of most basic human needs. In partnership with the related relief organizations, we delivered products from our stores and warehouses in the region to the people who were affected by the earthquake to meet their needs and help them get on their again economically. We served to meet the basic needs by making our stores operational quickly and opening container and prefabricated stores where needed. We prioritized the people who were affected by the earthquake in our hiring across the country during the year. We purchased and put on our shelves various produce items, such as the Hatay Arsuz lemon, grown by the farmers in the region and supported the continuity of production in the earthquake region.

As one of Turkey’s largest food retailers, we are contributing to our country’s social and economic development with our store network in 81 provinces. We are creating thousands of jobs with new store openings every year. We are proud to be one of the steadiest job creators and largest employers.

We strive to enable women and young employees to have a larger presence and to be more active in our ecosystem. We raised our share of women employees to 54% in 2023. We contribute to providing equal employment opportunities for women and economically empowering women through our corporate practices and social responsibility activities.

We opened 674* new stores in 2023 despite the challenging backdrop. Thanks to our customer-oriented business model, our net sales increased 80% on the previous year and reached TL 106.6 billion. We opened two new warehouses and reached a total of 40 warehouses. We made an investment of TL 2.4 billion in 2023, including opening of new warehouses and stores. We give priority to women employees in hiring as part of our social benefit-oriented business model and growth strategy. We will improve our employment policy further based on our belief in the value added created by the power of women.

We strive to take our stores beyond being mere shopping venues and turn them into lifestyle spaces where customers can discover new experiences. While working hard to ensure customer satisfaction, we continue to invest in improving our digital infrastructure, human capital, and stores to adapt to rapidly changing trends. With our online shopping app Cepte ŞOK, we offer our customers the option to pay at the door at market prices and free same-day home delivery service. We will continue to improve our services in the digital field.

^* During the period from 01 January to 31 December 2023, 674 new stores were opened. This represents a net increase of 444 in the number of stores, including the 230 stores which were closed due to the earthquake.

We supported women economically.

Under ŞOK’s “Count Me In” project in which priority was given to the earthquake region, we offered for sale handmade products of various women’s cooperatives across the entire country in our stores and supported women economically.

We offer affordable prices on private label products such as Piyale, Mis, Mintax, Amigo, and Evin by controlling the production processes for these beloved and well-known quality products end-to-end. We work resolutely to deliver quality products to our customers at the most affordable prices and to support our customers’ budgets. To this end, we bring the quality produce grown by our farmers to our customers at the most advantageous prices with our “Fair Agriculture from Farm to Table” project. This project supports local production while preventing waste. Purchasing directly from the farmers enables us to exert full control over the supply processes from seed to table and to move produce from the field to the shelf with minimal waste.

Launched in 2023 and met with great interest, our loyalty program “Win” offers weekly campaigns in select products and brands, both in the stores and at Cepte ŞOK, in various product categories. Our customers earn cash by purchasing these campaign products and use their cash in subsequent store or Cepte ŞOK app purchases.

At the discount festival we organized in October in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of our Republic, we offered discounts of up to 50% on 1,000 products and conducted special Win campaigns. We are proud to be a pioneer in the industry while helping our customers’ budgets with our campaigns. Under the “from Unity to Blessing” approach, we have always stood by our country, producers, and customers, and will continue to do so.

The ŞOK’s “Count Me In” project which we carried out toward the end of the year was one of our most important initiatives in 2023. Under this project in which priority was given to the earthquake region, we offered for sale handmade products of various women’s cooperatives across the entire country in our stores and supported women economically. We aim to further expand the scope of this partnership, work with new cooperatives, and offer a larger variety of products in our stores.

While conducting these operations, we look after our future with a sustainability-centered approach. We share our results and new goals in our sustainability reports which we have been publishing regularly for six years. Starting in 2023, we began to have our sustainability reports independently audited for assurance. We strive to be a pioneer for the proliferation of model sustainability initiatives. Within the frame of our targeted “Waste-Free Company” model, we implemented practices that could serve as models. As part of our “Store Energy Efficiency Project,” we opt for energy efficient equipment in our stores, and we invest in automation technologies in high usage systems to increase the efficiency of energy consumption. Our environmental investment spending totaled TL 335.2 million in 2023 to improve our environmental performance. We strive to deploy digital capabilities optimally to achieve efficiency and increase our investments in digital infrastructure.

We strive to create lasting value for Turkey’s economy and be a sustainable company in every aspect. In accordance with this vision, we follow environmental, social, and economic developments and new applications in the area of digitalization; integrate these with our business conduct models; and clinch our financial success with the sustainable value we generate.

As a very large and close-knit family, we will continue to work tirelessly to attain our current goals and realize larger goals for the future.

Uğur Demirel

ŞOK Marketler Tic. A.Ş.

CEO