Mustafa Bildircin
Greed for profit and lack of oversight led to yet another workplace fatality. Six workers lost their lives in an explosion at the Ravive Cosmetics perfume filling plant in the Dilovası district of Kocaeli. It was learned that two of the workers who lost their lives were children. Following the incident, an investigation was launched by the Gebze Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Kurtuluş Oransal, one of the owners of the workplace, was arrested in Yalova. It was alleged that Oransal was preparing to flee, as suitcases were found in his vehicle. It was reported that İsmail Oransal, another owner of the company, had gone into hiding.
GREED FOR PROFIT
It emerged that a complaint had been filed with CİMER regarding the business before the explosion, citing ‘child labour,’ but that the complaint had been ignored. While the events led to comments that ‘lack of oversight and impunity led to the deaths of the workers,’ a new detail was uncovered that revealed the role of greed for profit in the industrial homicide. BirGün examined the company’s reported profit figures to the Revenue Administration for the 2022-2024 period.
The company was established on 8 June 2020 by Altay Ali Oransal and İsmail Oransal with a total capital of 3 million TL. The company changed its address twice, in June 2021 and July 2024. The company moved its headquarters to Ataşehir, Istanbul, and established its perfume filling facility in Dilovası, Kocaeli.
The company reported a profit of 27,982 TL in 2022. The company’s profit soared to 1,436,216 TL in 2023. The end of 2024 was the period when the company’s profit reached its highest level. Accordingly, the company announced a profit of 1,858,479 TL at the end of 2024 and as of 2025. The 66-fold increase in the company’s profit between 2022 and 2025 was noteworthy.
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CİMER COMPLAINT
It was revealed that employees of the company, where six workers lost their lives in an explosion and subsequent fire, had filed a complaint with CİMER in 2024 regarding inadequate conditions in the warehouse. The complaint letter stated, in summary:
“In the Mimar Sinan neighbourhood of Dilovası district, Kocaeli, next to the İş Bankası branch and adjacent to the Vahdet Mosque, 15 workers at a workplace without a nameplate, where perfume is manufactured and bottled, are mostly working without insurance and without occupational safety. Women in need are being exploited, threatened with dismissal and paid 70 TL for meals, with the instruction to “eat your own food”. I am complaining to our great state about the insatiable business owner. I request that the necessary action be taken.”
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Ravive kârında 66 kat artış, published in BirGün newspaper on November 10, 2025.
