Small Industry and Big Industry in Çorum
Çorum’s industrial fabric consists of two layers: the small industrial sites that lean on the urban fabric and host craftsmanship and maintenance work, and the big industry — Çorum OSB — producing at national scale and exporting. The two are not rivals but different links of the same production chain.
The Small Industrial Site
The Çorum Industrial Site (K.S.S) stretches along the Mimar Sinan–Ulukavak axis in the city centre:
- Trades: auto repair and service, machinery installation and maintenance, metalworking, electrical-electronics repair, plumbing and similar craft and maintenance work
- Structure: a settlement of small workshops and shops in an old-site pattern
- Access: in 2020 the municipality opened a third connection road to ease access to the site
As in many Turkish cities, the site’s problem is that it has gradually become cramped over the years, and the surrounding settlement now constrains site activities.
New Craftsmen Site: A Solution on the Way
This need is being met with a new investment under the S.S. Çorum Craftsmen Small Industrial Site Cooperative:
- Location: Approximately 6 km from the centre
- Area: 280,000 m² of construction on a 615,000 m² plot
- Target group: industrial craftsmen, primarily auto repairers and machinery installers and maintainers
Once the cooperative-run project is completed, businesses in the old site will move to modern workshops, and the central land will give the city room to breathe.
Big Industry: Çorum OSB
The hub of big industry is Çorum OSB, founded in 1977 and grown to 665 hectares: 167 firms, 7,930 employees, sectors from machinery to food, plastics to medical, exporting to 136 countries. Çorum Teknokent also lies within the zone.
Comparison
| Small Industry (K.S.S) | Big Industry (OSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | Workshop and small shop | Factory and production facility |
| Function | Maintenance, repair, craft | Mass production, export |
| Location | Adjacent to the centre | Ankara highway, km 12 |
| Management | Cooperative / site administration | Zone Directorate |
| Future | Moving to the new Craftsmen Site | Expansion and Teknokent synergy |
Place in the Economy
Small industry serves the supply and maintenance needs of OSB factories; OSB, in turn, carries the city’s growth through employment and exports. For the city’s general economic outlook see our Çorum Economy page; for its export success see Çorum’s Importance in Exports.
History (according to the book Çorum Tarihi)
According to Çorum Tarihi (Turkish, “History of Çorum”), the need for a small industrial site became clear once the Çorum Cement Factory was founded in 1955: maintaining and repairing the factory’s equipment and delivery vehicles, along with the machinery needs of brick and roof-tile workshops, drove rapid growth in various trades. This need led to the founding, in the 1960s, of a first small industrial site made up of carpenters, coppersmiths, blacksmiths and tinsmiths, followed in 1968 by a second site called the Yeni Sanayi Sitesi (New Industrial Site). When these two sites could not meet demand for workshop space, the S.S. Çorum Küçük Sanayi Sitesi Yapı Kooperatifi (building cooperative) was founded in 1972, seeking ministry support to turn tradesmen into shop owners (Çorum Tarihi, p. 329).
Per the book’s records, the cooperative completed land acquisition and project work between 1972 and 1983; the tender for a new site of 756 workshops in total was awarded in 1984 for roughly 4.7 billion TL. The project comprised four workshop groups: a first section of 330 units for blacksmiths, stove-makers, coppersmiths, copper founders, auto electricians and metal joiners; a second section of 24 units for tinsmiths; a third section of 144 units for carpenters, furniture-makers and sawyers; and a fourth section of 210 units for auto mechanics, body-repair shops, auto painters, lathe operators and tyre-retreading shops. The site’s roads, water, electricity and sewer infrastructure were built on the municipality’s behalf by TEK (the state electricity authority) and İller Bankası; at the time the book was written, the workshops were expected to be completed and handed over in 1988 (Çorum Tarihi, p. 329-332).
Sources
- Çorum Municipality — Third Connection Road to the Industrial Site
- Çorum OSB — Official Website
- Çorum Craftsmen K.S.S. Cooperative Announcements
- İlhan Tekeli, “1950-1980 Döneminde Kentin Faaliyetlerindeki Gelişmeler” (“Developments in the City’s Activities in the Period 1950-1980”), Çorum Tarihi (History of Çorum), 5. Hitit Festivali Komitesi; ed. Çorum Belediyesi Kent Arşivi, 3rd ed., Çorum Belediyesi Kültür Yayını, Çorum 2020, p. 329-332. https://www.corum.bel.tr/public/uploads/2026/01/corumtarihi.pdf