diff --git a/kafka/create-topics.sh b/kafka/create-topics.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..e07bf06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kafka/create-topics.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+
+if [[ -z "$START_TIMEOUT" ]]; then
+    START_TIMEOUT=600
+fi
+
+start_timeout_exceeded=false
+count=0
+step=10
+while netstat -lnt | awk '$4 ~ /:'$KAFKA_PORT'$/ {exit 1}'; do
+    echo "waiting for kafka to be ready"
+    sleep $step;
+    count=$(expr $count + $step)
+    if [ $count -gt $START_TIMEOUT ]; then
+        start_timeout_exceeded=true
+        break
+    fi
+done
+
+if $start_timeout_exceeded; then
+    echo "Not able to auto-create topic (waited for $START_TIMEOUT sec)"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if [[ -n $KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS ]]; then
+    IFS=','; for topicToCreate in $KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS; do
+        echo "creating topics: $topicToCreate" 
+        IFS=':' read -a topicConfig <<< "$topicToCreate"
+        JMX_PORT='' $KAFKA_HOME/bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --zookeeper $KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT --replication-factor ${topicConfig[2]} --partition ${topicConfig[1]} --topic "${topicConfig[0]}"
+    done
+fi