|
|
|
|
|
 |
 
|
||
Construction Site Journal: Please tell us about operation areas and organization of your company. Hüseyin Bilmaç: Our Company has been established officially in 1998 through partnership of Eczacıbaşı Holding and Koramic Building Products SA on the equal share basis. Purpose of the company was to produce products with higher quality at the domestic sector of building chemicals in Turkey. We planned to open the facility in September 1999, but opening date was deferred due to the earthquake disaster. We had commenced production activities in the beginning of 2000, and offered the preliminary products to the market. Eczacıbaşı Koramic Yapı Kimysalları AŞ. produces VitrA Fix brand products. As known, this brand is one of the most prestigious brands of Turkey, and deemed as equivalent of the quality. I can therefore say with pride that we have a production facility equipped with the most advanced technologies of Turkey and Europe at present. Our production capacity is 100.000 tons per year which includes powder, liquid, and paste type products. Technology of our factory is very important since our factory is unique in Turkey which is capable of carrying out production with such a capacity by means of only five employees. It has not been possible until now to achieve such a capacity with only five persons. Production of building chemicals is generally a labor-intensive sector. Our country experienced cheaper solutions in this sector for years in the past instead of making investments in automation and the concept of quality to be derived therefrom. These investments had not been deemed as a preferred method in the sector. Construction Site Journal: What do you mean by ‘five persons’, workers employed at the factory? Hüseyin Bilmaç: Yes, only five workers are employed in a shift due to automation. There is an automation system controlled fully via computers. Products are not touched by individuals until they are placed into the warehouse thanks to our production lines controlled by automation processes starting from entry of raw materials, and our production processes equipped with advanced technologies. This leads to high productivity and high production capacities, provides an advantage in responding to orders, and ensures continuity of quality since each lot of products has a uniform quality. Our portfolio of products contains tile adhesive mortars, grouting materials, primers and additives, water proofing materials, self-levelling compounds, cleaning materials, repair mortars and restoration plasters, epoxy resin based products, and silicone mastics. I can say with pride that we have received TSE certificates for our products in the first year of our company, and received EN 12002 and 12004 certificates for majority of our products last year. This has made great contributions to achievement of our export objectives. Therefore, I believe that we have filled a considerable gap in the sector. We are now attempting to offer innovative, different, and superior quality products based on demands of the construction sector for the building chemicals. We benefit from technical assistance of Koramic Group, a Belgium company and partner of EKY, and DESVRES, a French subsidiary of the said group which is the market leader of France in the sector of tile adhesives and grouting materials. Therefore these companies make great contributions to our R&D activities. DESVRES has an experience of over 40 years in this sector. A rather powerful entity emerges when we add the in-depth experience of Eczacıbaşı Group in the fields of production, quality, and process controls to the technically strong structure of our company. In parallel to this structure, our Vitra Fix brand products are made ready for utilization at each corner of Turkey via the highly organized and comprehensive distribution channel of Intema which successfully carries out our domestic and foreign sales and marketing activities. In this regard, I deem myself as a lucky director. It is rather important for us to have a technically powerful foreign partner, and benefit from reputation and experience of Eczacıbaşı Group at the marketplace. I believe that we have given a breath to the domestic construction sector with our company and our products, both of which are the products of this cooperation. Of course, we have an objective, i.e. to solve all the problems of the construction sector in a systematical manner, and ensure utilization of appropriate products at appropriate applications. And to provide systematical solutions for this purpose... In other words, we wish to fill a gap at the marketplace by producing systematical solution packs not by offering any independent product or a group of products in a commercial manner. With our expert staff, we offer ultimate solutions to professionals. In this regard, one of our main targets is to offer certain products which complement products of other manufacturer sister companies within the Building Group of Eczacıbaşı. Likewise, we have a close working relationship with the company named Eczacıbaşı Karoseramik. We extend this group of products in a rather quality and interesting manner by offering special products complementing each new product of Karoseramik for the purpose of complementing products of both Turkey and international markets, especially products of Eczacıbaşı Karoseramik. Generally speaking, technical compatibility of tiles and adhesives to each other is a factor which is always ignored, but leads to many boring problems. This is important for us because we are able to offer problem-free applications by means of extremely sensitive laboratory and market activities for the purpose of eliminating these problems as a group which produce both tiles and building chemicals. Based on my experience of many years, I can state that there are many problems suffered due to application errors. Because end users are generally tilers. We have really skillful tilers, and individuals who assume themselves as such. I think this is attributable to the lack of education and training. Therefore, as Eczacıbaşı Koramic Building Chemicals, we have been arranging training seminars for craftsmen since the last four years. With the tilers training seminars starting in this year, we aim to access to more than 2.500 tilers in 26 cities. The objective is to ensure that appropriate products are used for appropriate applications in an appropriate manner. We issue certificates of attendance to participants of these seminars. We consider converting these certificates into officially approved certificates of training in contact with the ministry of education in future years depending upon the business plan. Because I think that trained and conscious end users would facilitate our efforts. Construction Site Journal: Please provide us with information about VitrA Fix brand products. Hüseyin Bilmaç: Tile adhesive mortars are one of the product groups for which we are assertive. We have a rather comprehensive portfolio of tile adhesive mortars. We offer the most versatile portfolio of these products at the marketplace from standard type tile adhesives to a special tile adhesive with thick bed and large dimensions, a special flexible adhesive designed for adhesion of porcelain tiles to a special adhesive which has been specially formulated for swimming pool tiles, and does not deteriorate under underwater conditions, to fast settling elastic adhesives, a fast settling standard tile adhesive, our self-levelling tile adhesive which has been developed for export purposes, and we have launched to the domestic market, used for adhesion of rather large tiles or similar floor coating materials, and offers savings in respect of application time and workmanship, and two types of paste adhesives. Paste type adhesives have been developed for application of ceramic tiles to gypsum boards or concrete boards or wooden plates, or to porous surfaces such as gaseous concrete, ytong and etc. which have been preferred commonly at the construction sector during recent years. These products are also used for application of insulation boards and EPS boards to inner and outer façade surfaces. We are also assertive for grouting materials. We have a grouting material used to fill spaces of one to six millimeters, and spaces of three to fifteen millimeters. We also have a flexible grouting material which is an antibacterial product. It is an innovative product for Turkey. We have a grouting material having a rustic appearance. We also have a grouting material for industrial applications which is resistant to epoxy resin-based acids and bases. Our group of grouting materials include different products in 15 favorite color choices. Demands for a color not included in our color range may be produced immediately in case a sufficient quantity is ordered. The group of additives includes a primer which improves adherence, and provides a kind of preliminary insulation at application surfaces. We call this product VitrA Fix Film. We have a product called VitrA Fix Latex which improves all kinds of mortars, gives elasticity, and ensures water impermeability. We have two products for cleaning of tile surfaces. One of these products is VitrA Fix Net. Another one having the code no. P11 is in powder form used for cleaning of porcelain tiles. We have an impregnated surface preparation primer named Vitra Fix Epoprimer which is used for epoxy applications. Furthermore, we shall be able to offer solutions for any problem of tile cleaning and protection at the marketplace with VitrA Fix Stain Remover, VitrA Fix Paint Remover, VitrA Fix Joint cleaner, VitrA Fix Surface Protection Agent, and VitrA Fix Antimold to be launched to the market in May. Our range of water proofing materials contains a cement based, double-component water proofing material named VitrA Fix Proof. This is a water proofing material which can be applied to surfaces by means of a roll or brush or trowel before application of tiles at walls or similar surfaces which are exposed to water or humidity, or located under water. It can be applied to concrete, plaster or cement based surfaces at any wet areas such as bathrooms, showers, kitchens, terraces, balconies, swimming pools, water tanks, and etc. We also have a product named HydroStop launched last year. This product is an acrylic copolymer based liquid water proofing material. We also have a water repellent, transparent, and silicon emulsion-based primerl, and we offer this product rather for outer façades of buildings. In addition to these products, we are adding to our portfolio this year 6 different types of water proofing materials which can be used for professional applications in a more efficient manner. I think that we shall be able to obtain more efficient solutions with these products for professional applications. We also have self-levelling compounds. At present, we have a self-levelling compound of high mechanical resistance with polyamide fiber reinforcement at inner side which can be applied for thicknesses of 4 to 30 millimeters. This is a product with excellent technical properties which have been developed for industrial applications, and is highly distinguished among other products present at the marketplace. However, we are going to launch two new products of different coating thicknesses during this year in order to avoid any unfair competition at the marketplace, and not to stay behind competitors in a commercial sense in respect of this group of products. At present, we have two epoxy-based products in the group of repair mortars and restoration plasters. However, we shall launch three new cement-based products within scope of this group in June. Eposet is a product which is used for anchorage and repair purposes, and which we recommend especially for industrial applications and for use during laying of floor concretes. We also have a flexible grouting material named Epoflex which is used specially for building dilatation applications, and resistant to external influences and chemicals thanks to its epoxy-based character. Finally, we have a group of silicone mastic products. This group contains three products. One of them is an antibacterial product, one is also an acetic antibacterial but rapidly drying product, and the final one is a natural antibacterial product. All of our products are antibacterial, and we believe that we have filled a gap at the marketplace with these products in this regard. Furthermore, these products are used at production lines of our sister companies. Unlike many other manufacturers, we do not want to state “we have high objectives in the group of silicone products.” We state “we are present at the market of silicone products” with three products of superior properties. All of these products are produced at our facilities located at Bozüyük, Bilecik. Among the products planned to be launched within this year are five water proofing products, four floor adhesion products, five cleaning and maintenance products mentioned above, and new thermal insulation materials and two MS polymer products shall also be launched. With these products, we shall have realized our objective of launching 20 new products within the year 2005. Our objective is to offer to the construction sector products of superior quality which can be used from foundation to roof of a building. With these products, we aim to become a company recognized as a specialist company especially in the field of water insulation. Another objective of our company is not to lower the quality flag of Vitra. In fact, sound insulation is one of the product groups which are generally ignored in our country. Our foreign partner is a company which has achieved considerable successes in Europe. A set of five different products is a sound insulation solution. It is offered to customers as a pack, and may be used easily by expert applicators who are aware of importance of this application. Ceramic tiles may be laid as the top layer, and this system is able to provide a sound insulation of up to 40 decibels. Our marketing group is currently conducting feasibility studies regarding this segment. We may add this system to our portfolio depending upon results of these feasibility studies. For application purposes, we may consider to use available applicator vendors as well as their expert personnel staff trained by us. For the purpose of giving a new breath to external thermal insulation composite systems, we plan to gain a market presence starting from the second half of the year upon completion of our activities. Construction Site Journal: What is your primary target? Is development of the product portfolio or increasing sales volumes a primary objective for you? Hüseyin Bilmaç: The period of 2000 to 2004 was generally a rather problematic period for the building sector in Turkey. We had emerged at the marketplace during this period. We have suffered financial difficulties, but had by no means sacrificed quality. We saw that many large- or small-scaled companies offered products under versatile brands to the marketplace by sacrificing quality under the group of economic type products during the same period. However, we had avoided from such a practice since we had not found it appropriate for production and commercial logic of our company. I believe that we have succeeded in this practice. Because I can state with confidence that we are the market leader in terms of quality although we are not the market leader in terms of sales volumes in Turkey. Our preliminary target was to become the leader in terms of quality, and have succeeded in achieving this target. Being a market leader requires a presence at niche markets for certain products after the recent economic crises in Turkey. This is not logically compatible with objectives of Eczacıbaşı Group. It is not our expectation to become the market leader by producing and selling all kinds of products in this sector. It is our target to have a presence at each corner of our country by offering quality products with affordable prices together with our customers whom we call as business partners who seek for the optimum point at the marketplace. At present, we occupy the sixth rank, and we see that we have passed a long way to reach to this point during the last six years. Construction Site Journal: What about your market share? Construction Site Journal: How do your sales and distribution channels operate? Hüseyin Bilmaç: Our products are distributed through Intema. İntema is one of the largest sales and distribution channels of Turkey. İntema has local organizations at nine different regions of Turkey, and about one hundred and fifty authorized sellers. Our sales are carried out through these authorized sellers. Our vendors are situated at nearly each corner of the country. I can state that about 40% of our sales are carried out at Marmara region. In this year, we have aimed to make an investment in an auxiliary channel named the second circle. Construction Site Journal: What about your export activities? Hüseyin Bilmaç: Export is one of the very important concepts for us. We believe that we have pioneered the sector in Turkey in this regard. Export activities had not been deemed important in the domestic sector of building chemicals. Of course, it is not us who began export activities first, however, I can state that as a company of only four years old, we aim to realize one of the most important export activities of Turkey. We are actually exporting our products to 37 countries. Among these countries are Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Tanzania, Egypt, Algeria, Georgia, Lebanon, Island, Russia, Ireland, England, Greece, Azerbaijani, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. It may be wondered how we have expanded out sales to such huge number of countries. We have made use of the synergy created by Eczacıbaşı Group among its companies for this purpose. The group has marketing organizations in various countries of the world under the name VitrA, such as England, Germany, Russia, USA, and etc. And there are liaison offices in other countries. Consequently we have acquired a market presence easily. In fact, VitrA is a well known brand in many western countries. However we have gone beyond this point, and aimed to export our products to African countries. For example, we are shipping our products to Tanzania, and have made quotations for Benin, Gabon, Ivory Coasts, and Nigeria. It is interesting to see goods of Turkish origin in these countries. However our sales activities are focused mainly on the countries of the Middle East, Ireland, and England. I can say that we have become a very important brand in Ireland. Eczacıbaşı Karo Seramik, i.e. our sister company, has a production plant as well as a sales and distribution organization in Ireland. It is more difficult to make sales to Ireland and England than to Africa since quality is a more dominant factor in these countries. You can deem yourself very successful if you manage to compete with the local manufacturers in terms of both your prices and quality in these countries. Our products also have a market presence in Saudi Arabia, and also in Island which is a rather cold country. Building chemicals may give rather different reactions depending upon climate conditions at the time of application. Our product does not lead to problems in Island, and we also be able to provide with our clients in Saudi Arabia with a product which can be applied at high temperatures thanks to a different formulation. Construction Site Journal: What are the percentages of your domestic sales and export sales? Hüseyin Bilmaç: At present, export sales represent 35%, and domestic sales represent 65% of our total sales volumes. However we aim to achieve the ratio of 50/50% in respect of export sales and domestic sales. Construction Site Journal: What are your strategies in your public relations activities? Hüseyin Bilmaç: PR activities are managed by Intema. We have a central management system for PR activities of all the entities of the building group. Advertising activities and similar activities are carried out by EKY. PR is a comprehensive concept which includes not only seminars but also fairs. As Eczacıbaşı Building Group, we participate in fairs as a group pursuant to a joint concept. Furthermore, Intema applies a Partners Club project which is a pioneering project in Turkey. It is a club project intended for a mass of individuals such as architects, engineers, and etc. who are trained, involved in decision-making processes, and procure materials. Individuals included in the scope of this project obtain certain bonuses when they use products of Eczacıbaşı. We have also been including tilers applying building chemicals in this system for the last two years in order to support VitrAfix brand products. Marketing department of Intema announces corporate innovations or new products to be launched to the members of the Partners Club via direct mailing. Partners Club project involves about five thousand addresses. It is managed by Intema, but manufacturers also take part in the project. Construction Site Journal: How have you managed to overcome, or could you overcome the economic crises? Have your export activities made any contribution? Hüseyin Bilmaç: Of course, one of the main contributors in overcoming economic crises had been the export activities which had provided a continuous inflow of cash. Second contributor had been the advantage of becoming a part of a large community like Eczacıbaşı, and benefiting from synergy of the group. The third contributor is that we had acted pursuant to the strategies of the group, and certain measures taken on the corporate basis had been applied strictly. Stock controls had been carried out more strictly then before. We had attempted not to maintain raw materials or semi-products in stocks. Attention had been given to procurements and receivables. All the measures needed at this level had been taken. Furthermore, a much greater attention had been given to export activities. I believe that all the companies had weakened considerably as a result of these economic crises. However, I can state that we have not suffered much from the most influential economic crisis in the history of the Republic. Iraq war had also had negative impacts on our export activities since the Middle East market accounts for 40% of our export budget. And we have resumed our export sales to our clients based in the Middle East. Export has two meanings for us, i.e. to promote both VitrA brand and Turkish goods at abroad, and to make a positive contribution to the cash flow of the company. However, overvaluation of Turkish Lira during recent times has a negative impact on export activities. We believe that the government shall take necessary measures in this respect although such negative impact does not begin to bother us yet. Construction Site Journal: Finally, please tell us about your investment projects? Hüseyin Bilmaç: We have investment projects in place both in the country and at abroad. One of the most important domestic projects is to establish pilot production facilities in certain locations of the country within the year 2005, and we are about to complete our activities to identify suitable locations for this purpose. We are planning to carry out investment projects in Ireland and Russia with our sister companies. Although all the feasibility studies are ready for the said projects, we consider implementing these investments in the years 2006 and 2007. |
  |
Copyright © 2006 I Terms of Use |  |
Having been established in 1998, and gained a reputation with its Vitrafix brand products, Eczacıbaşı-Koramic Building Chemicals also attracts attention with its technologies in addition to its products. At its production facilities with an annual production capacity of 100.000 tons, everything is controlled via computers, and only five workers are employed at the factory.... Mr. Bilmaç claims that Turkey experienced cheaper solutions preferred in this sector for years in the past instead of making investments in automation and the concept of quality to be derived therefrom.