Mr. Mustafa Acıpayamoğlu, General Manager of Altermak, answered our questions.

In our interview, Mr. Mustafa Acıpayamoğlu, General Manager of Altermak answered our questions. Acıpayamoğlu gave information about the development process and current structure of Altermak.

Could you please briefly tell us about your educational and professional background?

I was born in 1967 in Istanbul. I studied primary school, secondary school and high school in Istanbul. After graduating from the Industrial Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University (ITU), I completed my master's degree at ITU. I have a good level of English. I'm married and have two children, one girl and one boy. I started my professional life in 1992 at Nuri Baylar A.Ş., which was the Wagner Turkey general distributor. I worked there as sales manager for 3 years and learned many things there, which I always mention with pride. After those 3 years, perhaps we climbed these steps a little too fast, but with the enthusiasm of the time and the influence of our desire to do business, mechanical engineer Rahmet Çağatay and I established Altermak in 1995. We began sales activities related to our sector. Across all of Turkey, since 1995, for exactly 24 years, we have been operating in general sales, service and spare parts for Wagner. Our aim is to supply the machines that paint all the colors we see around us and deliver them to all sectors.

As of today, we serve and continue to provide service with these machines in all areas, from industry to furniture, from construction to white goods, from automotive to heavy industry. Could you please provide information about Altermak's history and milestones?

Altermak was founded in 1995 by 2 partners, as I mentioned earlier, in order to establish the modern and automatic painting lines needed by industries. From its foundation, Altermak has continued to work with Wagner, which is the leading company in the powder coating machinery market. Over time, Altermak also became the Turkey distributor for brands such as V. Alberti, an Italian CNC woodworking machinery producer, Italpress, and the Swiss-based Striebig. Today Altermak serves as an expert company that provides technical service, supplies spare parts and installs production lines for the majority of major companies, especially those operating in furniture manufacturing and other industries such as metal, automotive, furniture, white goods, construction and heavy industry that use powder coating. With its 21 employees, Altermak is the primary technological supporter of manufacturing companies in every corner of Turkey. With its knowledge, technology, efficient and expert team, Altermak has become a leading, respected and pioneering brand within the industry.

Which industries does Altermak mainly serve and with what kind of products? Could you please provide information about Altermak's products, brands and services?

From our establishment until today, we have kept our product variety up-to-date in line with the demands we have received. Our main focus is on the installation of painting systems, automation, equipment, machines, turnkey paint plants and also the supply of paint equipment to be used in these facilities. In intensive painting, powder coating and enameling systems where we operate intensively, we determine the needs of different systems and offer the most optimum products. As Turkey distributor, we effectively serve our existing customer portfolio by providing Wagner paint systems in the most effective way, after-sales service and introducing these systems to new customers. The high-quality service offered to our existing customers is also very important in reaching new consumers and markets. In addition, as an additional service sector, we supply all machinery and equipment needed by small, medium and large enterprises in the wood processing sector, which is directly connected with paints.

Could you please tell us about your domestic and international sales activities? To which regions and what kind of products does Altermak mainly sell?

Our work in the domestic open market, where economic dynamics are constantly active and open to surprises, continues uninterruptedly. We strive to maintain our dynamic structure in order to instantly adapt to changing economic and market conditions. Global economic challenges in the world and political instability in our region unfortunately have negative effects on all markets. Experience gained from similar negative periods in the past has contributed significantly to making correct and effective decisions. As Altermak, we fully believe that these conditions will end and better days will come. In the Turkish market, we will continue to offer the latest innovations and developments related to our products. In the competitive environment, high-capacity error-free production is gaining importance every day. To adapt to changing market conditions, our customers working in the painting industry are increasing their existing capacity or renewing their production lines. We are always supporting our customers with our high-quality Wagner paint, powder coating and enamel application systems. We mainly sell products to regions where industry is more concentrated. Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir are the leading ones. However, Bursa, Kayseri and especially recently Konya, Antep and Denizli are also very rapidly developing regions. We also re-export products to some of the Turkic Republics, North African countries and the Middle East market.

Can you provide information about Altermak's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What kind of work and studies are performed in the area of worker health and safety?

As leading companies in their sectors, our companies are guided by sustainable environmental management policies based on international environmental legislation, relevant environmental standards and the best technologies in this field. To minimize the environmental and social risks that may arise from our activities, we have chosen sustainability policies and environmentally friendly production technologies. The paint and enamel systems we have applied have been developed with the principle of sustainable waste management, reducing pollution at the source and minimizing waste generation, reusing, recycling and recovery.

What are Altermak's priority criteria when creating investment plans? Does Altermak have any investment plans in the near and far future?

Since our establishment, we have been working with world-leading manufacturers in our field of activity to offer products with the latest technology to our existing markets. We have established a bridge that works well between producers and end consumers, ensuring that needs are met to the maximum extent. Today, like every industry, all local and global challenges have affected us negatively. By continuing our current service quality, we try to minimize the effects of this negative period on our company. We also continue our efforts to expand our new market and new customer portfolio.