Refik Sivri Appointed Head of Clariant's Industrial and Consumer Products

We recently held an engaging conversation with Refik Sivri, Head of Industrial Products and Consumer Products at Clariant, one of the world's leading specialty chemicals companies, about developments in the sector.

Could you tell us about your background and professional career?

I completed my bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Boğaziçi University in 1995. I first met Clariant in 1997. During my early years at Clariant, I held various responsibilities including Department Manager in the Specialty Chemicals Division and Regional Marketing Manager in the Pigments & Additives Division. In 2004, I took on an operational coordination role in the Central Asia region. From April 2004, I worked at DuPont Turkey as Regional Sales Manager in the Fluorochemicals, Refrigerants and Titanium Technologies business units. Following my return to Clariant in April 2010, I was appointed Head of the Industrial Products and Consumer Products Department for the Turkey, Middle East and Africa regions. Since 2010, I have been focusing on innovation and sustainable solutions in the Personal Care, Home Care Products and Industrial Products categories across various regional projects, developing products and formulations that add value to our customers' finished products.

Could you briefly explain Clariant's chemical solutions for the ICS (Industrial Products and Consumer Products) industry, its target audiences and markets?

We can say that we are positioned at the point where chemistry and specialty chemicals meet the end consumer. In the personal care industry, there are various products we use in our daily lives including skincare, hair care, cosmetics and oral hygiene products. Thanks to partnerships we have established with some globally recognized brands, we represent a broad market in the personal care industry in Turkey. As Clariant's Personal Care Department, we aim to continuously offer new products and solutions tailored to our customers' needs. Maintenance Chemicals, Emulsifiers & Solubilizers, Film Formers, Hair Conditioning Agents, Pearlescent Minerals, Preservatives, Surfactants and Rheology Modifiers are part of our portfolio in this category. In our Industrial and Home Care portfolio, we have a wide range of products ranging from polymers that help preserve colors to silver biocides, from specialty amine oxides to low-foaming surfactants. In the industrial category, we also help our customers anticipate end-user needs in the textile care industry. For example, due to fast-paced lifestyles, consumers want to wash colored and white clothes together in the washing machine to reduce the time spent on laundry. Clariant prevents white fabrics from becoming stained with colorants and pigments while also providing protection for colored fabrics. Beyond this, in our crop care products category, with our Crop Solutions crop protection solutions, we provide solutions that help farmers reduce harvest losses. We believe that when it comes to sustainable food supply for the growing global population, harvest and crop protection solutions play a decisive role in ensuring adequate nutrition for the expanding population.

Could you tell us about your department's technical application laboratories and R&D activities in Turkey? What can you say about R&D investments and what types of projects have you carried out so far?

We have our ICS Technical Competence Center established in Gebze in January 2014. At Clariant, we do not produce raw materials at this center, but we create specialized formulations for finished products shaped by our customers' requirements. Clariant's Technical Competence Center provides our customers in Turkey with the opportunity to develop more localized solutions and formulations. Clariant's 21st Year in Turkey. Clariant was founded in 1995 after separating from Sandoz, a chemical company established in Basel, Switzerland in 1886. Thanks to our direct connection to the sector, we have brought together our knowledge and experience spanning approximately 150 years in the chemistry and specialty chemicals industry. As Clariant, we operate in 4 business areas: Care Chemicals, Catalysts, Natural Resources, Plastics and Coatings. This year marks Clariant's 21st year in Turkey, with operations spanning 110 companies across 53 countries. Approximately 300 personnel work together across a total of 4 production facilities located in Gebze, Balıkesir, Gaziantep and Ordu. Clariant was also one of the first companies to support the establishment of the Gebze Organized Industrial Zone (GOSB) industrial park with the aim of providing various business opportunities to surrounding areas in a modern manufacturing environment near Istanbul. Turkey holds strategic importance for Clariant as the second largest country in the MEA region in terms of investments and operational resources.

"For example, we have a product that provides sensory benefits by modifying the foam structures of products such as shampoo in Clariant's personal care products"

Our product is the sugar-based surfactant Glucotain® Flex. At our ICS Technical Competence Center in Gebze, using our Glucotain® Flex product, we have developed dandruff-effective shampoo formulations for leading personal care brands. Glucotain® Flex is a versatile and beneficial formulation. It can be used in shampoos, shaving creams, facial cleansers and also in color protection applications in shampoos to provide special softness. Looking at technical details, surfactants create a creamy foam with medium-sized air bubbles that leave an impression of intense nourishment. It gives the skin a silky and smooth appearance, and thanks to its natural barriers, it provides better skin protection. Surfactants enabled us to achieve the best results of the Glucotain® group for thickening cosmetic formulations, and as we learned from customer feedback, this helped deliver significant cost savings. Our formulation has a Renewable Carbon Index above 95 percent. As Clariant Turkey, at this center in Gebze we offer brands the opportunity to test these formulations. With the formulations we have developed, we are positioned as something of an R&D center for brands.

How do you evaluate current consumer trends in the personal care sector?

Consumers are increasingly turning toward natural and organic cosmetic products every day. They tend to avoid or use less of harmful ingredients. Naturally, the market segment for products in this market grew 11 percent between 2009 and 2014. Looking at this growth as a whole, rapid development has been observed in the cosmetics market across all regions of the world. In line with growing consumer demand, manufacturers are increasingly incorporating natural-based ingredients into the formulations they produce. We expect this trend to continue intensifying due to increasing consumer awareness and demand. Clariant examines consumer trends and industry trends shaped by these trends to be more effective and meet market needs in the products and finished product formulations it develops for customers. Recently, our company released BeautyForward®, an inspiring beauty trends guide that brought together global trend analyses it believes will influence the future beauty products market. The guide inspires new movements that will drive innovation in the Personal Care market. For each inspiring trend in this guide, 4 types of consumers are defined at the global level: refined, minimalist, adventurous and beautiful. The guide inspires companies and helps them better understand their customer profiles and customers' purchasing decisions, thus assisting these consumer types in moving toward different movements.