An Enjoyable Interview with Dr. Tayfun Sığırtmaç

Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye General Manager Dr. Tayfun Sığırtmaç spoke with us in an engaging conversation. Sığırtmaç noted that Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye is committed to its work with passion and dedication, and provided information about the products and services they offer.  

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your educational background and professional experience?

I was born in Bursa in 1974. After graduating from Bursa Anadolu High School, I completed my bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Uludağ University, and later completed an MBA programme in finance while continuing my working life. I started my career in 1998 at Durmazlar Makine, which produces Turkey's largest sheet metal processing technologies. After working as Research and Development Manager for the last 3 years and a total of 10 years at this company, I served as Technical Units Director at Aktaş Holding and later as Research and Development and Technology Manager at Coşkunöz Holding. In 2014, our paths crossed with Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye and for approximately 8 years I have been serving as General Manager, steering the company and working with my team with pleasure to create added value in surface treatment for our customers.  

Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye founding process and the stages it has gone through to the present day? What is the current structure of Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye?

Kromaş was established in Istanbul in 1991 as one of Turkey's first surface treatment companies. After achieving considerable success in surface treatment in Turkey for approximately 25 years, in 2014 Kromaş was fully acquired by Rösler Group, a German company and one of the world's largest surface treatment firms, as a strategic decision. Rösler Group is a Germany-based company and one of the world's leading surface treatment firms with production companies in 13 different countries globally in specialised fields (aerospace, medical, additive manufacturing, etc.). Following this strategic acquisition, Rösler, unlike some of its other strategic acquisition operations, retained the "Kromaş" brand rather than converting it to the Rösler brand. With this complementary branding strategy, Rösler strengthened its position both in Turkey and globally by leveraging the strength of Kromaş as a second brand. As Kromaş, we manage these two leading surface treatment brands in Turkey (Rösler and Kromaş) and under this umbrella we provide surface treatment solutions to our customers. We also export surface treatment consumables and machines produced under the "Kromaş" brand to overseas markets.

Which sectors and what types of products does Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye primarily serve? Could you provide information about Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye's products, brands and services, particularly in coatings and surface treatment?

"Better surfaces for life" is our much-loved and internalised motto. We combine this with our "In every aspect of life" motto and essentially work to provide better surfaces for life in every field. Because the work we do, the technology and products we create and the services we provide touch every area – from aesthetics in jewellery to treatment equipment in medical, from defence sector technology to automotive advances, from antique marble finishes to gastronomy in the kitchen sector. Our relationship with many customers is like that of a doctor and patient. Customers come to us with their parts if there is a problem with the part or they have a requirement regarding the part surface, and tell us their expectations. We work in our test centres and prepare the most suitable formula for our customers. In other words, from among thousands of consumables (abrasives, polishing agents) and appropriate machines, we offer them the most suitable solution. As Kromaş, we essentially try to help companies producing in many different sectors create the finest, most lustrous, smoothest or antique parts for their customers by providing surface treatment machines and solutions. In light of these explanations, I can say we provide surface treatment technologies, machines, consumables and services to many sectors. Our priority sectors include automotive supply chain, defence and aerospace, casting-forging, medical, jewellery, textile accessories, eyewear, furniture fittings, marble, additive manufacturing (3D printing), kitchenware, fasteners and the like. We manufacture machines for companies producing in this sector and develop processes so their parts acquire the desired properties before use. I would also like to mention a point that has recently changed our perception and particularly makes us happy and motivated. The work we do could be seen as a mechanical process. Indeed, until a few years ago we also viewed the picture this way. But now we no longer see ourselves simply as a company producing surface treatment machines and solutions. We see and feel ourselves as a company that touches people's lives and emotions. That is, our machines and technologies are used in the brilliance of a ring given by a man proposing to his loved one, in the smoothness of the pot handles held by a woman preparing delicious meals for those she loves, in the buttons fastened by a mother dressing her child, in the eyeglasses worn by eyes looking lovingly at another, in the screws tightened by someone excitedly assembling new furniture brought home, in the toys in games played happily with family, in the cutlery held while eating at a pleasant table. Knowing this gives us special excitement and a source of happiness. That is why we say "we are in every aspect of life" and "touching people's lives" motivates and makes us happier than figures in our income statements.

Could you tell us about your domestic and international sales activities? What types of products and services do you sell to different regions domestically and internationally?

We have a wide sales network domestically. We provide active and effective solutions to some regions through distributors and to others through our customer representatives and sales teams. Internationally we have a distributor network in over 20 countries. Our important markets are primarily Europe, North America and the Middle East. Many of our distributors have test and solution centres within their operations where they can perform surface treatment work on their customers' parts.

What kind of work do you do in innovation and research and development as Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye? Do you have projects developed within university-industry cooperation, and if so, what are they?

Research and development is critically important both for us and all sectors. Companies' futures depend on the priority and importance they give to research and development and innovation. Being aware of this importance, we have shaped our plans and structure accordingly from day one. Over the last 10 years we have written and successfully completed many incentive projects. In innovation work, we protect under patents and utility models some new ideas and development work that we believe create added value. We have developed many new machines and processes and made them available to our customers. Over the last 3 years, the share of newly developed machines in our turnover has reached the 250 percent range. Some of our important innovation project titles include the high-capacity horizontal machine and sensor technology developed for the marble sector, the micro-cavity centrifuge machine developed for jewellery, the new ammunition casing surface treatment process developed for defence and aerospace, and projects developed recently.

Could you provide information about Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you tell us about your work on occupational health and safety?

As Kromaş, we are first and foremost an environmentally conscious company and we try to improve this. We demonstrate this consciousness both in the machines and consumables we produce and in the carbon footprint we create while producing them. With our ISO 14001 certification, which is an environmentally conscious production certification system, we control and minimise waste created in production steps. With the treatment systems we produce, we enable process water to be used multiple times, achieving both considerable water savings and allowing much lower chemical use. Additionally, consumables produced from waste plastic developed recently by Rösler represent a very important project for us in plastic recycling. We not only improve process time and surface quality but also return plastics that would not decompose in nature for hundreds of years to repeated use. These abrasives we call EcoShape remind us to be more respectful to nature. The health and safety of our employees is one of the most important items on our agenda. We strengthen our commitment to this issue with the measures we have taken in the company for our employees' safety, health and comfort, as well as our ISO 18001 certification.  

What criteria are prioritised when Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye develops investment plans? Do you have investment plans for Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye in the coming periods, and if so, what are they?

Growth and investment are strategically prioritised topics for Kromaş - Rösler Türkiye. Over the last 5 years we have achieved more than threefold growth in Euro terms. We have achieved this both in terms of increases in team size and sales growth. In 2022 we moved to our new, much more modern and larger factory. This gave us new and powerful motivation and energy. Perhaps the only significant challenge during this period stems from growth pains. These challenges involve both being able to finance the growth and helping our rapidly expanding teams adapt to Kromaş corporate culture. In 2023 we will direct our energy more towards maturing growth, strengthening our internal structure and developing our systems. Following that, we are targeting strong growth performance again in our second five-year plan.