Interview with Gökhan Aydoğan, General Manager of Labmarker

We conducted an interview with Gökhan Aydoğan, General Manager of Labmarker, in which we obtained important information about the significance of R&D and technology in laboratory equipment, the company's targets for the coming years, and key sector insights.

Could you tell our readers about yourself and your professional background?

I was born in Malatya in 1971. I am a chemist. In 1998, I began my business career as Founder and General Manager of Pro-Lab Kimya. Until 2013, I continued my career as General Manager of Pro-Lab in Turkey, Germany, and the United States. Between 2013 and 2016, I held the position of Country Director for VWR International Turkey. Since 2016, I have been General Manager of Labmarker. Currently we have added over 1,500 products bearing our own brand to our portfolio and we continue our efforts to increase this number in the coming periods.

Could you describe Labmarker's development process from its inception to today and the success policy that has defined this process?

Labmarker (Pro-Lab), founded in 1998, has its primary business in laboratory equipment, chemicals, and consumables. In 2002, we established Pro-Lab GmbH based in Hamburg, Germany, and in 2007, Pro-Lab USA based in New York, continuing our operations. From its establishment to today, Labmarker (Pro-Lab) has been one of the best practitioners of one-stop-shopping in Turkey. Without making any distinction between brands and products, we supplied and delivered virtually every product our customers requested from a single point through our own supply system. Thanks particularly to our supply offices and logistics warehouses in Germany and the USA, we were able to source thousands of brands and products. For years, end users in the sector had been forced to rely on certain companies under the name of authorized distributorship. Labmarker's introduction of a catalog product system with a market approach received considerable demand. It made the sector more competitive and enabled users to access products faster and at suitable prices. In 2013, our entire Pro-Lab operations were acquired by VWR International, an America-based company. Thus, for the first time, an international company made an investment in Turkey in the one-stop-shopping segment of this sector. This acquisition increased international companies' interest in Turkey regarding the laboratory sector and subsequently many global firms made acquisitions in this sector. It was also a very significant development in terms of presenting the systems and methods used in laboratory supply chains worldwide to Turkish customers and to the service of global companies operating in Turkey.

What does your product portfolio consist of? How do you evaluate the importance of technology in laboratory equipment?

Our Labmarker product portfolio consists of laboratory equipment, occupational safety equipment, laboratory chemicals, and laboratory consumables. While serving as the representative of many international companies in their respective fields, we also carry out sales and marketing of our own brands. Unlike the past, we have begun to pursue our own brand strategy. In this regard, we have registered the "MY GLOVE" brand and produce single-use gloves, offering them to both the Turkish and European markets. In chromatography products, we have vials and filters produced under the "LABMARKER" brand and conduct their sales and marketing. We are also successfully selling these products, particularly in the German market. Currently, we have added over 1,500 products bearing our own brand to our portfolio and we continue our efforts to increase this number in the coming periods. We have also reached the final stage in our work related to HPLC column production in chromatography consumables and are planning to introduce it to the market in the first half of 2019. With over twenty years of experience, many manufacturing companies in the sector want to introduce their products to the Turkish market through Labmarker. In this regard, we try to be selective. We establish our relationships with suppliers on a long-term and trust-based foundation.

Could you speak about the training you provide regarding the products you sell?

We provide continuous technical training to our team members for our MY GLOVE and LABMARKER branded products. At certain intervals, we conduct visits to our manufacturers' facilities to provide more detailed information about production processes and product innovations. For products where we hold representation, we organize domestic and international training sessions to inform our colleagues. For end users, we organize seminars together with manufacturers.

What process does after-sales technical support service encompass?

By sector standards, technical service and after-sales service are among the most problematic areas for both importing companies and users. Trust established after the sale is the first area where customer satisfaction is formed. In this regard, our own technical team provides after-sales service for the equipment we sell. We are aware of the importance of training not only for our sales staff but also for after-sales technical service personnel, and we constantly strive to update our colleagues accordingly. "The foundation of our target customer base consists primarily of R&D and Quality Control laboratories" We try to maintain high customer satisfaction levels within both the warranty periods specified in our country's regulations and the warranty periods committed by international companies. Today, the rapid nature of communication points to the need for rapid information flow in technical service matters as well. As Labmarker, we fundamentally try to provide this. However, when we look at Turkey as a whole, excessively competitive prices can cause end users to suffer in service matters from time to time. For being a solution for importers and end users, we believe that, as there are examples of in the world, the number of independent service companies not dependent on manufacturer brands needs to increase.

What are your thoughts on R&D? What does R&D mean for Labmarker?

R&D holds great significance for Labmarker. The foundation of our target customer base consists primarily of R&D and quality control laboratories. Over the past ten years, very serious R&D investments have been made in Turkey. However, we have not yet reached the same level as Europe. In the past, R&D and quality control were always viewed as postponable investments in our country. Today's awareness has changed quite significantly. It is very clear that industry's R&D-based development brings more solid and sustainable growth.

Could you speak about the technologies you use?

As Labmarker, we are aware that software solutions for our supply areas are critical for our customers. Particularly in the last two years, we have invested in enterprise resource planning software and designed a highly detailed and user-friendly web page to explain our product diversity to our customers. LABMARKER.COM currently has infrastructure that we believe is competitive for the Turkish market in terms of product information and diversity, and we are continuously improving it. We know that in the developing period, e-commerce will come to the fore in the laboratory field as it has in other markets.

How do you evaluate the production and consumption volume in the laboratory chemicals, consumables, and equipment sector?

Almost the entire sector is based on imports. This keeps external dependency constant. While certain domestic producers occasionally undertake production work on specific topics, sufficient success has not yet been achieved. Particularly in developed countries, the share allocated to R&D is at the level of 2.5% of GNP. This creates a serious market for producer companies in the sector. Our country is still well below these levels. As awareness and importance of R&D increases in our companies, I believe the market share they will capture will also increase. The laboratory sector consists of many products. However, each individual product may not create sufficient volume on its own. For this reason, producer companies consolidate their own products with different products and present them to the market in a market format. In the coming period, we will see the market approach gradually move away from catalogs and shift to the internet environment. Day by day, we have begun to see system-based purchasing replace individual-based purchasing. What matters is being able to increase users' alternatives and keep them informed of current developments. Even very large e-business companies have started selling laboratory products in their own systems. This shows us that the supply side of the sector will undergo serious transformation in the coming years.

What innovations do you wish to implement in the coming years? What advantages do you believe these innovations will bring to the product, brand, and sector?

The laboratory sector, by its very nature, contains many brands and varieties. A sector with so many products naturally needs diversity in its sales channels. We are basing our future projections not just on Turkey but on being able to reach potential customers in other countries.

In the developing period, we know that e-commerce will come to the fore in the laboratory field as it has in other markets.

I would say our main objective is to bring every user in the sector together with every manufacturer without distinction of brand or model. On the other hand, it is important to keep pace with rapidly changing R&D technologies. Each new technology requires different product supplies. Following new technologies, specific work and user information is required. As a team, we have tried to embrace this change by investing in training in every area.

What would you like to say about the sector?

Today, with great advances in communication, the laboratory sector has faced both advantages and disadvantages. The increasing transparency of commerce has made competition very difficult for importing companies. Today, virtually every company or individual can import almost any product. However, how they do this with which regulations and guarantees is somewhat unclear. Certain changes made in customs regimes almost daily further complicate imports for the sector. The Ministry of Customs and Trade must absolutely implement certain regulations specific to the laboratory sector. Otherwise, the import of tons of chemical substances will continue to be treated the same as the import of laboratory chemicals at the gram level. This seriously increases access to products and costs for R&D. In the laboratory sector, every manufacturer worldwide is part of the system. However, it never reaches a dominant size that controls the sector. In a sector with such great product variety, it can only create a dominant effect in certain segments. This shows us that the market approach can be taken even further in the coming period. What matters for us is correctly anticipating this and making our projections accordingly. Since the sector in general depends on imports, this is a problem from Turkey's perspective. As individuals or companies, we must make and implement long-term plans to reverse this.