ALV Kimya's Success Story and Its Services to the Industry

In our interview with Oğuzhan Semerci, Export Director of ALV Kimya, we discussed the company's success story and the services it provides to the sector. Semerci shared important information about the firm's new projects. [caption id="attachment_125088" align="aligncenter"] Oğuzhan Semerci[/caption]  

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

Hello. First of all, thank you for your interest in ALV Kimya. I am a graduate of Bilkent Business Administration, and I completed my master's degree in marketing at Yeditepe University. I have held regional and country management positions in the sales and marketing departments of numerous global companies including Ford Otosan, Nike Int. and Upm, respectively. I have been serving as Export Director at ALV Kimya since May 2019.

Could you tell us about your company's development process from its establishment to today?

Our company is one of the group companies under Uras Holding and operates in the field of acrylic polymer production. ALV Kimya began operations in 2014 at a production facility in Çorlu with a plot area of 17,000 m2 and a closed area of 24,000 m2, with an annual capacity of approximately 45,000 tons. In the years 2014-2019, sales were directed primarily toward other group companies and the domestic market, particularly in textile binder production. As of May 2019, this shifted to 80% exports, 15% group companies and 5% domestic market. We currently export to more than 30 countries across 5 continents.

What are the products and product groups you offer to the paints and coatings sector? Which sectors do you serve?

For the construction sector, our production of interior and exterior facade acrylic paint binders accounted for 70% of our sales volume as of 2021. We also serve the construction chemicals industry with the acrylic binders we produce. Could you tell us about your sales activities? Which regions do you primarily sell to? In our polymer and thickener production for textiles, our active and target markets are Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as other Far East countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam which have become the main hubs of the textile industry. Additionally, developing our operations in Egypt, Sudan and Mexico are among our targets for the second quarter of 2021. Our main markets in interior and exterior facade paints and construction chemicals are currently all African, Middle Eastern and Arab countries, while our sales volumes in Western and Eastern Europe and Russia are increasing rapidly. Europe holds a very important place in our mid- and long-term sales and branding targets; for this reason, we are striving to shift our operational focus increasingly toward Europe. Here, alongside our profitability targets, we aim to become one of the important players in the sector by utilizing our logistics advantages.

Have you recently launched an innovative paint product to the sector?

In addition to our basic styrene acrylic and pure acrylic paint binders, particularly for the construction chemicals industry, we have successfully launched 50% and 57% styrene-based binders, the production of which requires comparatively more technical knowledge and know-how, as of 2021. I am pleased to note that with the rapid development of the sales network for these products, we have begun to differentiate ourselves positively from our competitors, particularly in the European market.  

Could you tell us about your after-sales service and customer satisfaction philosophy?

At ALV Kimya, all our customers are business partners to us. Meeting the expectations of all our business partners and adding value to their operations form the basis of our mission. For our current and potential customers, being easily accessible, providing rapid technical support when needed, offering economic and sustainable solutions to our solution partners, and conducting seamless trade operations from order placement to delivery within the framework of total quality management alongside standard product quality are among the issues we emphasize most. I can say that we have seen positive results from our customer satisfaction strategy, which we continue to follow within these principles, reflected in our increasing sales volume and high customer loyalty. What activities do you carry out to ensure brand awareness? Our primary goal at ALV Kimya is to become a global brand. All our marketing strategies are developed in line with this goal. We began our branding efforts first by updating our corporate identity and defining our brand concept. We began to introduce our brand first to our colleagues, and then in turn to our business partners, potential customers and the sector press. Moreover, with the awareness that the digital world plays a decisive role in all areas of social life under today's conditions, we continuously update our website and actively use all our social media accounts in order to be transparent to our business partners and employees and to maintain one-on-one communication.

What are your projects within the scope of new technological trends?

We aim to complete this year our R&D and Application Laboratories renovation project, which we started in 2020. With the latest technology equipment in both our R&D and application laboratories, we closely monitor all technological developments related to products and end products in our sector. We also keep ourselves current as required by the times through continuous technology-based improvements in our production processes.

"We keep ourselves current as required by the times through continuous technology-based improvements in our production processes."

  Additionally, as ALV Kimya, we have started investment in powder polymer production for the construction sector. Following our test production, which will begin approximately 1.5 years from now, we aim to start our activities in this area and offer a broader product range to our customers. In the powder polymer business, which has considerable potential, we aim to secure our position in the global market with high-value-added products and, in the mid-to-long term, to stand out in terms of market share through the necessary capacity increases.

What does Industry 4.0 mean for you? What are your projects and initiatives in this regard?

For us, Industry 4.0 represents the intersection of industrial production with today's information technology. As a company with production facilities that closely follows technology, through our highly automated systems and technology investments, we aim to perfect our production and increase our efficiency every day.

Were there new decisions you made while managing the pandemic period? What are your activities in this context?

During the pandemic, the priority of our company management was the health of our business partners and employees, and we kept all our processes and Covid-19 measures detailed for both our business partners and ourselves. Throughout the process, in order to maintain communication with our current and potential customers, we activated our crisis communication plan temporarily as part of our brand communication strategy. We accelerated the digitalization activities that we have emphasized since we began operations, and launched many new projects such as the development of our ERP and CRM programs and webinar activities covering product-based or sector-specific technical topics.