Botersan Board Chairman Ercüment Birsen Answers Our Questions

In this interview, Botersan Chairman of the Board Ercüment Birsen answered our questions. Birsen provided information about the products and services offered by Botersan.

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

I was born on 25 February 1946 in Pristina (Kosovo). After living in Pristina for 11 years, we migrated to Turkey as free migrants on 18 February 1957. I attended Meto Bayraktar Primary School in Pristina. I have been living in Istanbul since we settled there in 1957. In Istanbul, I successively attended Gedik Paşa Secondary School, Istanbul Boys High School and Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, graduating as a Senior Mechanical Engineer in 1968. My career started in 1968 at Camialtı Shipyard of Maritime Bank. After completing my reserve officer duty between 1969-1971, I continued my work at Camialtı Shipyard. After deciding to move to the private sector in 1974, I worked at Karmasan company for approximately 10 months. Between 1975-1984, I held positions in Alarko group companies, successively at Almim, Alamsaş and Alsaç. At the beginning of 1984, I joined Botersan A.Ş., which I co-founded with three colleagues I knew from Alarko. Since 1984, I have continued as Chairman of the Board of our company.

Could you provide information about Botersan's establishment process and the stages it has gone through to the present day? What is Botersan's current structure?

Behind the success that Botersan has achieved today, serving in the surface treatment sector which requires extremely intensive labor, lies its management by four professional colleagues with Alarko roots, each actively involved in the work. I am responsible for management and projects. Bekir Alparslan is responsible for design. Orhan Özçanak is responsible for manufacturing. Tevfik Alpsar is responsible for assembly. Botersan, founded 36 years ago in a small project office in Samatya, was moved to a 4-story production facility in Bayrampaşa in 1985. Later, to better handle the large and voluminous projects it received, it moved to its prefabricated building in Beylikdüzü in 1990. In 2002, to better serve its customers, it upgraded its machinery, constructed a new building behind the existing facility, and increased its capacity, bringing the enclosed area from 3,500 m² to 11,000 m². It produces turnkey solutions in modern production facilities.

Which sectors does Botersan primarily serve and what types of products does it provide? Could you provide information about Botersan's products, brands and services?

Our company, with 36 years of knowledge and experience, has expanded its product range since its founding and serves a wide range of sectors with strong references including the metal industry, automotive and automotive parts industry, white goods sector, as well as the wood and plastics industry. The paint shops we manufacture can be summarized under seven main headings. These are: surface cleaning, wet paint booths, powder coating booths, cataphoretic coating, drying and curing ovens, and conveyors. Surface cleaning, the first step in surface treatment, is divided into two types: immersion and spray tunnel type. Depending on the environment where the part will be placed, the material composition and desired corrosion resistance, iron phosphating, zinc phosphating or chromating processes and nanotechnology solutions are applied. Painting that follows surface cleaning can be grouped as wet and powder coating. Wet painting is carried out in Botersan wet paint booths with a wide variety of water curtain, positive pressure venturi wash systems and dry type, operating with environmental friendliness and high efficiency, providing a quiet and clean working environment without paint discharge outside the factory. In powder coating application, Botersan with its cartridge and sintered lamel filtered and multi-cyclone powder coating booths has improved paint application quality in hundreds of installations and positioned itself as a leading company in powder coating applications in Turkey. One of the latest and most advanced coating technologies both in our country and worldwide is cataphoretic coating application, an electrocoating process based on electrochemical principles.

"In cataphoretic coating, all types of part geometries on the entire body can be coated equally and completely"

In cataphoretic coating, all types of part geometries on the entire body can be coated equally and completely, providing excellent efficiency with high corrosion resistance and recovery system. Due to being a water-based system, it creates less environmental pollution and lower fire risk, and with these superior and technological features, it is currently a sought-after application by many industries. With its experience and quality, Botersan reliably implements turnkey cataphoretic coating facility solutions. For drying and curing the parts before and after the painting process, Botersan designs drying, wet and powder coating curing ovens on a modular basis. Both continuous and box type applications are available. One of the most important components required in paint shop lines for continuous painting is the conveyor. Our company was the first to design and manufacture trolley-type and chain-drive type conveyors in Turkey. Filtered and multi-cyclone powder coating booths were also first designed and manufactured by our company in 1986-1987. The conveyor systems in the complete paint shop solutions we manufacture carry the Botersan quality standard. In addition to all this, our company manufactures all types of fans, heat generators, single-axis painting robots and electrical panels used in its systems in-house.

Could you discuss your domestic and international sales activities? Primarily which regions do you supply in Turkey and abroad, and what types of products do you sell?

Our company, which primarily served the domestic market until ten years ago, focused on international projects after completing ISO and CE work in 2007. Continuously renewing itself to world standards by transitioning to ISO 9001–2015 system and CE 2006–42 directive, some of the high-capacity facilities our company has undertaken in recent years include Azenco/Azerbaijan, Asal/Ukraine, Kaya Baskül/Kuwait, First Gas/Egypt, Repkon/Iraq and Repkon/Bangladesh. The countries to which we mainly export include Bulgaria, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Russia, Ukraine, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Qatar, France, Germany, Romania and Bangladesh.

What kind of work do you carry out in the fields of innovation and R&D as Botersan? Do you have projects developed through university-industry cooperation, and if so, what are they?

Our company continuously conducts innovation work to offer products to both domestic and foreign markets at low cost with high technology and quality. Additionally, Botersan is supported by KOSGEB for R&D work. Our various R&D programs and prototype projects continue within our areas of business.

Could you provide information about Botersan's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you say about your occupational health and safety efforts?

Botersan has demonstrated the value it places on human health since its establishment by producing environmentally friendly technologies. We operate with the belief that all work accidents and occupational diseases are preventable, with the goal of developing the necessary awareness and culture regarding occupational health and safety for all employees in our workplace. Our objective is to create safe and healthy working environments, establish emergency response, business continuity and work permit systems that create safe working conditions, and comply with all legal requirements related to occupational health and safety in all our activities.

What criteria are prioritized when Botersan develops its investment plans? Does Botersan have investment plans for the upcoming periods, and if so, what are they?

We are working to renew aging machines in our machinery park, keep up with technological developments and improve the quality of our facilities. For the coming periods, we have developed monthly and annual investment plans. In developing our investment plans, our main objective is to bring our production facility to the highest technology without compromising our current quality.