Interview with Ahmet Yiğitbaşı, Chairman of the Board of Bosad

The Turkish paint industry, with an economic scale of USD 3 billion, has its leading organisation in the Paint Manufacturers Association (Bosad), which carries out highly important work for the development of the sector. In an interview we conducted, Bosad Board Chairman Ahmet Yiğitbaşı provided information about the association's activities. Yiğitbaşı noted that paintistanbul & Turkcoat, which holds an important place among these activities and whose second edition will be held in 2018 in cooperation with Artkim Fuarcılık, will comprehensively meet the sector's expectations.

Mr. Ahmet Yiğitbaşı, could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your educational background and professional experience?

I was born in Izmir in 1958. I studied Mechanical Engineering at Aachen Technical University (Germany) and completed my Master's degree in Fuel Engineering. I began my career in 1987 at Union Kraftstoff in Germany. Between 1989 and 2015, I worked as a senior executive at Yaşar Holding companies. Between 1996 and 2001, I served as Vice President responsible for different business units within the Yaşar Holding Paint Group, including Automotive, Industrial, Construction Paints and Printing Inks; between 2006 and 2009, I was Head of Yaşar Holding Foreign Investments and New Projects; and between 2001-2006 and 2009-2015, I served as Head of the Paint Group. Since 2015, I continue my duties as Board Member at DYO Boya A.Ş., TOYO Printing Inks A.Ş. and DESA Energy A.Ş. At Yaşar University, I served as Board of Trustees Member and Vice Chairman between 2003 and 2010, and have served as Board of Trustees Chairman since 2010. At the Turkish Paint Manufacturers Association (Bosad), I have served on the Board of Directors since 2003 as a founding member. I served as Board Chairman between 2007-2009 and 2015-2017. I am married with 2 children. I speak English, German and French.

Could you provide information about the history, activities and events of the Paint Manufacturers Association (Bosad)?

Taking into account the professional organisation needs of our paint and raw materials industry, Bosad completed its establishment process in July 2003 through the initiatives of sector representatives. Starting its work with 9 founding members, Bosad has today reached significant representative power with more than 70 organisations from the paint and raw materials sector within the formal economy. Following the establishment process, Bosad continues its professional and sectoral work in 3 fundamental areas, and its relations with bureaucratic, sectoral and civil society organisations have reached significant proportions. As the sole representative of the paint and raw materials sector in our country, we have organised our professional organisation with a contemporary understanding to provide solutions to the basic, structural and current problems of our sector, and continue our work at an effective and result-oriented level. Alongside high-level sectoral participation in Bosad's work, nearly 20 Bosad Working Groups have been established in the professional and technical field to provide solutions to our sector's problems, and through broad sectoral participation, professional views and recommendations are created and submitted to relevant authorities. Within its 14-year working period since its establishment, it has gained the status of an exemplary organisation, particularly through its work in the bureaucratic field, and the sectoral views and assessments it creates are widely accepted in all areas. Bosad also holds significant international representative power as an observer of the European Paint, Printing Ink and Artists' Colours Manufacturers Association (CEPE) and as Turkey's member of the International Paint, Printing Ink and Artists' Colours Manufacturers' Association (IPPIC). It carries out effective activities towards the development and promotion of our paint sector and our organisations. Within the framework of Turkey's EU integration process, it continues its work with projects created to make the paint and raw materials sector an investment and production base. It creates various projects aimed at increasing paint consumption in Turkey and developing a paint culture, and continues the joint project implementation process with a corporate and sectoral-based corporate social responsibility approach.

The second edition of paintistanbul & Turkcoat, which was held for the first time in 2016 through the cooperation of Bosad and Artkim Fuarcılık, will be organised in 2018. Could we learn about your impressions and comments on the 2016 fair and congress, as well as your expectations and views for the fair and congress to be held in 2018?

Bosad has been continuing congress and fair activities since 2009 with the aim of contributing to the promotion of our paint and raw materials sector both nationally and internationally. Until now, it continued the paintistanbul congress and fair project in 2010-2012 and 2014. In 2016, responding to demand from our sector, we merged with Turkcoat, another sector fair in the same field, and undertook the project as paintistanbul & Turkcoat under the Artkim Fuarcılık organisation with larger participation. Our fair and congress project, whose second edition will be held in 2018 under the same name with Artkim Fuarcılık, aims to comprehensively meet the expectations of Bosad and our sector. By merging two separate fairs into a single organisation, our sector's participation and representative power are increased, and the project continues as a high-level project in terms of sectoral productivity. Through our joint project, our paint and raw materials sector has the characteristic of being the highest-participation project in terms of representation and participation both internationally and nationally.

Bosad published the Turkey Paint Industry Strategic Development Report. Could you comment on the impact of this research on the sector?

Considering Turkey's position in the global paint industry, as well as regional geographical areas, particularly EU countries, it is understood that the sector has great potential and competitive strength. To evaluate and examine the development processes of our sector in the economic, commercial and technological fields covering 2016-2026, Bosad has prepared the "Turkey Paint Industry Strategic Development Report". The sector report prepared included important contributions and assessments from A.T. Kearney in its section covering international developments. Our sector report contains the risks and expectations that will emerge in national and international fields in the coming 10-year period, the sectoral measures and actions that should be taken in response to these. Our strategic development report also aligns with our goal as Bosad to make the Turkish paint industry a regional attraction centre, and supports us in creating a roadmap for this purpose.

Through urban renewal applications, many regions in our country are being restructured. How does this affect the paint sector?

Urban renewal in Turkey affects our sector mainly in two areas, particularly construction paints. The first of these areas is that the renovation market for the existing building stock experiences stagnation due to uncertainty in urban renewal, and consumption does not develop to a sufficient extent. On the other hand, new buildings coming into use with urban renewal also creates relative growth. As mentioned above, the renovation market is extremely important in terms of construction paint consumption. Considering that the existing building stock is approaching 20 million, the urban renewal model will have a positive impact on the growth of new construction areas and, indirectly, on increased construction paint consumption.

Could you provide information about paint production data globally, in Europe and Turkey? What position does Turkey hold? What advantages and disadvantages does our country have in terms of paint production? How can current problems be overcome?

According to the latest data, the global paint market covers approximately 45 million tonnes of annual production. Of this volume, 55% consists of decorative paints and 45% of industrial paints. The total global value is approximately USD 130 billion. Turkey holds approximately 2% share of the global paint market production. The Turkish paint industry's economic size (including domestic market and exports) is at the USD 3 billion level. In 2015, the sector produced 915 thousand tonnes. We estimate that 2016 will close with growth at 2015 levels. The total paint industry production was realised as 60% decorative (construction) paints and 40% industrial paints. On a value basis, construction paints hold 37% and industrial paints hold 63% share. On the other hand, significant progress is also taking place in industrial paints. With our total paint production figures, we are Europe's 5th largest producer. The 4th largest, Italy, has figures very close to ours, and our goal in the short term is to become the third largest sector. As an industry producing at European quality standards and continuously developing its technology, we are a strong player on a regional basis. All of this is extremely positive for the paint industry's development in the coming years. Therefore, we are hopeful about the sector's future years. The Turkish paint industry has raised its recent economic and technical development to the highest level and reached a competitive sector position. Using this advantage, it currently exports paint products to approximately 50 countries. Our important proximity to regional markets due to our geographical location is another advantage for us. As an industry developing technologically, the paint sector must continue its work at higher levels to create high value-added products to be offered to world markets. Our paint industry, particularly as an import-dependent sector in basic raw materials, attracts attention, and wide-scale investment in basic inputs is needed for it to overcome its import-dependent sector position.

How can paint products be developed in terms of variety, productivity and technology? What types of duties do the private sector, public institutions and universities have in this regard? Do you believe it is possible for Turkey to become a global voice, particularly in research and development and know-how in the paint field?

The development of the paint industry in terms of productivity and technology, as you also mentioned, depends on developments in domestic and foreign markets. In recent years, the development of our country's manufacturing industry in this field also affects paint industry products in terms of variety (in terms of areas of use) and research and development. Research and development and product development work continues in parallel with global developments in this field. Our paint industry continues its work on integration with bureaucratic institutions in order to contribute to this development. Additionally, we continue our joint work with our universities in the field of research and development and technological advances. For Turkey to become a global voice in paint technologies, it must particularly emphasize production technologies along with innovation and product development.

Could you provide information about Bosad's environmental policy and sustainability approach? Could we learn your views on recovery and recycling in paint production? What can you say about your activities related to occupational health and safety?

The latest technological developments in the chemistry and paint sectors have led to innovations and responsibilities for new product portfolios in production in the areas of human health and the environment. In our country, in this field, environmentally friendly products in our paint industry are increasingly diverse, and new sectoral demand is being met. We believe that the industrialisation criteria of the coming century will see further development in the understanding of production in the context of the environment and human beings. In recent years, with the compliance process for environmental regulations in paint industry production, significant developments have been achieved in recovery and recycling. Our organisations are making important investments in environmental and human health matters, and awareness levels in this field are rising.

What type of activities does Bosad plan to undertake for 2017 and beyond?

As the Paint Manufacturers Association, we aim to raise our work towards the economic and commercial development of our sector to higher levels. In particular, we envisage various activities within the framework of increasing per capita paint consumption and continuing our production in accordance with productivity principles. On the other hand, as Bosad, increasing the international promotion and representative power of our sector will be an important issue on our agenda. Additionally, we wish to raise our work on our sector's compliance process with international regulations to higher levels.