MacDermid Performance Solutions General Manager İlker Karabulut

In the interview we conducted, İlker Karabulut, General Director of MacDermid Performance Solutions Kimyasal Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., answered our questions. Karabulut provided detailed information about the company's broad product portfolio.

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

I was born in Istanbul in 1981. I have been married for 8 years and have a 4-year-old son. I have lived in Mecidiyeköy for 25 years, Kadıköy for 2 years, Kartal for 6 years, and in the Tuzla district for the last 3 years. It is clear that I am moving away from Istanbul. I completed my primary, secondary and high school education in Istanbul. I entered university in 1999 and graduated in 2004. I am a graduate of Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Chemistry and Metallurgy, Department of Chemical Engineering. During my university years and afterwards, I served on numerous commissions and later management bodies within the Chemical Engineers Chamber. During this period, while taking part in many activities organized by the Chamber, I left a mark on the Surface Treatment Industry and served on Executive Boards at Surface Treatment Symposiums, which were also Chamber activities. After university, I started work as a Technical Sales Engineer at Haytek Kimya, a company that has existed in our sector since 1992, and served as Technical Sales Engineer, Technical Manager and Deputy General Manager until December 2016. Since January 2017, I have been serving as General Director of MacDermid Performance Solutions Kimyasal Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.

Could you provide information about MacDermid Enthone's founding period and the stages it has gone through to the present day? How long has the company been operating in Turkey?

MacDermid and Enthone are companies that have been governing and directing the global surface treatment raw materials industry for many years, setting standards with key industry components in sectors such as automotive, construction and electrical, having made it their mission to contribute to the development of our sector as well as other sectors dependent on it, and continuing their path by adding value to values. The MacDermid company was founded by the Scottish MacDermid family. After growing the company, it was sold to the American Lever family. MacDermid was founded in 1922 with its headquarters in Waterbury, America. Enthone was founded in 1930 with its headquarters in West Haven, America. The primary purpose of both companies' establishment was to provide metal plating chemicals to the Electroplating Industry. Throughout the period until the present day, the companies have continued on their path by providing developments and benefits that serve and direct the sector globally. In 2013, Platform Specialty Products Corporation was formed and MacDermid joined this structure as its cornerstone. In 2015, the Platform Specialty Products Corporation group added the Alent group, to which Enthone belonged, to the Platform family and MacDermid Performance Solutions was established. MacDermid Performance Solutions, through its Enthone, Alpha Assembly and OMG (Electronics Chemicals and Reprography) divisions, currently operates in over 50 countries globally, serving over 14,000 business partners with direct sales and technical services and employing over 4,500 staff members of the MacDermid Performance Solutions (MPS) family, continuing to grow within the scope of its duties and responsibilities. Enthone, which has been operating in Turkey for many years, and MacDermid, which has also been operating in Turkey for a long time through its distributors, began their structuring as MacDermid Performance Solutions Turkey from the second half of 2015, and this structuring was completed as of the beginning of 2016.

Taking into account production facilities, machinery park and number of employees, as well as turnover and production volume, what is MacDermid Enthone's current structure?

In light of all global and local data, MacDermid Enthone's structure is in a leading position in its sector, adding added value to all sectors it serves, continuing its activities in a faster and more efficient manner with its product range, technical infrastructure and research and development work supporting this technical infrastructure, and treating its customers as its own organs, with the aim of maximum benefit.

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

Our company provides raw materials and technical support to the automotive industry, construction, oil and gas, aviation, furniture and fixtures, electrical and electronic and fittings industries. Our main product classes include functional systems that provide protection against corrosion, such as zinc, zinc alloy, passivation and sealer, as well as decorative-based systems that meet decorative requirements. Functional systems requiring friction modification such as hard chromium and electroless nickel, as well as systems requiring pre-paint surface preparation such as phosphating and nanotechnology-based pre-treatment are among our product groups. We also provide systems for plating precious metals such as silver, gold and rhodium, degreasing and cleaning systems required in pre-plating surface preparation and coating systems requiring wear resistance to our customers.

What types of work do you conduct as MacDermid Enthone in the areas of innovation and research and development? Do you have any projects developed within the scope of university-industry cooperation, and if so, what are they?

Our company has research and development centres at many global locations, and in these centres we provide services through continuous project planning with the aim of meeting all requirements of the sectors we serve. In particular, we have many completed and ongoing projects aimed at creating chemicals or processes that are as harmless as possible in terms of human health and safety, in addition to functional developments in the automotive industry.

Could you tell us about your domestic and foreign sales activities? Which regions do you primarily sell what types of products to domestically and internationally?

Both domestically and internationally, we try to reach all our customers in the sectors we belong to and provide services from the same perspective. As the MPS family, our basic principle is to provide all kinds of services in terms of products and technical knowledge with our technically equipped staff at any point where we believe help is needed and in situations where we truly believe and know we can be helpful. If the only thing intended is to simply sell products, I do not think this is difficult. There are basic rules for making a correct sale. These include having the right product and knowing the product, having the right and equipped staff, and making companies we believe can provide benefits our customers with the aim of providing long-term cooperation with business partner logic. If one of the three basic rules I mentioned cannot be satisfied, I do not think the sale you have made is a correct sale.

Could you provide information about MacDermid Enthone's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you tell us about your work related to occupational health and safety?

Our company is a firm that aims to be conscious and directive in terms of both environmental sensitivity and occupational health and safety, within the scope of what we can do, and works seriously to achieve this. We have departments that evaluate all laws and regulations in all countries and around the world, both globally and as local units, work in light of this data, make serious efforts and ensure that all our employees are informed and trained. However, as MPS, we do not believe that these two fundamental issues should only be protected by adhering to laws and regulations. In this context, we determine our research and development work and projects in this direction with the aim of raising awareness of our sector on these two fundamental important issues within the scope of our knowledge and resources. In the Electroplating Industry, whomever you ask has something to say about the dangers of chromic acid use. Through research and development work we have conducted for a long time, we are making many investments to solve this fundamental problem. The satisfaction of proving that production can be carried out with less harmful chemicals that can be used instead of chromic acid in facilities is not enough for us; and we constantly explain through informative training and documents that what is important is PEOPLE.

Could we learn your thoughts about the industrial paints, coatings and surface treatment sectors in Turkey? What do you think are Turkey's advantages and disadvantages in these sectors?

Turkey holds a very important and strategic position in the global manufacturing world both due to its geographical location and the way its social and cultural structure is reflected in professional business life. With its ability to think practically and analytically, and with its efficient and effective approach in decision-making mechanisms, Turkey is structured in a way that can directly affect productivity in the manufacturing industry. When looking at the requirements for sound operation of basic production, it is clear that Turkey has the potential to easily meet these requirements. With all these positive aspects, our current success and future successes we can achieve in the Industrial Paints, Coatings and Surface Treatment sectors will be lasting. However, it must also be clearly understood that alongside these fundamental characteristics we possess, we have deficiencies in knowledge generation and dissemination of generated knowledge, and I believe this will continue to be the case. The way to prevent this is, as I have previously stated, to increase university-industry cooperation, increase project generation in research and development, support this cooperation with Professional Chambers, and increase knowledge transfer and sharing among production industry Professional Chamber members, which is a necessity.

What criteria are prioritized when MacDermid Enthone develops investment plans? Do you have investment plans for MacDermid Enthone for the upcoming periods, and if so, what are they?

Due to our company's international nature, it operates in many countries and tries to transfer the principles it has established to these countries. In line with these fundamental principles, the requirements and demands of the countries we have reached should be evaluated according to the local region located, and investments should be planned after this evaluation. The method we prioritize is shaping each investment to be made according to the conditions of the country in which it is located. With this fundamental perspective, moving according to Turkish realities, our investments are planned and implemented. Throughout our country, there is significant secondary industry supporting main production. The important fundamental point here is the speed in accessing both knowledge and the necessary service/product. In this direction, the investment we primarily emphasize is investment in PEOPLE. Our most fundamental investment is making people capable of creating the answers that can be provided to these demands work correctly, quickly and efficiently, so that we can meet demands correctly, quickly and efficiently. All our planning and philosophy is to present this on the basis of first developing ourselves and being able to provide benefits to the structures we wish to serve.