Interview with Emin Ergan

In the interview we conducted, JRS Rettenmaier Turkey General Manager Emin Ergan answered our questions. Ergan provided information about JRS Rettenmaier's history and vision.

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

I was born on 25 February 1983 in Şişli. I am married and a father of one child. I am a graduate of the Chemistry Department at Sakarya University. Professionally, I have worked for more than 17 years in the healthcare sector, starting from R&D through to management positions in technical sales and business development at leading international and national manufacturers and distributor companies. In 2018, I was involved in establishing JRS Group's Turkey office, and I continue my career as the General Manager of Turkey operations at the company. [caption id="attachment_146395" align="aligncenter"] JRS Rettenmaier Turkey General Manager Emin Ergan[/caption]

Could you provide information about JRS Rettenmaier Turkey's establishment process, investments made and current structure? How long has JRS Turkey been operating?

First, I would like to briefly inform you about our JRS Group company. We are a 140-year-old, globally-scaled family business based in Germany, operating in plant fibre production where we hold a leading market position globally in both production capacity and sales volume. We have over 90 production facilities, new product development laboratories, sales offices and over 3,500 employees located in many parts of the world, predominantly Europe and America, China and India. Currently, Josef Otto Rettenmaier, a fourth-generation member of the family, serves as CEO of the group. Within JRS Group, we have two main divisions: Life Sciences and Fibre Solutions, with a total of 12 business units under these divisions. These are: pharmaceutical excipients and coatings, food additives, home and personal care, animal feed and bedding, modern materials, construction chemicals, filtration, functional asphalt additives, paper industry, plant-based smoking agents, plastic substitutes and horticulture business units within our structure. In addition, we also have a functional and innovative pet care division. JRS Turkey Office was officially established in June 2018 and began commercial operations at its initial office located in Acıbadem Akasya A1 Tower on the Anatolian side of Istanbul under the company name Rettenmaier Turkey Doğal Elyaf Tic. Ltd. Şti. Within a short period, due to business expansion and new colleagues added to newly opened departments, as well as our growing employee base, we relocated to a larger office at the same address. Currently, our growth continues at an accelerating pace. In our Turkey organization, we have integrated all Life Sciences and Plant-Based Smoking Agents divisions of our parent company JRS Group into our office, and we serve our end-user customers through our extensive service network with our relevant divisions. Our company imports products from our production facilities in Europe, America, China and India, and we work in cooperation with four leading logistics and warehousing companies to deliver our products from stock to the factories of our end-user customers.

Which sectors does JRS Rettenmaier Turkey mainly supply and what types of products? What are JRS Rettenmaier Turkey's products, brands and services?

JRS Turkey Office has strategically begun commercial operations primarily with Life Science divisions. Actually, JRS products have been reaching end-users in Turkey's relevant sectors through various distributor companies for a long time. The establishment of our office enabled the smooth transfer of our existing business in the relevant sectors from distributors to us and the establishment of direct communication lines between end-users and manufacturers. Our products, except for some products in pharmaceutical excipients and coatings, are entirely plant-based and products that are harmless to human and natural life; on the contrary, they are beneficial. Under our functional product range, we have natural thickeners, natural fillers, dispersants, calorie and fat reducers, carriers, viscosity regulators, bedding, anti-caking agents and dispersion agents. Of course, alongside these, we also have products with multiple specialized functional roles. We use different brand names for our products in each division. We primarily use our VIVAPUR brand in pharmaceuticals, food additives and personal care divisions, and our ARBOCEL brand in our animal feed division with various types.  

Could you talk about your domestic and foreign sales activities? What types of products do you mainly sell to which regions domestically and internationally?

JRS Turkey Office, as stated, is a strategically established office with a decision taken together with our senior management, therefore we have business plans and models for the short and long term. Our priority is to integrate products from all our divisions in the Turkish market in the short term and reach a leading position in the market. At the same time, our long-term objective is to provide and complete the necessary infrastructure to become a responsible office in the Middle East and neighbouring country markets.

Could you provide information about JRS Rettenmaier Turkey's environmental policy and sustainability approach?

We believe in a sustainable, better future and carefully fulfil our responsibilities. For this reason, as JRS, we are always innovative with our plant fibre technology to make food products healthier, pharmaceutical products more advanced and industrial products more resource-friendly for a tomorrow worth living. Our high-quality functional plant fibre products are manufactured from natural, renewable raw materials such as grain and fruit fibres, sea plants, wood and cellulose derived from it. In developing our products, all our raw material selection and processing activities are based on environmentally friendly processes and every day every plant fibre is dedicated to making the world more sustainable. Nature is the best inventor. All you need to do is look more closely and know how to use their natural functions. And that is exactly what we do. We use innovative JRS plant fibre technology to benefit from nature in the best way without harming it. We transform the countless functions of these valuable natural materials into holistic customized solutions for our customers across the world and in virtually every area of industry.

What kind of work do you carry out in innovation and R&D as JRS Rettenmaier Turkey? Do you have projects developed within university-industry cooperation, and if so, what are they?

At JRS, nature is always our role model. Every day we learn from it, and we focus our research, development and production on presenting its broad functional characteristics as innovative additives and semi-finished products to industries. At our main R&D laboratory based at our headquarters in Germany, we research and develop our new products according to this principle. At the same time, we provide practical support to academic studies at universities concerning our licensed products that we have developed and discovered. Additionally, we provide formulation support on a confidential basis for new products that our customers wish to develop, and we provide significant support for projects related to our experimental work in pilot production facilities within our R&D laboratory for various sectors.

What criteria are prioritized when investment plans for JRS Rettenmaier Turkey are being drawn up? Does JRS Rettenmaier Turkey have investment plans for the coming periods, and if so, what are they?

As Turkey Office, we are aware that having a strong company and strong products is an important advantage for success, but we also believe that we need a team that works in harmony together to sustain our success. We regard our colleagues as family and believe that our greatest investment is providing a comfortable, sustainable and human-focused work environment. Additionally, as I mentioned in terms of business model, we have short and medium-term investment plans. Among our goals is to make Turkey a regional production centre in terms of supply capacity to address increasing raw material shortages and supply problems, and to provide easily accessible and secure solutions for distribution to the large and growing Turkish domestic market and neighbouring country markets.