Interview with Dr. Engin Tekneci, Co-Founder of Trio Teknik Cihazlar

In our interview with Trio Teknik Cihazlar founder partner Dr. Engin Tekneci, we covered the company's success story, the importance and applications of laboratory equipment, and the sector's developments expected in 2018.

Could you briefly tell us about yourself and your professional background?

Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi After graduating from the Chemical Engineering Department in 2000, I completed my master's and doctoral studies at the same university, finishing my academic career in 2013. While continuing my academic work, I began working in the field of industrial laboratory equipment sales in 2003 and served as product manager for 7 years. Since 2010, I have continued my professional career as one of the founding partners of Trio Teknik Cihazlar.

What would you like to say about Trio Teknik?

Trio Teknik Cihazlar was established in 2010 with a dynamic structure and a priority objective of quality service. Thanks to our founding team's long-standing presence and experience in the laboratory equipment sector, we quickly established our position in the market. We have completed our seventh year in the sector and are taking major steps each year toward becoming one of the established companies in the industry.

What are your product lines? In your view, what is the importance of technology in laboratory equipment?

As Trio Teknik Cihazlar, we supply laboratory equipment used in industrial and analytical fields. We provide equipment and equipment groups used for special applications and precise analyses to our customers. The equipment in our product portfolio largely falls into the group known as "advanced technology." We serve as representatives of numerous international manufacturers, providing both sales and technical support services. The equipment we have introduced to the market as representatives can be classified as coal analysis, water and wastewater analysis, municipal waste and waste sludge analysis, food analysis, and metal analysis equipment. Laboratory equipment is used today for control purposes in very specialized and important production processes. Although it is a more established field compared to other sectors, there are major innovations in laboratory equipment. Technology used in laboratory equipment should enhance important criteria such as ease of use, speed, precision, and accuracy. Particularly as limit values for critical control parameters decrease or precision requirements for analyzed parameters increase, laboratory equipment must be continuously updated, and therefore "technology and laboratory equipment are an inseparable whole" to meet all resulting demands. To give a simple example, a touchscreen-controlled system on equipment was a luxury five years ago, but is now offered as standard. It is possible to multiply such examples.

Could you tell us about the sectors you serve?

Our company provides laboratory equipment services to many sectors including energy, environment, water and wastewater, food, and metallurgy. In the energy field, especially all equipment used in determining the quality of coal, our domestic resource, is supplied by our company. The food sector is also one of the most important sectors we serve, as it is always an area requiring laboratory equipment. Sample preparation systems, which are very important for systems used in additive and residue analysis in food products, are supplied by our company and constitute an important component of the sector. As a result of increasing awareness and activities in waste recovery and valorization in recent periods, the wastewater and waste sludge sector has gained significant importance and has become the most popular sector we serve through our special efforts. Technology used in laboratory equipment should enhance important criteria such as ease of use, speed, precision, and accuracy.

Could you tell us about your domestic and international sales activities?

Since our company operates as a representative of international manufacturing companies in Turkey, our primary working area is domestic. For certain special projects, we also provide support to the companies we represent for international markets. In the activities we have undertaken domestically, the issue we emphasize is being in direct contact with users. Even in a time when access to all kinds of information is so easy, we believe mutual dialogue is more valuable. For this reason, customer visits can be counted among our most important domestic activities. Of course, this does not mean not using this technology. Our company website content is continuously updated, and we ensure that both our products and news from our company are kept current on our site. In addition, by participating in international or national congresses and trade fairs, we maintain direct contact with our customers. Industry magazine advertisements also enable users to reach us and quickly learn about innovations we have made.

Could you tell us about investments and innovations you plan to implement in the coming years?

As mentioned above, technology and laboratory equipment are an inseparable whole and are constantly being updated. As a company, our goal is to expand our product portfolio each year in line with our customers' needs. To achieve this, we will increase our contacts with foreign companies throughout the coming year and work to increase product diversity. We also plan to expand our team to serve our growing portfolio in both service and sales terms. Training and meetings organized by manufacturing companies and international sector trade fairs, as they do every year, will be evaluated by our company in the coming year.

Finally, what would you like to say about the sector? In your view, what will 2018 bring for the sector?

Like every sector, the laboratory equipment sector is naturally affected by economic fluctuations and internal and external uncertainties. Particularly, fluctuations in exchange rates cause serious difficulties during the period from product import to reaching the end user, causing users to delay or not make investments at all. As someone within the sector, I hope that the difficulties we experienced in previous years will decrease in the coming year, so that laboratories—which are the most important parameter in production, quality control, and R&D—are not affected by such difficulties. If this is realized, I believe the sector will experience very significant growth in 2018.