Industry Talk with Ekrem Varlık, Founder of Varlık Makina

Mr. Ekrem Varlık, could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your educational background, your position in your company and your professional background in the sector? First of all, thank you very much for wanting to conduct this interview with me. I was born in Yozgat in 1949. My family engaged in agriculture in Çiftlik Village of Yozgat. In those difficult conditions, my dreams were fueled by the desire to prove myself in a big city and pursue my ideals. After my education at Kayseri Vocational High School, I was admitted to the Mechanical Engineering Department at Yıldız Technical University. I had to work to continue my university education. We were nine siblings and my family's means were very limited. For this reason, I worked as a production engineer at an international company during the day and continued my university education at night. In 1977, I invested all my savings to buy a lathe and opened my first manufacturing workshop in the basement of a building. Thus, the foundations of today's Varlık Makina were laid. During these difficult conditions, I worked continuously day and night for five years with a core team of three people, including myself, aiming to advance our work and staff further with each passing day. After these difficult five years, when the basement in Şişhane became insufficient, we moved to a larger workshop in Bayrampaşa. From there, in the 1990s we moved to Ikitelli Organized Industrial Zone, and in 2001 to our building built in Hadımköy. This relocation was a turning point for Varlık Makina. By then, Varlık Makina's reputation had begun to open the doors of becoming a world company that transcended national borders. Today, Varlık Makina, operating in 15,000 m² of closed area with a total of 120 personnel, 20 of whom are engineers, has established state-of-the-art facilities in 84 countries across five continents.

Could you tell us about your company's development process since its establishment? Which sectors do you serve?

Our first production was transfer machines used by lime factories. In the following years, we began turnkey installation of complete hydrated lime factories. In the 1990s, to prevent air pollution occurring in Istanbul during winter months, coal was required to be packaged and sold. This opened the door to a different sector for us. We also began producing automatic packaging machines used by coal producers in coal packaging. Meanwhile, in the 1990s, my sons Hüseyin and Güngör Varlık began working in the company. My son Hüseyin, a mechanical engineer, and my other son Güngör, an electronics engineer, gained experience at every level of our company after graduation and took roles in company management. In subsequent years, with the development of demand for quality housing, specialized construction chemicals began to gain favor in construction instead of classical mortars made with sand and cement. To meet this sector need, we began establishing production facilities for construction chemicals and paints. In fact, the first production facility we established still operates today in Kazakhstan and continues to benefit the company and the country.

Could you tell us generally about your product groups and product characteristics?

We manufacture complete paint production projects and powder mixture packaging facilities, calcite crushing, screening, drying and separation facilities, and plaster production facilities. To summarize: In the facilities we have built, gypsum or calcite of 50-60 cm size extracted from nature is crushed, screened, dried, undergoes separation processes, and is stored in silos in micron particle size. These and/or other raw materials are then put through weighing, mixing, packaging and palletizing processes, and finally presented to the market as final products through stretching. Can you imagine, you produce 30-40 tons per hour—enough to fill two trucks—but the number of people you employ in production does not exceed 3-4. Each process I mentioned proceeds completely automatically without any personnel intervention. While doing this, all facility equipment communicates with each other. This is what we call Industry 4.0. Our bagging robots automatically fill the bags; our palletizing robots automatically arrange the bags on pallets; and our end-of-line machines automatically stretch the pallets. These machines were first produced by us in our country and provided for our customers' use, giving them significant competitive advantages.

What type of activities do you conduct regarding your R&D and innovation investments?

We design and manufacture each machine and equipment used in the processes I mentioned earlier ourselves. This is done through strong R&D and innovation investment. We have dozens of projects approved by TÜBİTAK and KOSGEB. Every day, new products are added to our product range to meet the developing and changing expectations of the sector. Through our R&D investments, with our Pulse Electronics brand, we have become capable of producing many electronic equipment ourselves—from load cells to indicators; from level sensors to antistatic bars. Our products are persistently preferred and used by quality machinery manufacturers operating in Germany, France, China and Italy. Five years ago, we established our sales offices and warehouses in Shanghai, China and Milan, Italy to serve these companies on time and flawlessly.

Could you tell us about your domestic and international sales activities? What types of products do you primarily sell to which regions?

We have facilities and machinery operating throughout Turkey domestically. We have customers and friends who established facilities 30 years ago and use our machines without any problems. Of course, this quality has also taken us to very important places in the world. We have turnkey facilities operating in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Central Asian countries, Russia, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Algeria, Egypt, Bosnia, Romania, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and many other countries I cannot name. We are approved suppliers of many international companies such as Henkel, BASF, Sika, Lafarge and Parex worldwide. If the same company chose us for a project in the Philippines, due to their satisfaction, they could choose us again for a project in Argentina the following year.

How was the first half of 2017 for you? What would you like to say about your company's targets and projects?

It went even better than we expected; we completed many major projects. Our goal is to advance our brand value further. The quality and satisfaction perception we have gained globally is also increasing Turkish machinery brand value. However, I regret to say that we are having difficulty finding qualified and trained personnel. Our path is long, our horizon is wide, we and our country need a visionary, innovative and dynamic youth. As we have done until now, we aim for our original and functionally designed machines to be used by wider audiences and on continents we have not yet reached, and to ensure our brand awareness. For this purpose, our international trade fair participation continues uninterruptedly.

What is Varlık Makina's position in the sector, and what distinguishes you from your competitors?

While maintaining our leadership in Turkey for many years in the sector, we have reached a position to compete with established European brands on the international platform. I can be proud to say that we offer our machinery to our customers with more functionality and more competitive pricing than machines from competing European manufacturers with 150 years of history and experience. We are justly proud to have condensed the experience and skill that they achieved in 150 years into 40 years. This success was created through the teamwork and sense of responsibility of all our managers, engineers and assembly staff. No amount of thanks would suffice for them. The most important feature that distinguishes us from our competitors is that we manufacture every piece of equipment we use in our facilities ourselves—from packaging and palletizing machines to conveyor screws to flaps. We know well what our needs are, and we design and manufacture the equipment to meet these needs. In this way, our customer can obtain the product, service and solution they need from a single source in the best and fastest way. What European competitors can do with a 12-month deadline, we can produce and install working facilities in as little as 6 months. Adherence to delivery schedules is our priority.

Finally, do you have a message you would like to convey to the sector?

My request to all colleagues in the sector is: Research, develop, produce and try to create added value for our country. This is only possible through R&D, innovation and continuity. Target the impossible and work hard to achieve that target. Never make earning money your first priority. Pursue success. Success will bring its rewards along with it.