Rota Kimya has been operating in the field of leather and finishing chemicals since 1976.
In the interview we held, Rota Kimya Sales and Marketing Manager Sertuğ Melih Başol
gave information about the company’s fields of activity and the products they offer.
Could you please tell us about yourself and your professional background?
I was born in Istanbul in 1981. After the elementary school, I went to Sankt Georg Austrian High School and graduated from Boğaziçi University Chemical Engineering Department in the year 2005. I entered my professional career in LG Chem as a sales representative,
which is a petrochemical company of LG Group.
Then I worked as export manager in Azelis Turkey and later on as a sales manager in Arkema France. I work in our family company Rota Kimya since 2016 full-time.
Could you please give information on the history of Rota Kimya and your activities in the adhesive industry?
Rota Kimya established in 1976 by chemist M. Öner Başol as a family company in the production of leather chemicals and PVA based adhesives. We continued our activities in leather industry until 1998 economic crises in Turkey.
After that we continue our activity mainly in the shoe finishing chemicals (paints, colorants,
finishes) for footwear manufacturers, chemicals for sole & leather bags industry. Due to our R&D activities we started production of water-based adhesives in 2015, and solvent based adhesives in 2017.
We are one of the few manufacturers globally in water-based adhesives area. Our aim is to supply our adhesives with a good price & performance value to our customers, that is why our volumes increase every year.
Could you please give information on the products and services Rota Kimya provides? What are your target industries?
We are focused on 5 product ranges. These are shoe finishing chemicals, leather finishing chemicals, edge finishes for leather goods manufacturers, shoe & leather care products and adhesives. Our leather finishing chemicals are used mainly in tanneries. Our shoe finishing
chemicals, sole finishes, adhesives and leather goods finishes are used during the production of footwear, bags and soles locally and also globally.
We supply our shoe & leather care items to shops and also at online marketing mainly. We produce shoecare products for US and Canada in private label as well. To sum up, our
target markets include all the fields related to leather and adhesive.
We can produce customized solutions for footwear industry in short amount of time, and we continue our activities in order to supply chemicals in other industries like industrial products, furniture, automotive, etc. as well.
Could you inform us about your domestic and international activities?
Our office, R&D and production facility are located in İstanbul / İkitelli Industrial Zone. In Istanbul, our customers, which are shoe, sole and leather goods manufacturers, are located mainly in İkitelli, Merter area.
In Anatolian side of Turkey, we do have dealers in cities like Gaziantep, Konya, İzmir, Adana, Antakya, Manisa mainly. Big footwear manufacturers with big chain stores are also among our customers.
We export 35% of our production to over 20 countries like Iran, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Egypt, USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, India, Pakistan; and we do represent our company in international fairs for shoe & leather like in Italy (Lineapelle), etc.
How was 2022 for Rota Kimya? Do you have new projects for 2023?
2022 was mainly a year with difficulties and changes globally after the pandemic with raw material supply problems and cost increases due to the energy crises after the war between Ukraine and Russia, and also production cost increases due to the increase of exchange rates locally. Despite the difficulties locally and globally we could finish the year with 28% increase in sales volume.
In our 2023 targets, we aim to move our production of leather chemicals and adhesives to our new factory located in Istanbul, Tuzla in order to increase our production capacity. In adhesives range we also plan to invest into new areas like furniture, foam and hotmelt besides our water and solvent based adhesives.
We also plan to enlarge our product portfolio in water-based adhesives, which is an increasing trend globally due to the environmental and worker health issues.
Could you please inform us about the innovation and R&D studies conducted by Rota Kimya?
We, as Rota Kimya, give our attention to R&D and innovation more every day, although we are known as a solution partner in the field. We work on the aim to produce adhesives range and leather finishing chemicals which are mainly imported to Turkey as main ingredients, in order to minimize our dependency to import and increase our competitiveness in global markets.
Besides that, following international norms on environmental & human health concerns will be one of our main responsibilities.
