Turgay Dağ
General Manager, Indesit Turkey
In our business, logistics are important, because we are delivering a lot of volume. One container is 1 cubic meter, and we can fit 65 pieces in one container. Another key issue is the cost of manpower. In Europe, Turkey has about the same manpower costs as Poland, but with better worker quality. Today in Poland, we have five factories, with manpower costs increasing rapidly, whereas in Turkey the rate is stable. In Turkey, there is also a stronger brand loyalty. This loyalty affects productivity and efficiency. The market is another important consideration for us, as we are producing and also selling in Turkey. We have had a plant here for 20 years. The reason we have a cooling factory is that refrigerators take more time in production. If we produce one refrigerator in Turkey today, we have to pay between ‚¬6 and ‚¬12 in manpower costs. If you manufacture the same product in France, one hour will cost ‚¬20. The weighted average for the economy is 2% now, with training.
Hasan Alemdar
President, Henkel Turkey
Henkel has three different business areas that it concentrates on. These are adhesive technologies, laundry and home care, and beauty care. Henkel was one of the first multinationals to realize Turkey’s potential. We were quite fast coming into Turkey. It was important for us because of the size of the market and the growth potential we found here. Each move we make into a new market is based on the respective size and growth potential there. Currently, we have three factories in Turkey. Two are located close to Istanbul in Gebze and Tuzla, and both deal with adhesive technologies. Our third factory is in Ankara, and it is Henkel’s second largest factory in the world for laundry and homecare after our factory in Düsseldorf.
Andy Lederer
Managing Director, Andy Lederer
The Turkish market is probably going to remain stable. We are the world’s leading manufacturer of pressure vessel storage for all types of gasses. We are not only dependent on the Turkish economy. If we were a 100% Turkish-owned business, I’d be a little bit less optimistic, because there are a lot of headwinds; inflation is moving up and the Turkish lira has devalued a little, which is causing a lot of pressure on local companies. It is especially hitting those that sell in Turkey, but source their raw materials from abroad. We will attempt to grow this business as efficiently and as quickly as we can. We have a unique opportunity here for a cost-effective manufacturing base. From Bandırma, where we will build a 50,000-sqm facility, we will have easy port access to Izmir or Bursa. Phase I will be about 33,000 sqm, which will be about double the space that we have from a manufacturing perspective.
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