Could you tell us about yourself? What is your new role and responsibilities?
I graduated in Industrial Engineering. I began my career in 2006 as a young engineer at Teka. After gaining managerial experience in various departments such as production, supply chain, and planning, I was appointed Factory Director in 2022. I held this position for nearly four years. As of October 2025, I have been serving as the General Manager of Midea SDA İzmir Factory.
Could you share information about your company and its operations?
Our production facility, established in 2003 in the İzmir Aegean Free Zone, operates on a 24,000 m² area, of which 11,500 m² is covered. Beyond assembly, the Midea SDA İzmir Factory integrates various production processes such as sheet metal processing lines, welding lines, glass silicone bonding, and painting. Approximately 250 people work at the facility. We manufacture built-in products including gas hobs, vitroceramic hobs, induction hobs, and gas and electric ovens. With its openness to innovation, continuous improvement mindset, and approach to integrating technology into production processes, our factory is among the group’s most prominent facilities. With an annual production capacity of 2 million units, we export to five continents. Thanks to our in-house sheet metal processing, painting, welding, and glass silicone processes, we have the capability to produce complete built-in products—setting us apart from other group factories.
Could you tell us about your export rates and top export destinations?
We export 85% of our production abroad. Our largest customer is Teka, one of the Midea Group brands. Our top three export markets are Spain, Portugal, and Mexico. At our sales company in Istanbul, we manage the sales of all Teka products in our responsible region, which includes key markets such as Georgia, Qatar, Jordan, and Iraq. Our products reach markets across Europe (including the UK), Asia (Russia & Turkic Republics, Thailand, Vietnam), the Middle East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan), and the Americas (USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile), as well as Australia. On the OEM side, France, Italy, and the USA are among our most important export destinations.
Could you share your new investments and R&D efforts?
Midea SDA İzmir Factory operates with an integrated structure that combines production and R&D. Our R&D efforts focus on enhancing user experience and responding to evolving market expectations. Our facilities and R&D centers prioritize user-centric cooking functions, energy optimization, user-friendly interfaces, and environmentally conscious solutions.
What changes have you observed following the Midea merger?
The merger, finalized in April, aimed to further strengthen Teka’s global competitiveness and enable rapid expansion into new product categories and markets. Following the acquisition, a synergy was created by combining Midea Group’s global leadership in technology and production scale with Teka’s century-old brand heritage and strong presence in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Post-merger, we are moving forward with a strong growth ambition for the Teka brand in Turkey. This year, our priorities include expanding our product range and restructuring and diversifying our sales channels. In line with our growth targets, we aim to increase our revenue by more than 50% compared to last year.
The merger will have significant impacts on both production and retail through additional investments. Our primary focus is to increase the capacity and efficiency of our factory. We are working intensively in this direction. We aim to double our total exports by 2028. New products are also on our radar during this period.
What are your forecasts and risk factors for the second half of 2025 and 2026?
Turkey is a key production hub for brands serving the European market. Thanks to the local supply chain and component suppliers, we can access both competitive prices and high quality. Especially in enamel, glass, metal processing, cable, motor, and component manufacturing, Turkey offers a significant advantage as a production location.
The Turkish white goods and built-in appliance market is highly dynamic due to both the increase in household numbers and the replacement effect. We expect the number of households to grow by double digits over the next three years, reaching 30 million. We also anticipate a revival in the construction sector, which is crucial for the white goods industry—this will positively impact the sector.
On the other hand, the Turkish white goods sector is experiencing a decline in exports due to contraction in global markets. The domestic market continued to grow until the first half of 2024, compensating for this decline, but has started to slow down due to economic developments, high interest rates, and resulting demand contraction. Balancing domestic and international markets is key to sustainability in the white goods industry. Approaches that preserve consumer purchasing power and export competitiveness will support sector growth.
How do you view Industry 4.0 developments in Turkey? Do you have digitalization initiatives or precautions?
Our digitalization and Industry 4.0 projects are built around five main goals: increasing efficiency, enabling data-driven decision-making, enhancing customer experience, establishing agile and integrated structures, and strengthening cybersecurity. In this context, our current focus includes business intelligence, various ERP integrations, remote work, no-code programming, virtual switchboards, and mobile signatures.
The first goal is to increase efficiency by optimizing business processes with digital tools to save time and costs. The second is data-driven decision-making, where we focus on real-time data analytics to create faster and more accurate decision mechanisms. Another goal is to enhance customer experience through personalized and seamless service via digital platforms. The fourth is to establish agile and integrated structures by integrating different systems to build a more flexible and compatible digital infrastructure. Our final goal is to strengthen cybersecurity, aiming to protect data security and privacy at the highest level during our digital transformation.
What are your efforts regarding sustainability and carbon tracking obligations?
As Midea SDA İzmir Factory, we focus on three of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals: increasing women’s employment, responsible production and consumption, and climate action. In this context, we adopt a “Responsible Production and Consumption” approach in our production processes, aiming to use resources consciously and minimize environmental impact. We use 100% renewable energy, certified by IREC, for all electricity consumed at our facility. We design products to reduce energy consumption and prioritize materials with minimal environmental impact. We use materials compliant with ROHS and REACH standards and contribute to reducing carbon footprint through energy-efficient designs. We also improve logistics processes to enhance transport efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, we aim to increase recycling and reduce resource usage through packaging improvements.
We also work on gender equality. Women hold significant roles at all levels. For example, one-third of our C-level management and 40% of our factory management team are women. In recent years, we’ve prioritized increasing the presence of women among our blue-collar workforce as well.
Could you share your localization and product strategies? What is the domestic sourcing rate in your supply chain?
Turkey is a key production base for brands serving the European market. Thanks to local suppliers and component manufacturers, we access both competitive pricing and high quality. Especially in enamel, glass, metal processing, cable, motor, and component manufacturing, Turkey offers a major advantage. We’ve increased our domestic procurement by 50% over the past three years and aim to continue this trend. Our main domestically sourced products include carbon steel, stainless steel, shaped sheet metal and plastic parts, cables, documentation, and packaging materials.
Do you have any thoughts or messages for BEYSAD or your suppliers through BEYSAD?
BEYSAD plays a critical role in the sustainable growth of the white goods sector. It represents an ecosystem that builds bridges between manufacturers and suppliers, strengthening collective wisdom and collaboration. I hope its efforts to contribute to sectoral developments and enhance the competitiveness of the entire industry will continue to grow.