“Innovative enamel solutions that add value to white goods”

“Aiming to become the world’s top producer, Gizemfrit produces anti-bacterial enamel”

Could you tell us about the establishment story of Gizemfrit?
Gizemfrit set off its enamel frit production journey as a family company in 1979 and became a part of Akkök Group, one of the biggest holdings of Turkey, in 2015. Having become a professional company that fulfilled all the necessities of a corporate life, it became the world’s second greatest enamel frit producer. Our company has bigger plans for the next 5 years and aims to become the world’s top producer.

Could you please tell us about the history of enamel and the areas of its usage?
Enamel dates back to Egypt, Persia, and China. It was a coating paint used for decoration and embellishment, while today it is a multi-functional and decorative surface protection paint that is essential to the White Goods Sector.

Enamel is a solid material that looks like glass obtained by applying the solution made of the mixture of certain inorganic metal oxides on a sheet or cast surface and oven baking these oxides under melting temperature. It has a chemical resistance from -50 C to 450 C, thermal shock resistance as well as resistance to friction and scratching. After the surface is coated with enamel, it is easy to clean, shiny, and resists fading for years. In addition to being environment-friendly, it pushes bacteria colonies, molds, and dirt away on its compact surface. With these features, enamel is used in many areas including but not limited to white goods, glassware, sanitary systems, and architectural panels.

Could you tell us about the annual enamal production by Gizemfrit and the company’s innovative solutions in the area?
As of now, Gizemfrit has the capacity of producing 36,000 tons of enamel frit per year. With our eco-friendly technology, we produce anti-bacterial enamel which will become quite significant due to the Coronavirus. One of our innovative solutions include producing enamel using animal, agricultural, and industrial waste.

On the other hand, we are an innovative brand with our siding enamel resisting UV lights for especially the building sector and corrosion-resisting enamel developed for construction steel.

Has the Coronavirus pandemic affected enamel production? Do you plan on increasing capacity in the upcoming period?
We can say that the pandemic has a negative impact on all the sectors other than food and pharmaceutical industries which provide “Essential Products” for life. As an industrial establishment that produces a specialized coating paint that supplies semi-products to predominantly the white goods sector, I should add that the economic shrinkage of the main producers has affected suppliers such as us. Besides, the pandemic also caused a decline in our exports which we perform to 60 countries with our market share of 70% in the domestic market. However, we also believe that this pandemic created new opportunities for us. Our overseas investments we were planning for the next 5 years could slow down a little, nevertheless our current production still has the capacity for us to grow.

Could you tell us about Gizemfrit’s market share and goals?
After bringing our market share in Turkey up to 70%, we adopted the motto “Our market is now the entire globe,” which is the key to Gizemfrit’s success. Today we are proud to say that we export to 60 countries in 5 continents. What is more challenging than achieving this is to preserve the market share we have obtained and take it further. In line with this, planning, strategy, experienced human resources, innovative products, and professional management are the cornerstones of Gizemfrit’s sustainable success.

We can list Gizemfrit’s goals as below;

• We say that “the world is not made of 60 countries, but 195 countries” and we aim to export to and have presence in more countries,
• We aim to closely follow business models taking all the necessary precautions as the other countries and adapting to the new normal,
• We aim to expand our local organization network in the countries where we operate,
• We plan to organize trainings in line with the changing global conditions for our current teams,
• We plan to develop business bringing the hygienic (anti-bacterial) feature of our products into the forefront and creating a difference for medical centers and operating rooms as well as in the food sector,
• We aim to provide more sales service and more technical support to increase our domestic market share,
• We plan to carry out common projects with our R&D center and lead disruptive technologies in global markets.

Of course achieving all these goals is not as easy as typing them; however, our experience in export, devoted employees, professional management style, reflex to continuously grow, and perseverance will always keep our hopes up for these challenging years of 2020-2021.

Could you tell us about the top 5 countries Gizemfrit exports to and also, your export rates?Gizemfrit’s net sales occur in the domestic market by 28%. And if we look at the exports, 23% is to China, followed by Italy by 9%. USA, one of the countries we make the most exports to, has 5% share in Gizemfrit’s sales. One other major market of ours is Poland, which makes up of 5% of our sales.

What are the key points of managing an international sales and customer network?
It is safe to say that there is a number of ways and cultures of doing business in the world. Considering market research, meetings with our business partners in other countries, productive trials, requirements of commercial conditions, legal agreements, the sales and technical teams should be made of versatile employees who are adaptable to multi-national cultures and business models.

Besides having certain commercial and technical skills based on the nature of the operation, being competent with sales skills in line with corporate companies to small businesses. As well as blue-collar, white-collar, top executives and manager titles which can be encountered in any of the customer groups; various cultural groups, habits, traditions, and social lifestyles are also a part of international sales. Being prepared to all of these and developing the ability to adapt are among the top factors that bring success to organizations.

Could you give us examples of different business model approaches and local variables in the global arena?

For instance,
If you want to have a share in the Asia-Pacific countries, you should be able to use chopsticks as skillfully as a Chinese does. If you want to sell to the North America, you should have exciting innovative products in your pocket.
If you want to enter the European market, you have to have all your quality certificates and documents ready in your folders.
If you want to do business with Middle Eastern countries, you need to be great at human relations and be able to host them for 24 hours.
If you are interested in Latin American countries, you need to have measures to adapt to any economic-political fluctuations ready at hand.
To have a presence in African countries, you should develop price-responsive products.

In summary, having a global corporate culture and having employees who are world citizens make us indispensable in both the domestic market and the export markets.

How did Gizemfrit do during the pandemic?
Speaking of the Coronavirus, the plague of our time and analyzing the last 20 years, although we went through financial crises and epidemics including MERS, SARS, bird flu, swine flu, etc., none of them was as destructive as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gizemfrit got out of the previous global crises achieving growth thanks to its market and product range strategies and its strong export rates. The company’s good relations with its customers, sales/ technical team experienced in the sector, production and R&D support helped it to stand upright, while the global markets had its ups and downs. The main factor that separates this crisis from the previous ones is, I believe, interrupting travels, locking people down in their houses, and disrupting the supply chain network as well as leaving millions of people suddenly jobless, thus creating a shock in the global economy. Especially companies like us that are operated in the real sector and carries out industrial trials in the production process so that they can get customers were challenged to take steps ahead in line with their growth plan.

What is the strategy you adopted with the normalization process?
Gizemfrit is a producer that supplies semi-products to the real sector, as stated above. Although communication through teleconferences have become more common for our domestic and overseas teams who would frequently pay customer visits in order to achieve our goals, we are looking forward to the days when we have customer visits and technical trials going full speed as the normalization is achieved. Other than fulfilling demands of the present customers rapidly in this challenging and unexpected time, we focus on the development of all our employees, measures taken during the pandemic and next year’s strategies.

By changing the discourse “Nothing will ever be the same”
we have adopted the motto:
“Everything will be much better”.