Interview with Ms. Pınar Yokeş

We had a very pleasant interview with the Operations Director of Yokeş Makina, Ms. Pınar Yokeş, in this issue of our magazine. Ms. Yokeş shared with us valuable information about the services, manufacturing processes and targets of Yokeş Makina, which has been operating since 1943.

Could you please briefly tell our readers about yourself and your professional background?

I was born in 1978 in Izmir. I completed my high school degree at Izmir Özel Türk College and graduated from Bilkent University. I started my professional career in Istanbul. I have worked for 12 years in various roles with leading companies in Turkey's major holdings. Now, as a third-generation family member, I have been contributing to our family company with my knowledge and experience since 2012.

Yokeş Makina has been operating since 1943. Could you please share with us the stages your company has gone through during these long years?

Yokeş Makina was founded in 1943 in Izmir by my grandfather Mehmet Emin Yokeş as one of the city's first machining workshops. At that time, we were primarily manufacturing agricultural machinery. Following the founder's death, Meriç Yokeş, a METU graduate, took over the company. As of 1972, the company began working with the paints and coatings manufacturing sector based on customer demands, and the first "PM Series Vertical – Open Sieve Pearl Mill" wet grinding machine was manufactured. As various machine demands continued to arrive from different sectors, the company relocated to Birinci Sanayi Sitesi in 1984 to expand its production capacity and develop its product portfolio. In 1998, Mehmet Yalım Yokeş, an ITU Mechanical Engineering graduate, shareholder and Managing Director of our company, took leadership from Mr. Meriç Yokeş. Throughout these processes, our machines continued to be manufactured for the paints and coatings, chemistry, agrochemical, cosmetics and food sectors. In parallel with increased production volume, we relocated to our factory in ITOB Organized Industrial Zone in 2015, where we continue to operate today.

Could you please provide information about the machines you offer to the paints and coatings industry and do you have a machine that you especially focus on promoting at trade fairs?

Apart from our dispersion and other wet grinding machines, two of our products that attract considerable attention at exhibitions are Powermill Convecta and Powermill Performa. Powermill Convecta is the most modern and advanced model of the conventional horizontal bead mill/wet grinding machines that Yokeş Makina has been manufacturing for over 25 years. It is categorized as a "High Flow Bead Mill". Thanks to the robust structure of the agitator disks and the specially designed separation system, very high flow and grinding speeds can be easily achieved. With the appropriate grinding chamber geometry and parameters, the wet grinding machine operates at a very high efficiency rate. Powermill Performa is a new-generation machine designed to achieve higher capacity, faster wet grinding and higher fineness values in a shorter time compared to standard horizontal wet grinding machines. Due to the possibility of using very small grinding/grinding beads, very high grinding speeds can be achieved, and thanks to the small amount of beads used during the process, it can be operated with lower energy consumption. Due to its special design, with its small grinding chamber volume and low bead quantity, more wet grinding results can be obtained in a shorter time than those achieved by conventional bead mills with large volume and large bead quantities. The general application areas of these two machines are the production of all paints and coatings and related products, the production of flexo and rotogravure printing inks, the production of water and solvent-based inkjet inks, and agrochemical sector production.

What points do you pay attention to in the manufacturing processes of your machines?

Quality is essential. One of Yokeş's most well-known features is the manufacture of durable, stable and efficient machines. This is due to the fact that we prioritize quality and precision in our craftsmanship as well as in the materials we use. Of course, we also keep up with the latest production technologies and plan our machinery and machine investments accordingly. Even though our machines have a standardized structure, we address different sectors and different production requirements. In fact, every machine is custom-made. Thus, we are able to provide the most accurate solutions to the changing needs of each sector. We define this as production flexibility. We are in the age of technology and there is a new development every day. Today, 5G and automation technologies attract particular attention.

How do you work to keep up with these developing technologies?

We are a company very familiar with Industry 4.0 building blocks and IoT components. As I mentioned before, we select the machines and equipment we use in our own production from the latest technology products, and we ensure that the machines we produce are Industry 4.0 compatible. Therefore, key areas such as product continuity with zero defects, system monitoring and rapid detection of possible malfunctions, increasing flexibility, using less energy, minimizing heat generation and increasing production efficiency are always our priority.  

We know that you also continue your activities abroad. In this regard, which regions do you mainly sell to internationally and do you have any international targets for the coming period?

We are a company that exports 70 percent of its production. We have established dealership activities in many countries. We have a sales and service network in Eastern and Central European countries and Eurasian Union countries. We already have brand awareness and are active in the Middle East and African markets. Although we already have a market share in Western Europe, our current goal is to increase our activities in these regions. For this reason, we participate in international trade fairs and conduct efforts to expand our dealer and technical service network in these regions.

Apart from sales, what services do you offer to your customers? Can you tell us about your "trial production" service in detail?

In the test and pilot production facility we have established within our factory, we enable both our machines and our customers' formulations to be tested, and we can also provide a pilot production facility service where dispersion and wet grinding processes can be carried out with a production capacity of 1 to 2 tons per day when necessary.

How do you evaluate the development of the paints and coatings industry in Turkey and what do you think we need to focus on for sectoral development in these economic conditions in the world?

Due to inflation and post-pandemic supply chain concerns, the paints and coatings market is expected to show fluctuating growth trends in the long term and this is expected to continue through 2023. Geopolitical tensions such as the Ukraine war, natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in Turkey, changes in environmental policy, fluctuations in raw material costs and economic factors have played a significant role both domestically and globally. We anticipate that the paints and coatings industry will focus on acquiring new technologies, securing raw materials, optimizing the supply chain, strengthening product portfolios and developing capabilities to sustain growth during these challenging times. However, we remain optimistic that the industry will regain its pre-pandemic performance as we expect the market to shift its focus and spending habits towards rebuilding and renovations. We estimate that the global turnover of the paints and coatings industry will increase by 80 percent by 2031.