Sika

In our interview, Sika Turkey Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager Fazlı Bulut answered our questions. Bulut provided information about the history of Sika and its current structure.

Could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself, your education and your professional background?

Hello. I graduated from Istanbul Technical University Civil Engineering Department. After that, I completed my master's degree in Construction Management at Boğaziçi University. I started my professional career at the Construction and Real Estate Directorate of the General Directorate of Türk Telekom. I owe my expertise especially in Earthquake Reinforcement Projects to this position. Working as a controller in both design and construction stages has allowed me to gain many different disciplinary experiences. Afterwards, I worked as a Product Engineer at Sika Construction Chemicals and provided technical consultancy on products and systems in a wide range of projects. For the last 3.5 years, approximately, I have been working as the Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager at Sika Turkey.

Could you tell us about Sika's foundation process, the investments it made and its current structure? How long has Sika been operating in Turkey?

Sika is an established company that has been active in construction chemicals, industrial adhesives and sealants used in industrial production for 109 years. It has subsidiaries in 5 continents and 101 countries, and operates more than 300 factories around the world. In the first half of 2019, it had more than 24,000 employees and generated sales of CHF 3.7 billion. Sika was expecting its sales to exceed CHF 8 billion in 2019. Sika Turkey has been operating in our country for approximately 29 years. We have 7 regional offices and approximately 200 employees. In addition, we have two production facilities in Tuzla and Mersin equipped with the latest technology in the field. We can say that we are the leading supplier in the construction and industrial manufacturing sectors we serve, with our capacity and innovative solutions.

What sectors does Sika mainly supply to and what kinds of products? What are Sika's products, brands and services?

As Sika Construction Chemicals, we have a wide product portfolio to meet the requirements for all types of construction chemicals that may be needed in construction from foundation to roof. Our solution range starts with concrete additives used to improve concrete characteristics, continues with underwater waterproofing, repair and strengthening solutions, wet volume solutions, sealing and adhesive bonding solutions, and is completed with the latest roof insulation applications. Additionally, we are able to offer many different solutions especially for industrial production. For example, the windshield of 1 out of every 4 vehicles in the world is bonded with Sika products. Or the joint sealants used in private boats and yachts very likely carry the Sika brand.

Could you tell us about your domestic and international sales activities? What kinds of products do you sell mainly in Turkey and abroad, and to which regions?

Sika is a global company with its own organization in 101 countries. Therefore, a local subsidiary can be found in most countries in the world. Although this scale limits Sika Turkey's export regions, we conduct export operations to a total of 9 countries. As Sika Turkey, we have been active for nearly 30 years with the leadership of our Export Department in order to identify strategies tailored to each country's own needs and dynamics and to integrate these strategies. In 2019, Georgia and Uzbekistan markets were among the important countries in our export regions.

What kind of activities do you perform in the fields of innovation and R&D as Sika?

Innovation is one of the main strategic goals for our company. Our door is always open to any innovative ideas and solutions from any of our employees. Due to the fact that we have a very large organization and face global challenges, solutions created for these can have very different perspectives. Thus, it becomes possible for us to see that a solution created in Turkey is implemented in China. This gives us both a collective perspective and the ability to address different challenges with different solutions. R&D is one of our vital functions and is seen as one of our biggest resources for carrying the company into the future. The fact that Sika Turkey has been established as the regional R&D center is a tremendous opportunity and source of pride for us.

Could you tell us about Sika's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you say about your work on worker health and safety?

We began our journey with the motto 'more value, less impact'. To elaborate: we have adopted it as our main strategy to add more value through more environmentally friendly and technologically advanced products, as well as social responsibility projects, and to create less impact by reducing energy use, managing waste and preventing occupational accidents. We continue taking strong steps in this direction. For the last two years, it has been a rule that if a new product is to be released by Sika, it must be more environmentally friendly than the previous version. This has been a driving factor for both realizing new ideas and creating environmental solutions in our company. For example, no solvent-based materials are worked on in R&D. Or a product that will generate more waste for the environment is not considered even if it offers higher performance. The importance of protective coating products, which extend the life cycle of existing buildings, is increasing day by day. With high-performance water repellent materials, the durability of repairs and life cycles in ports can be doubled. This prevents the excessive consumption of our precious natural resources.

What criteria are prioritized when developing Sika's investment plans? Does Sika have any investment plans for the coming periods?

In addition to organic growth, we are a continuously growing company with acquisitions in recent years. Our latest acquisition, Parex, at the global level was our biggest acquisition, reinforcing this strategy. Beyond this, considering the country's potential, new factory investments are continuing on a global scale. Sika operates a manufacturing organization with 300 factories worldwide. Market requirements and efficiency are especially taken into consideration when planning investments. Additionally, technological investments are made continuously on a regional basis. The fact that Turkey has been identified as the R&D Center for chemical products used in tunnel construction is especially a great source of pride for Sika.