Interview with Altuğ Tuğsuz

We had a very pleasant interview with Altuğ Tuğsuz, General Manager of Altuğ Kimya. Mr. Altuğ Tuğsuz shared with us invaluable information about Altuğ Kimya's activities and focus points.

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

I was born in 1976. I am married and have two sons. After completing my university education and military service, I started my professional life in our family company, where I have served as General Manager ever since. Altuğ Kimya is my first and only professional experience. I am the eldest of three sons born to a lawyer father and a homemaker mother. The three of us brothers work together in the company. I manage the Istanbul factory, my middle brother Ali Tuğsuz heads our Gaziantep facility and oversees finance. My younger brother, Göksu Tuğsuz, heads the export unit and serves as vice chairman of Aysad and chairman of the fair committee. I have four nephews, and we are a large, closely-knit family. Our success fundamentally stems from family unity. I would not recommend managing a family company without prior experience in other organizations. We learned everything through our own efforts, and as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. At Altuğ Kimya, we have achieved our success through hard work.

What are your product groups and which sectors do you serve?

Our main area of activity involves producing chemicals for three sectors. We currently employ 72 staff members. We have a highly skilled, well-equipped and well-trained workforce. Our primary production focus is pigment dispersions, wax dispersions, emulsion and esterification reactions. Based on polyurethane system raw material consumption in Turkey, we hold a significant market share with sufficient influence to shape market trends domestically. We have found that the largest investment a company can make is building a strong workforce structure. Employee quality determines company quality. In 2021, we completed our staffing to match the production and sales capacity of our company. We had to ask "With whom?" before asking "Where?" Success comes quickly, but only if you have a team behind you that you can trust. To achieve growth and reach new levels, human resources must be prioritized. We are prepared for tomorrow as much as we can be—otherwise, what you have accomplished has no value. Staffing was our priority, and we allocated resources accordingly. Companies that cannot identify their priorities clearly tend to shrink or disappear over time. We operate under the principle that "success should be determined by the company, not by the sector." Whether the sector is in crisis or experiencing strong growth, if you have a capable team with you during difficult times, you can create new opportunities in a short timeframe.

Could you please tell us about your polyurethane product groups that you offer to the footwear industry?

Our main product groups are polyol color pastes, water and solvent-based mold release agents, solvent-based decorative effect surface paints, and water and solvent-based in-mold paints. Our mold release agents provide matte, glossy and semi-matte finishes in the footwear, automotive and furniture industries, enabling products to be cleanly removed from molds without damage. We offer paintable release agents. Additionally, our water-based release agents deliver significantly improved performance with our newly developed formulations. Our sprayable solvent-based surface paints enhance the aesthetic appearance of soles, particularly in polyurethane sole production. Water-based in-mold paints are applied through spray application directly into the mold during slipper sole production, without washing or special surface treatment.  

What is your company's perspective on R&D? Could you please discuss your R&D activities?

We have a well-equipped and experienced team of chemistry graduates who work to improve product performance and ensure more effective application without considering labor costs. We receive R&D support from professors and consulting firms both domestically and internationally. We develop and approve many new products, but current Turkish economic conditions prevent us from bringing them to market. Since cost-effective products are always preferred, our developed products tend to be expensive to compete with domestically. We decided instead to focus on selling these products in Europe. Rather than explaining the superior performance of higher-cost, lower-use-cost products, we opted to launch them in Europe. Our European operations began from this strategic decision. We have two new product groups, solvent-based and solvent-free, for the packaging and automotive sectors. All R&D work has been completed, products have been approved, production equipment has been ordered, laboratory quality control equipment is in place, and raw materials have been ordered. We will begin production of these two main groups within two months. We are very enthusiastic about this.

As Altuğ Kimya, which points do you emphasize to maintain product quality and ensure customer satisfaction?

All incoming products are subject to input quality control at our warehouse. If the product meets established standards, it is accepted into inventory; otherwise it is returned. The same process is applied before packaging: all manufactured products are compared against standard specifications and only packed if they meet requirements. Despite these measures, errors still occur. We experienced serious raw material challenges during the pandemic, which caused difficulties, but these have now been resolved. We are not currently facing a raw material crisis, so we have returned to our previous system of consistently working with the same suppliers and purchasing identical products. When selecting suppliers, we prioritize companies of sufficient scale. Larger companies have well-developed quality control systems that effectively perform quality assurance on our behalf. Our technical team and quality certifications have been in place for many years.

What does sustainability mean for your company?

Companies that cannot achieve sustainability are destined to fail—we understand this clearly. The paths to sustainability are mechanization, employing educated white-collar staff with proper systems, investment in production employees, and factory investment. We have been pursuing these strategies for 12 years. We employ 72 staff members. There are companies that believe they can compete with us with just 5-6 people. We are committed to running a marathon—even if we fall, we want time to get back up and close any distance we have lost. That is why we invest in sustainability. Of course, we aspire to be the most successful company capable of developing the most products, but sustainability is our top priority above all else. As the Altuğ Kimya family, we are committed to maintaining focus on increasing customer satisfaction through sustainable quality production in our region, promoting continuous improvement, and evaluating the risks and opportunities that may affect product and service suitability.

Could you please discuss your company's future targets?

We established Altug Chemie GMBH in Düsseldorf this year. We want to establish a presence in Europe as well. We recognize that the quality of our products, our company's economic capacity, workforce capabilities, production capacity, supply chain and mechanization now have impact and influence at the global level. As our first step, we established operations in Germany and opened a warehouse by hiring staff. We have ambitious goals for Europe and hope to elevate our sales figures and company profile to the highest levels. Our longer-term objective is to establish a manufacturing facility in Latin America, though this is naturally a long-term project. We are also pursuing several other ambitious ideas with passion. We have begun producing chemicals that we previously imported from abroad and are now exporting them back overseas. These were dreams or merely ideas three or four years ago—now we are realizing them.