We had a Very Pleasant Interview with Elif Kaya

We had a very pleasant interview with Elif Kaya, Member of the Board of Directors and Marketing Officer of SMS-TORK. Mrs. Kaya shared with us information about the sectors addressed by the company and its future targets. I wish you pleasant reading.  

Could you tell our readers about yourself and your professional business life?

Hello, I am Elif Kaya. I am the second generation of SMS-TORK company. I am responsible for marketing activities.

What would you like to say about SMS-TORK? What are the criteria that make up your company?

Our company was established in 1985, serving in the field of industrial automation and domestic production. Our product group consists of solenoid valves, pneumatic actuators, pneumatic piston valves, pulse valves and electric actuators. In the second half of 2017, we started to manufacture ball valves by incorporating the VARNASAN brand. With TORK and VARNASAN brands, we are able to meet customer needs in fluid control as a complete set in both actuator and valve groups. We conduct our production in our facilities built on a 16,000 square meter closed area in Dilovası. We produce solutions for our customers with domestic products that we design and produce with our R&D team. Trust, quality and innovation are the three core values of our company. We build all our work on this foundation. We carry out our production with all our sensitivity with our international quality certificates. The quality standard is very important to us. We constantly follow the market, customer demands and new technologies. According to these, we set new targets and always look at what to take one more step further. Today, TORK brand products are available in 87 different countries. With our growing and developing team, we want to create a world brand from TORK.  

Which sectors do you cater to? What are your product types?

Since we produce products that control fluids, we can address many different sectors. Today, our products are used in chocolate factories, chemical plants and beyond. They are also used on ships, in buses and in race cars. Since our product range is wide, we produce solutions to meet the needs of our customers. In addition, we can also undertake project-based work. Our customers come to us with a need, and we can develop products for that need. The chemical industry is among the most important industries for us. We operate in the chemical industry, especially with the soft seat stainless steel ball valves that we produce in our company Varnasan, as well as our Teflon-coated ball valve group that we produce for use in aggressive fluids, our ATEX and SIL3 certificates in our pneumatic actuator group, and our ATEX-certified switchboxes and directional valves. Solenoid valves, pulse valves, pneumatic actuators, electric actuators and piston valves are among our main product groups. In addition, we started to produce stainless steel and carbon steel ball valves, needle valves, flow indicators and safety valves with our Varnasan brand.  

What is your domestic and international sales volume? According to which criteria do you determine your sales potential?

Currently, 70% of the weight is in the domestic market. But in recent years, we have started to focus more on exports and we are increasing our export volumes there. We export to 87 different countries. For the last two years running, we have been the winner in the category of "Exporting to the Most Countries" at the Successful Exporters Award Ceremony organized by İSİB. We follow the major trade fairs in our industry abroad and attend regularly. This year, we added new fairs to our plan. Our sales team makes regular visits. We are researching the market. Accordingly, we set our annual targets and move forward.

What is your perspective on technology as SMS-TORK? How would you describe the place and importance of technology in the sector you are dealing with?

The place and importance of technology in our industry is, of course, great. We also follow new technologies closely and attach great importance to them. We are making our investments in this direction. The world is changing. We have to follow it and keep up. One of the values of our company is innovation. In this sense, annual targets are given to all units every year. In recent years, we especially accelerated the production of electric actuator product group. We are working on establishing a system in which we can collect diagnostic data in our electric actuators. In this way, our customers will be able to receive maintenance and repair recommendations for electric actuators and valves installed under them, without any breakdowns in their production lines. In addition, we have a smart switchbox project that we continue to develop for pneumatic actuators. Our smart switchbox will undertake a similar task, offering predictive maintenance recommendations and reducing maintenance costs.  

What are the opportunities you offer to your customers in terms of technical service and support?

We have a wealth of knowledge brought by years in the sector. We started to use this accumulation in terms of technical service. We always stand behind our own products. Our technical service team provides support when any problem is encountered. In recent years, we have expanded this a little and started to provide service support for products other than our own production. We provide technical service and support for products such as ball valves, actuators and control valves of any brand. Currently, this service is limited to the domestic market. But of course, our support for our own products continues everywhere.  

Could you tell us about your goals for the coming years? What innovations await your company in the future?

We expanded our factory area this year. We are currently operating in an area of 16,000 square meters. In addition, we started the construction of our new building. We have goals such as establishing an R&D center and expanding technical services. Our innovations for our products also continue. We are in the final stages of a product we developed as part of KOSGEB project support. We are planning to start mass production soon. We continue to develop and improve our existing products.