Interview with Burcu Gezegen, Industrial Chemicals Business Unit Director at Azelis Türkiye

We conducted a pleasant interview with Burcu Gezegen, Director of Industrial Chemicals Business Unit at Azelis Turkey. Gezegen shared valuable information with us about Azelis, which operates in more than 40 countries. Could you tell our readers about yourself, your education and your professional background in the sector? I have been in the chemical industry for approximately 15 years. I have worked in sales representation and subsequently in management positions. I began my career in the chemical sector in 2008 at Rhodia (Solvay) in the sales department. Later, in 2011, I continued at Azelis Turkey as Sales Manager of the Basic Chemicals division. Since 2015, I have served as Director of the Industrial Chemicals Business Unit, managing the departments under this business unit. After completing my university education in the International Relations department at Istanbul University, I pursued a master's degree in International Trade at Nanterre University in France. In 2017, I completed the Executive MBA program at Sabancı University. Could you describe the development process of Azelis Turkey from its establishment to today? Azelis is a specialty chemicals and food ingredients distributor with approximately 2,000 employees worldwide, operating in more than 40 countries. Azelis entered the Turkish market in 2007 by acquiring Tara Kimya. In 2019, it continued to grow by incorporating Ekin Kimya, one of the industry's leading companies in pharmaceuticals, laboratory chemicals and food. With a very broad product portfolio, we provide innovative solutions to our customers in food, nutritional supplements, pharmaceuticals, laboratory products and chemicals, personal care, asphalt, paints and coatings, construction, detergents, rubber, plastics and agriculture. We work not only as a representative of the world's leading chemical manufacturing companies but as a long-term strategic partner, bringing innovative products to market and thereby playing an effective role in industrial development in the countries where we operate. We have a workforce profile with experienced professionals, equipped with a strong infrastructure of both product and market knowledge. Additionally, we have more than 60 training centers and formulation laboratories in various countries around the world. This enables us to provide our customers with consultant services far beyond sales, contributing to their operations in areas such as product and formula development, and cost and process optimization. What products and product groups do you supply to the paints and coatings sector? Which sectors do you serve? As the Azelis CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants & Elastomers) division, we serve the sector by supplying specialty products such as resins, binders, pigments, additives, hardeners, biocides and fillers, as well as numerous raw materials which we refer to as commercial products. Our specialty products add color to formulas for automotive, construction and general industrial paints, wood and furniture coatings, building chemicals, adhesives and printing inks, while increasing their durability and performance. As manufacturers work to minimize negative environmental impacts and meet the growing demand from end users for environmentally friendly products, interest in low-VOC paint products free of heavy metals has increased in the sector. Additionally, the market share of environmentally friendly water-based systems continues to rise. In recent years, with the development of technologies used in paint production, products can now offer many functions such as antimicrobial properties, scratch resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, sound insulation, UV durability, self-cleaning and easy cleanability. Using the specialty and functional products in our portfolio, we provide our customers with innovative ideas and customized solutions in these areas. How do you assess the development of the paints and coatings sector in Turkey? What is the importance of the Turkish market for Azelis? Our country, in addition to being the 5th largest paint manufacturer in Europe, is advancing toward its goal of becoming an internationally-scaled sectoral force in its region with increasingly growing production and technological infrastructure. As Azelis, we have confidence in the potential in Turkey and are continuing our investments. In this context, a few months ago we opened our CASE formulation laboratory in Istanbul serving the paints and coatings, adhesives and building chemicals sectors. We are fully confident that Turkey will maintain its importance as a manufacturing hub in the region and will regain growth momentum with its young, innovation-oriented population. In this framework, as Azelis Turkey, we will continue to grow organically and inorganically, contributing to our customers' growth with innovative products. Could you tell us about the work to be conducted in the CASE laboratory you opened in Turkey and the contributions the laboratory will provide? Our laboratories are the strongest initiative through which we fulfill our commitment to "innovation through formulation" as Azelis. Through the work we do here, we collaborate with our customers and suppliers to generate innovative ideas and create new commercial opportunities. Our CASE formulation laboratory in Istanbul provides innovative ideas, new products, growing businesses, speed and convenience for both our supplier partners and customers. Here we provide technical support in many areas such as product performance testing, formulation optimization or new formulation development. To give a few examples of applications in our formulation laboratory: we conduct adhesion, wear resistance and gloss measurements on binders, fillers and additives used in decorative interior and exterior facade products. Or we prepare formulations together with our customers for floor coating and metal coating products, perform performance tests such as adhesion, corrosion resistance, hardness and impact resistance, and can report the value that different raw materials add to the formulation. Could you share the points Azelis emphasizes in the area of sustainability and the work it has done? As Azelis, we hold the Platinum certification from EcoVadis, one of the leading rating organizations in corporate social responsibility. We conduct our sustainability work under four main headings: people and employees, sustainable supply and innovative products, environment and management. Last year we shared our "Action 2025" sustainability strategy with our suppliers and customers, and we will soon release our second sustainability report. As Azelis, while supporting our suppliers' sustainability efforts, we also support our customers in achieving their sustainability goals by offering environmentally friendly products for their formulas. I would like to provide information about one action that I personally find particularly important in Azelis's comprehensive sustainability strategy. Among Azelis's 2025 sustainability targets under the people heading is that globally, one-third of senior management positions will be held by women. We are pleased that Azelis Turkey has already reached and surpassed this target. Our management team consists of 75% women. Another example is our project conducted with TurkishWin, which works to empower young women, aiming to mentor and inspire young women at the beginning of their careers. We are planning to implement various actions aimed at empowering women and young people during 2022. What are your projections and targets for 2022? Launching the Azelis Turkey Digital Customer Portal, through which we will provide single-point sales service, self-service product development opportunities and technical support to our customers, is among our priority targets for 2022. On this digital platform, our customers will be able to draw inspiration from the concepts our team provides for their new products, develop new formulations in our e-lab using the product database in the Azelis product portfolio, access the technical documents they need, place orders, request samples and communicate their questions live to our sales team. Our aim is to make life easier for our customers and suppliers, and to further increase our service speed and quality through digitalization. Additionally, we will continue the training activities we conduct under the Azelis Turkey Academy umbrella in 2022. Until the pandemic ends, we will meet our customers through online seminars, and afterwards we will host our customers in our training and application center for face-to-face technical presentations and workshops.