Bühler AG Turkey General Manager Mr. Tolga Çeltekligil

We conducted an enjoyable interview with Bühler AG Turkey General Manager Tolga Çeltekligil, who shared the company's success story in Turkey with us.

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

After completing my studies at Sankt Georg Austrian Lyceum, I finished my undergraduate degree in the Electrical Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University. I obtained my master's degree from Manchester University in "Control Systems and Robotics." I started my professional career at Siemens. At Siemens, I worked in various positions such as business development manager, regional manager, and business unit manager in the Istanbul-Turkey, Manchester-England, and Nuremberg-Germany operations. Subsequently, I held positions as sales director and general manager at international firms such as Emerson and Metso before taking over the leadership of Bühler AG Turkey operations in 2016. Together with my current and growing team, we are providing top-level Bühler technologies across all sectors to serve Turkish industry.

Could you describe Bühler AG's development process since its founding?

First of all, Bühler is a 100% family company managed by professionals that has continuously produced high-quality machines and technologies to world standards for 159 years since its founding in 1860. As the first company to scale conventional milling methods to industrial dimensions with the First Industrial Revolution, Bühler today operates in more than 140 countries worldwide with approximately 11,000 employees. With annual revenue reaching approximately CHF 3 billion as of 2018, our Switzerland-based company distinguishes itself from all competitors in the sector with an average annual R&D budget of CHF 150 million. In its development process, Bühler has grown both organically and inorganically through acquisitions in different sectors. Today, with 37 production facilities worldwide and nearly 100 service stations, one of which is located in Izmir, Turkey, Bühler provides services in paints and coatings, inks, chemicals, nanotechnology, food, automotive and other fields, fundamentally in milling processes and related complete plant engineering. Bühler, which produced the first wheat milling machine in 1890, the first pasta production line in 1903, and the first paint, coating and ink milling cylinder in 1919, has focused on "Chemical Process Engineering" since 1959 and has since signed off on numerous projects in this market both in Turkey and worldwide. In the Grinding and Dispersion business line, Bühler strengthened its strong position in low-viscosity liquid paint, ink and coating production technologies by incorporating Draiswerke GmbH (Drais) into its portfolio in 2006.

Bühler, which allocates an average of 5% of its total annual revenue to R&D, has defined its vision with the motto "Innovations for a Better World."

Which sectors does Bühler AG primarily serve, and what types of products does it supply? Could you provide information about your products, brands and services?

Bühler's areas of operation are broadly divided into two categories: Food Processing Technologies and Advanced Materials Technologies. Approximately 4,000 different types of machines and technologies are produced within these two segments. Approximately 25% of these technologies are Bühler proprietary technologies. In the food sector, we have activities including grain milling-processing and logistics, rice milling and processing, separation (sorting-Sortex™) and drying (Aeroglide™) technologies, animal feed production technologies, oil production technologies, complete technology and plant installation related to consumer foods including coffee, chocolate, pasta and malt, along with milling, processing, molding and packaging. With market shares ranging from 25% to 65% in these areas, Bühler is one of the leading firms in the food technology sector. The field known as Advanced Materials Technologies is divided into three main business lines. These are aluminum die casting technologies used particularly in the automotive sector; the optics unit (Leybold Optics) which encompasses glass, packaging, flexible electronics, and lens coating technologies; and finally the "Grinding & Dispersing" unit where wet milling and dispersion technologies for paints, inks and similar products are produced. With market shares ranging between 30% and 50% in these areas, Bühler ranks among the leading companies in the sector.

Could you discuss the product groups and their characteristics for the chemistry, paints and inks sector among the areas where Bühler operates in Turkey?

Bühler carries out its activities in this field under the "Grinding & Dispersing" segment. Bühler is among the few companies that produce machines in every process requiring wet grinding, at every target particle size, for products of every viscosity, and at every scale. For low-viscosity liquid products, we have the Cenomic™ and Centex™ series fully-capacity horizontal bead mills; as well as the SuperFlow™ and MicroMedia™ series unique high-energy vertical bead mills. With our newly developed MacroMedia™ technology for the pre-milling of these processes, which has created significant buzz in the sector, we have achieved serious sales volumes in Turkey. For products with medium-high-extreme viscosity operations, we have the Trinomic™ and Trias™ series triple roll mills, as well as our newest technology, the Visconomic+™ series mills, which were launched at the ChinaCoat fair last December. In addition to these, together with high-speed mixers, press-out systems and let-down tanks, we can also deliver complete plant installations in turnkey form with the desired level of automation through our expert teams in the Engineering department. Over the past 6 years in Turkey, we have implemented 2 plant projects in this area and achieved significant success by selling over 100 individual machines.What is the importance of the Turkish market for Bühler? After Bühler's first complete mill machine production in 1890, it can be said that operations began in this country with the first machine installation in Edirne in 1903. Bühler machines were in use in Afyon in the 1920s and again in Bursa in the 1930s. Since the early 1950s, Bühler has always had representatives in Turkey. The establishment of a permanent Bühler Turkey office occurred in the early 1980s. Turkey has always been an interesting country for Bühler with its unique dynamics and potential. There are truly strong industries in our country spread across different sectors. We are active in Turkey across all the operational areas I mentioned above. This is not a common occurrence at the global level. For this reason, we have expanded our local technical sales and service organization day by day, reaching a team of approximately 40 people together with our business partners. Beyond the local market, Bühler also manages Middle East and Africa (MEA) operations in the "Grinding and Dispersing" business unit from Turkey. Experts in all areas where Bühler operates, along with the Istanbul headquarters office, serve all Turkish customers through branches in Izmir and Ankara. Today, Bühler machines are used in every region of Turkey from Izmir to Mardin, from Gaziantep to Samsun, from Trabzon to Tekirdağ, and from Kayseri to Bursa. Finally, together with the local project and procurement team we established in Istanbul and which works in coordination with our Swiss headquarters, we build relationships with companies that embrace the creative, agile and quality production approach of Turkish industry, and we also supply components and equipment from there. In this sense, we also contribute to our country's economy as a source of foreign exchange.

Could you discuss your domestic and international sales activities?

In 2017, we moved our service station in Izmir to its new 1,800 m² location in Kemalpaşa, and began providing comprehensive technical service and spare parts support to our customers in Turkey in all areas of our operations under better conditions. At this center, we have consolidated various component processing, machine maintenance-repair work, spare parts inventory, service and process engineering services, while also being able to offer our customers workshops, seminars and training opportunities through the conference hall we established within the facility. Most recently, in the last quarter of 2018, we held our seminar called the "Grinding and Dispersion Academy" at our service center with over 100 participants. At the organization, which drew intense interest from participants from many different sectors such as inks, paints, coatings, cosmetics, ceramics, mining, digital printing, nanotechnology, agricultural chemicals, and from different cities, all stakeholders came together for both technical and commercial exchange of ideas. I believe the creation of this synergy is very important. For this reason, we will continue to organize such events regularly every year with the same enthusiasm. Beyond this, we have a test machine service that we can provide in Turkey. By installing milling machines used on a one-to-one production scale on our customers' premises, we can conduct trial operations with technical and process support. In this way, companies that have not previously had the opportunity to work with Bühler machines get the chance to test the machines one-to-one with their own products and conditions. Finally, we have begun offering our customers the opportunity to sell many of the machines in our portfolio through local contracts via our local inventory. We are determined to reflect our global dominance in Turkey. With this perspective, we are able to bring Bühler's innovative and high-level technologies together with Turkish manufacturers under conditions adapted to Turkey's dynamics.

Could you discuss your laboratory and R&D work? Do you have projects developed within the scope of university-industry cooperation?

Bühler has adopted as an invariable company policy the necessity of making success sustainable. The most important basis for this understanding is, of course, R&D. Allocating an average of 5% of its total annual revenue to R&D every year, Bühler has defined its vision with the motto "Innovations for a Better World." At our headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, we began construction of an innovation center called CUBIC approximately 2 years ago with an investment of approximately CHF 80 million. With this complex, which will become operational in March 2019, we want to continue to be the hub of technology in a very short time. In our innovation activities, which we have specialized under the name "Digital Technologies," we signed a partnership last year that created buzz across the entire sector. At the launch, which took place with the participation of Microsoft's CEO himself, Bühler opened the doors to an optimal user experience by using Microsoft's cloud services in digitally controlled machines and facilities. On the other hand, in addition to our R&D and test centers distributed across different geographies such as Switzerland, Germany, the USA, Japan, China and India, we collaborate with respected universities and research institutes worldwide. Bühler is among the founders of the Lausanne Polytechnic University (EPFL) innovation campus, and with its laboratory and team there, we are working on the technologies of the future while also supporting technology start-ups through this center. ETH Zurich (Switzerland), University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Kansas State University (USA), University of Toronto (Canada), University of Minnesota (USA), University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and Leibniz Institute for New Materials (Germany) are other examples of scientific centers where Bühler conducts joint R&D activities.

Could you provide information about your work on environmental and sustainability issues?

Bühler's main slogan "Innovations for a Better World" emphasizes our role as a continuously evolving and advancing technology leader. Our primary objective is to contribute to improved quality of life for people by providing sustainable and independent development through our products, processes and services, and to do this with the promise of 100% engineering excellence. We base our company policy on 8 main principles. Sustainable growth, the principle of demonstrating customer success as a benchmark, a balanced product portfolio tailored to every need, efficient service, global quality with local service, focus on innovation, quality leadership and sound workforce. Bühler supports the United Nations' "Sustainable Development Goals Program" and accepts it as a binding corporate objective. Among the 17 sustainability goals presented by the UN, we are implementing short and long-term action plans aimed at reducing food waste by 30% and reducing energy consumption by 30%. For Bühler, environmental protection is an important responsibility. The environmental management concept is based on the principle of considering ecological impacts on economic and social issues and is binding for all Bühler factories worldwide. Bühler was among the first companies with production facilities to obtain ISO 14001 certification in Switzerland and demonstrates full compliance with targets set by REACH directives. Energy efficiency, another important pillar of environmental awareness, is a high priority for Bühler. Through energy efficiency projects we conducted at our main factory, we succeeded in reducing water consumption from 65,218 cubic meters to 56,300 cubic meters by separating different types of wastewater and incorporating them into recycling. This difference can be seen concretely in the products and services we provide to our customers. With approximate calculations, we install machines/systems with total electric power in the range of 220 to 250 megawatts to all our customers worldwide annually. Seeing our customers achieve highly energy-efficient production is always a source of great satisfaction for us.

Final thoughts…

Bühler, which took its first R&D steps in lithium-ion battery technologies approximately 15 years ago, has today become the dominant technology supplier in the sector. By eliminating cumbersome, costly and inefficient simple mixing technologies and entering this sector with an innovative process approach through extrusion systems, we have today become a preferred brand among the rapidly expanding electric vehicle manufacturers. We are progressing with turnkey projects we have established in China, the USA and now Europe in this field. In Turkey, we are in contact with organizations planning to invest in this area both at laboratory and large-scale levels. I hope that we will take joint steps to keep pace with the times through such initiatives in our country as well. Finally, we welcome visits from all our friends who would like to get to know our next-generation pre-milling mill MacroMedia™ and our latest technology mill Visconomic+™ machines up close. Thank you.