Interview with Sezen Dönmez, Corporate Marketing Manager at Denge Kimya

Sezen Dönmez, Corporate Marketing Manager at Denge Kimya, answered our questions about the company's history and products supplied to the sector.

Could you outline the development process of Denge Kimya since its establishment?

Denge Kimya is a Turkish company established in 1993 that manufactures textile auxiliary chemicals and performance chemicals. In its early years, it operated as a trading company, and from 2001 onwards it established its own production facility. Following the establishment of an international sales network in 2003, the company operates in the Thrace, Aegean, Eastern and Bursa regions of Turkey, and in more than 10 countries with textile production abroad. In 2015, it achieved the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence in Management 5-star level. As a result of strategies prepared by Denge Kimya in 2016 and R&D activities over the past 5 years, a special additives group for the paints and coatings sector emerged. Under this activity, the company began supplying products to domestic paint manufacturers under the DENSURF brand in the first quarter of 2017.

Could you tell us about your fields of activity, product groups and product characteristics? Which sectors do you serve?

First, I would like to mention which sectors we aim to serve. For more than 20 years, our main field of activity has been all auxiliary chemicals used in textile pre-treatment and finishing processes. In the textile field, we have silicones, foam suppressants, resins, special finishing materials, and special auxiliary chemicals used in solving problems in textile wet processing. In recent years, we have expanded our textile activities to the areas of special technical textile coatings and printing chemicals. In our Performance Chemicals Laboratory within our R&D Center, products for the paints and coatings sector are being developed. The products targeted in the paints and coatings sector can be listed as foam suppressants, heat-resistant silicone resins, surface-leveling agents and dispersing agents. In addition to the paints and coatings sector, our work continues in the composites and inks sectors.

Can you provide information about your laboratory and R&D activities? What can you say about your R&D investments?

As of December 2016, our company was announced as an R&D center approved by the ministry. R&D activities are present in every area of our production processes. These two processes progress in an integrated manner. Regarding our R&D structure, we have 2 R&D laboratories which we call Textile Chemicals and Performance Chemicals. In addition to these two laboratories, we have 1 instrumental analysis laboratory that also serves our customers. The number of completed Teydeb projects we started in 2013 is 7. The main activity areas of these projects cover the textile and paints and coatings sectors. At the same time, there are many innovative projects that our R&D center is working on.

Could you tell us about your sales activities? Which regions do you primarily serve?

In Textile Chemicals, we have sales teams in the Thrace, Bursa, Aegean and Eastern regions of Turkey, and abroad we have distributorships and export to Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Peru, India, Poland, and Tunisia. Next year, we started work on establishing a production facility in one of these countries. In addition, we are conducting feasibility studies for establishing a sales office in Europe. In the Paints and Coatings Chemicals field, the concentrated regions are Tuzla-Istanbul, Gebze, Eskişehir, Izmir and Ankara.

Could you tell us about the quality principles you apply to ensure the reliability of your products and the continuity of your company?

As Denge Kimya, we have continuously improved the total quality approach that we started implementing in 2008 to ensure sustainable performance, and in 2016 we succeeded in obtaining the EFQM 5-Star Excellence in Management certificate. Today, Denge Kimya, through both the innovations it carries out in R&D and production areas and the implementation of the EFQM excellence model, is at a level of good practice that can serve as a reference for Turkey's textile and performance chemicals sectors. Furthermore, automation systems are used in production to ensure continuity in production. A very strict procedure is followed in converting R&D projects into products. Very strict scaling activities are carried out in the phase of project conversion to product.

What activities do you undertake for environmental protection and occupational safety sensitivity?

Our company applies OHSAS 14001 as an environmental management system and ISO 18001 as an occupational health and safety management system. All waste generated at the end of our production and operational processes is sorted and sent to disposal companies. Additionally, our company uses the manure of animals we raise to grow trees in our garden, and then uses the fruits and vegetables we collect from these trees in our cafeteria. All chemicals produced at Denge Kimya are designed with test standards sensitive to human health in mind. Our products comply with standards such as Inditex, GOTS and REACH. Along with this, our R&D center develops environmentally friendly innovative products that shorten processes while providing energy, time and water savings.

Can you provide information about your targets and projects?

Many projects are being carried out in our company for paints and coatings and textile chemicals. In our projects, we generally focus on silicone and polyurethane-based chemical technologies. When looking specifically at the paints and coatings sector, despite low usage rates, additive products that greatly affect paint performance have begun to become an area of expertise for our performance chemicals group. In this context, we produce effective products using many synthesis methods. When examining the work done in the textile sector, we focus on printing and coating technologies. Silicone and polyurethane technologies stand out in this field. Denge Kimya's future targets include developing high value-added technical textile coatings in the textile sector, as well as growing market share with innovative solutions in the existing textile chemicals field. In the paints and coatings field, we aim to develop complementary products that not only meet the current needs of the sector but also contribute to the R&D projects of paint manufacturing companies.

What are your thoughts on the Turkish paints and coatings sector?

Although we are new to the paints and coatings sector in Turkey, we have been examining Turkey's market positioning in the world over the past 2 years. When examining the paint market in general and paint raw material suppliers, you can see the areas where the sector needs to develop itself. We see that the market is completely dependent on foreign suppliers for high value-added additives, and domestic producers have no share. If our paint manufacturing companies support domestic paint raw material producers who try to produce innovation more, our sector will transition from a position of following global trends to a position of determining trends.

Finally, do you have a message you would like to convey to the sector?

As Denge Kimya, we aim to operate in the paints and coatings, inks, coatings and composites fields with our DENSURF product group. Although we are new to the sector, our company has a deep R&D culture. We want to develop joint projects with paint manufacturing companies that have developed innovation and collaboration culture in the paints and coatings sector. With this approach, in addition to helping our company develop innovative products, we aim to contribute to the companies we work on joint projects with producing high value-added and high-quality paints and coatings.