Halil Aksoy, Founder and General Manager of Denge Kimya

We conducted a pleasant interview with Halil Aksoy, Founder and General Manager of Denge Kimya, discussing the company's commitment to R&D activities, work in this field and sales volume.

Could you tell us about yourself and your professional background?

I graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Istanbul University. Before founding Denge Kimya, I worked at a textile factory, first as Sales Manager and then as Operations Manager. After leaving that position, I founded Denge Kimya in 1993. Over the 25 years that have passed, as General Manager of Denge Kimya, I have witnessed developments both domestically and internationally. At this point, I believe we have created a pleasant working environment at Denge Kimya.

What does it mean to you to be a chemical company that provides innovative solutions to the textile sector?

As Denge Kimya, being a reference and benchmark, being known as a company that generates solutions is something we aspire to, aim for and strive to achieve. With innovative solutions, we both realize this goal and maintain our competitive position in the sector. For this reason, we continue to preserve and develop this aspect of our business.

What does R&D mean to you? Can you provide information about your R&D activities?

In short, R&D represents for us a new step, extraordinary projects, free thinking, relentless questions awaiting solutions, and solutions that make a difference and add value to our customers. From this perspective, we develop strategies to create innovative products and adapt to change in order to compete with the world. To date, we have completed 13 valuable projects supported by TÜBİTAK-TEYDEP and Kosgeb. Recently, Denge Kimya Science and Innovation Centre was approved by the Ministry of Industry and Technology as the 18th R&D centre in the sector. In order to reduce our country's foreign dependency, we have developed medium and high-technology content projects based on silicone and polyurethane and created innovative and value-added products. For a sustainable life, we have developed products that do not harm nature using plant-based sources. In the denim sector, with DNG Blue Zero Indigo, we have produced an environmentally friendly solution as an alternative to potassium permanganate, and our patent process is ongoing. We have taken our place among the rare companies capable of producing hydrophilic silicone oil in the textile sector. In the very near future, we will also offer the industry a broad range of products in the water-based polyurethane field with properties such as water repellency and anti-pilling. In performance chemicals, with our Densurf product group, we want to serve our customers as a domestic and strong manufacturer responding to the current needs of producing companies in the paints, inks, coatings and composites sectors. In this field, we became the first domestic company to produce silicone resins, which are the active substances of heat-resistant paints. Similarly, we see that we are the only domestic manufacturer producing additive agents such as silicone surface modifiers, dispersion agents and defoamers. According to our 2018 financial data, 2.5% of our turnover was allocated to R&D activities. We aim to complete this process with new R&D projects and new products in line with customer needs.

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

In textile chemicals, we conduct sales operations domestically in Thrace, Bursa, Aegean and Mediterranean regions, while we export to many countries, particularly those where we have distributorships such as Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Peru and Tunisia. We are conducting feasibility studies for establishing a production facility in one of these countries and a sales office in Germany. In paint chemicals, we have concentrated in Kocaeli, Istanbul and Izmir regions in Turkey, and we are taking steps toward the future in the export area. In the very near future, we will also offer the industry a broad range of products in the water-based polyurethane field with properties such as water repellency and anti-pilling.

Could you tell us about the measures and initiatives Denge Kimya has undertaken and implemented for the continuity of sustainability?

As Denge Kimya, we have attached importance to sustainability, one of the important concepts in the chemical sector, since the day we were established. While we continue to provide sustainability training to our employees, we take care to protect the environment by using raw materials that are biodegradable in nature. In some possible studies, we select raw materials from plant-based sources or their semi-finished products that are found in surplus in our region, as a Blue Sign system partner, we review our Blue Finder list in raw material selection, we support compliance with standards of whichever major retail group our customer works with, and we add products compliant with the REACH regulation one by one to our product portfolio. For all employees who produce, use and transport the product to be non-toxic, by working on alternative synthesis methods and requiring all our stakeholders to be included in this chain, by sharing the environmental and economic dimensions as important outputs of our projects, by reviewing both our own process and our stakeholders' processes, by sharing this information with our partners and customers, by not compromising on the priorities of the requested design, we strive to frame our design process with our environmental policy. We know our risks, we are able to manage and improve them, and our ability to review the life cycle of our products again increases our capability. Could you tell us about your export activities and the methods you find effective in your market search? We are expanding our export activities by participating in international trade fairs. Participating in fairs, seeing the market in countries where we are not yet active, researching dealership opportunities and bringing our innovative products together with potential customers is a great opportunity for us. Additionally, to effectively manage our market search and efforts, we seek consulting from professors specializing in foreign trade, send our staff to training programs and conduct effective market research through various channels.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Although Turkey's export potential is high both in terms of the market in which we are stakeholders and geopolitically, I believe we are unable to fully utilize this potential. I believe that among the steps to increase this potential, reducing foreign dependency and increasing exports are important. For this reason, internalizing a research-oriented company culture and focusing more on developing innovative products will be effective.