Güray Kimya's goal is "organic growth"

We conducted a very enjoyable interview with Berk Güray, General Manager of Güray Kimya, which has been operating in the paints sector since 2007. Berk Güray shared valuable information on many important topics, ranging from his company's current structure to the product groups it offers to the paints sector and its R&D activities.

First of all, could you tell us about yourself and your career journey?

After Istanbul Turkish Lyceum, I graduated from Istanbul Technical University's Department of Chemical Engineering in 2002. Since 2003, I have been working in pigment paste production. I started my career in the R&D department. In parallel, I also took on the role of Quality Management Supervisor. Subsequently, I worked as Production Planning Production Manager and Technical Manager. Since 2011, I have been serving as General Manager at Güray Kimya, which we founded in 2007.

Could you share with us the founding story of Güray Kimya, its current structure, and the sectors it serves?

Founded in 2007, Güray Kimya has entered a rapid growth trend with its experienced team and technical infrastructure. In particular, the experience of our founder İrfan Güray in the paints sector for over 45 years provides us with great strength. We currently continue our production at our facility in Izmir AOSB, with an area of 5,000 m² and an annual pigment paste capacity of 5,000 tonnes. With investments made in 2023, our capacity was increased by 50%. With investments planned for 2024 and 2025, we aim to increase our capacity by a further 20%. In addition to capacity expansion, improving efficiency is our primary objective in these investments. We have an experienced team of 50 people in the sector. 30% of our workforce is employed in the R&D department. As a chemical company, 38% of our staff consists of chemists and chemical engineers. Additionally, the share of women in our workforce is 40%. We are making efforts to increase this ratio further in the coming period. Güray Kimya primarily serves the paints sector. In addition to paints, we supply colorant pigment paste to the textile, synthetic leather, seeds and stationery sectors. Güray Kimya exports 60% of its production to 25 different countries. [caption id="attachment_160317" align="aligncenter"] Berk Güray[/caption]

What are the product groups you offer particularly to the paints sector?

I can summarize our product groups for the paints sector as follows: Perfect Series products consist of pigment dispersions suitable for in-house use in water-based emulsion paint systems. Our Tintex Series products consist of pigment dispersions suitable for use in tint machine systems for water-based emulsion paint systems. Our Unipaste Series products consist of universal pigment dispersions for water and solvent-based paint systems, and our Unipaste Tint Series products consist of universal pigment dispersions suitable for use in tint machine systems for water and solvent-based paint systems. Another product group we offer to the paints sector is Transwood Series products. These products are transparent pigment dispersions for the wood sector (WS – water-based systems, LO – long oil systems). Our Solvaperse Series products contain pigment dispersions prepared in their own resins for solvent-based paint systems (Solvaperse LO and Solvaperse RPD).

What are the characteristics of your Güray Kimya ColorLab R&D Center and could you share the R&D work you carry out there with us?

Since its establishment, the R&D department has been the lifeline of the company. Even during crisis periods, we have not compromised on R&D investments and expenditures. R&D investments require patience. Although these investments do not provide short-term returns, they are the insurance and future of companies in the medium to long term. Güray Kimya has set the goal of being an R&D company as much as a chemical company. For this, professional and technical training is of great importance, particularly so that the team can have a solid technical infrastructure. We are making serious efforts in this regard. Our goal at Güray Kimya is "organic growth". Our team includes very valuable colleagues with sector experience. We are making great efforts to transfer their experience and knowledge to the younger staff coming after them. As Human Resources, we are building our career planning on young people we will develop from within. In Turkey, particularly at SME scale, conducting R&D is really very difficult. While there is government support in this regard, unfortunately it is not very easy to benefit from these supports. It requires a team and infrastructure beyond SME size. Whether R&D work conducted with limited budgets is truly R&D is a debatable issue. Whether it is R&D or D&D, at least one has to start somewhere. In this sense, the first issue we focused on at Güray Kimya was establishing a "project culture" within the company. It is gratifying for us to see that this concept is now taking hold. Although much of the work carried out at ColorLab R&D Center is currently at the D&D level, the gains achieved are of great importance for subsequent work. In terms of the sector, a serious data archive is being created on technically complex areas such as Light Fastness and Weather Fastness. Along with ongoing projects, work is being conducted that could achieve important standing in literature. Colorant systems (tint systems) are becoming increasingly important today. In the medium term, nearly all paint coloring will reach the level of being done by coloring machines. Work on these systems continues. Additionally, serious work is being conducted not only on the chemistry side but also on the database and software of these systems.

What points are you paying attention to in your pre-sales and after-sales services to maintain customer satisfaction?

Unfortunately, our country has not made good use of the opportunities it has had in the last 30-40 years. Many companies have turned to cheaper and higher-volume products rather than more specialized ones. This situation also takes us backward in quality and branding. While price is a very important criterion today, repeatability is one of the most important criteria in terms of customer satisfaction, and for Güray Kimya, it is the most important. Our priority is to be certain of our quality. We make great efforts to make quality repeatable. For this, we have established a very strong quality system. In order to identify our problems in-house rather than seeing them at our customer, we created quality instructions at many different stages. Many raw materials are controlled at the ordering stage, input controls are performed, and more than necessary in-process controls are conducted. This way, we can be sure of the goods leaving our factory. We do not end the process here. Through periodic and random tests, we also control the products shipped and cross-check our production. This allows us to receive feedback well below 0.3%. Additionally, quick response to any customer complaints is very important. Sometimes company sizes are evaluated by their turnover. Unfortunately, even in some global companies, a response to a complaint can take days or even weeks. At Güray Kimya, our goal is to respond to incoming customer complaints within 24 hours at the latest. In cases where work requires additional time, we also provide interim reports to our customers to keep them informed. In an increasingly competitive environment, our sector-specific solutions and the services we provide before and after sales are aimed at creating a difference. Our company's main goal is to be not just a standard supplier but an important "solution partner".

Finally, could you share your targets for the coming period with us?

We have a very good team, and the success we have achieved so far is the success of the entire team rather than individual members. However, there is still much ground for all of us to cover. Today, people and companies need to continuously improve themselves. Those who try to stay in place and maintain their position fall behind in the race. Our primary goal is to invest in people. In this sense, we have already planned the training schedule for the upcoming 2-3 year period. In 2023, we conducted 32 hours of training per employee. Our target for this year and next year is 40 hours per person. Over the last 2 years, we have taken serious steps as a company on digitalization. However, I think we have fallen a bit behind as a country on this issue. While many countries have moved to Industry 4.0, we are far from Industry 3.0. At Güray Kimya, we aim to make significant progress in the transition to Industry 4.0 by the end of 2024. All integration is planned to be completed by mid-2025. Our target for the coming period is not only to grow in terms of sales volume and revenue, but also to make progress in productivity. Once we fulfill what we have mentioned, success will come naturally.