Interview with Koray Uras, General Manager of Koray Kimya

Koray Uras, General Director of Koray Kimya, spoke with us in this engaging interview about Koray Kimya's development from its inception to the present day and its position in the sector. The company handles the import, sale and shipment of raw materials needed by the industry within its own operations.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your professional background?

I am Koray Uras; second-generation representative and partner of Koray Kimya. After completing my education, I started my working life in the foreign trade department at our Lüleburgaz headquarters. I served for 5 years as responsible for the company's foreign sales and purchases. I then delegated this responsibility to my team and opened our Istanbul office at the end of 2016. In 2017 we brought our Istanbul warehouse into service and, by expanding our team, we continue to contribute to the company's growth.

Could you describe Koray Kimya's development process from its founding to today?

Koray Kimya is one of Turkey's leading chemical raw material suppliers. It was founded in Istanbul in 1992 by M. Haluk Uras. Since our establishment, we have grown the company by developing our product and customer portfolio. Founded in Istanbul in 1992, our company today serves through warehouses and offices in six major cities in Turkey. Through continuous investments and timely responses to sector needs, our company has become a recognized brand. Today our company, which has more than 120 employees, is headquartered in Lüleburgaz. We serve all of Turkey and neighboring countries in the region from warehouses in Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and Mersin. For years, Koray Kimya has been the company with the highest hydrogen peroxide sales in Turkey. We supply one-third of Turkey's total consumption.

What mission and vision have you set as Koray Kimya?

As Koray Kimya, with our determination to work far above sector average and our vision, we aim to be the most known and preferred brand in the chemical sector, demonstrating success in being a leader in customer satisfaction in price and quality.

What are your product varieties?

We handle the import, sale and shipment of all chemical raw materials needed by the sector within our own operations. We are among Turkey's companies with the widest product range. With our widespread warehouse network, expert staff, import advantages and logistics capabilities, we provide optimal benefits to our customers. Textile Chemicals and Auxiliaries, Textile Dyes, Food Chemicals, Agricultural Chemicals and Fertilizers, Detergent Chemicals, Industrial Chemicals and Solvents form our main product groups.    

What do you keep in mind when developing or producing your products?

Our main activity is chemical raw material sales. With our fertilizer production, which began in 2000, we conduct sales primarily in the Thrace region where our headquarters is located and in areas with intensive agriculture such as Antalya and Mersin. In our fertilizer production, we take care to produce products that ensure farmers receive a fair return for their labor. These products will not harm either nature or human health, are fully licensed and produced without compromising product quality for cost advantage. In our production, since we ourselves import the main raw materials and have worked with reliable companies for years, our price-to-performance ratio is very high.

Producing quality products undoubtedly has a close relationship with technology and expert labor. What policy do we pursue regarding technology and expert labor?

To produce quality products, the products we use must be of high quality and the labor force must be of a quality that supports this. In the production of our products and heading our R&D Department is Chemical Engineer Şükran Şahin, our plant manager who has been with us for over 20 years. He manages all production processes, formulations and the necessary permitting procedures.

What is the importance of Quality Control Testing? How does this process proceed?

Quality control testing holds a very important place in our process. Ensuring that our production does not fall below the specified values is the issue we have focused on most to protect our brand value and our customers' efforts. Every production is tested in a laboratory before packaging, and if the analysis values are suitable, it is packaged. Otherwise, this production is absolutely not released to the market. Analysis reports and witness samples for each product are kept in accordance with the relevant regulations until our responsibility ends.

What is your perspective on R&D?

We conduct our R&D activities at our headquarters. Within the scope of these activities, we place great importance on customer feedback regarding the products we have produced and sold. In this context, our company, having purchased over 200 hectares of agricultural land in different parts of the Thrace region, continuously tests the products it produces in these areas and these are reported. Products to be offered to consumers are first tested on our own agricultural land and after approval, the production and marketing process begins.

What are your R&D activities? What do you consider when determining these activities?

Today, the importance of agriculture has become even more apparent. Unfortunately, the amounts of fertilizer used in our country still lag far behind examples in Europe. In our R&D department, while developing products we have produced ourselves, we also aim to enlighten farmers in our regions through small seminars and meetings, to increase their productivity, and we do our best to support them in all circumstances.

What innovations do you aim to implement in coming years?

As Koray Kimya, increasing our number of employees, revenues and customers and growing is at the top of our greatest objectives for coming years. The "Business Development Department" we established at the beginning of 2017 continues its work to propel us forward in this direction and to help us adapt more quickly to developing technologies. We are currently continuing to grow above sector and Turkey averages, and we are working to make this sustainable and permanent. I can say we are somewhat shedding our skin. In coming years, you will see a company making much more active and much sharper moves.

What would you like to say about the sector?

The chemical sector is a large sector with many stakeholders. Competition intensifies and hardens with each passing day. I believe what matters is working honestly and efficiently. Actually, the secret of our success lies there. As Koray Kimya, for 25 years we have been adding value to life through chemistry.