Interview with Oya Aksoy Gülen, Managing Partner of Likit Kimya

We conducted a pleasant interview with Oya Aksoy Gülen, Executive Partner at Likit Kimya, about the company's areas of activity, the sectors it serves, and its targets for coming years.

Could you tell our readers about yourself and your professional background?

I graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics. After obtaining my second degree in Marketing from Drake University in the United States, I returned to Turkey and began my professional career in 1994 at Ford Otosan. After working for approximately 2 years in Budget Planning at Ford Otosan, I started working at Japan Tobacco (JTI) in 1996. I had approximately 10 years of professional experience there. At Japan Tobacco International, I served as senior management primarily in Sales and Planning. Subsequently, in 2006, due to changes in the partnership structure of our family company Likit Kimya and coinciding with Japan Tobacco's decision to relocate its headquarters to its facility in Torbalı, Izmir, I left my position at Japan Tobacco and joined Likit Kimya as executive partner. I have been actively involved in the company for 13 years, and together with my brother Ahmet Aksoy and my sister Edibe Aksoy Sürücü, we manage our company.

Could you share the history of Likit Kimya with us? What do you consider the most important element of your success story that began with chemical raw material supply?

Actually, this has quite a long history. We are originally from Nizip, Gaziantep. For 3 generations, starting from my grandfather, we have been closely involved with chemicals. My grandfather was a soap producer in Gaziantep Nizip. In the 1960s and 1970s, Nizip was an industrial district that produced approximately 60 percent of Turkey's soap production. In this region, where significant quantities of olive trees were grown, soap was produced from the mixture of olive oil obtained from olives and caustic soda, and my grandfather was engaged in this production. Later, my late father Sami Aksoy, in addition to soap production, with the vision of why we should not import caustic soda material, which Turkey's production was insufficient for and which was required for soap and many other sectors, began importing chemical raw materials alongside production. The entry of multinational companies and large-scale factories into soap manufacturing created barriers to the continuity of small and medium-sized producers like us. For this reason, as the third generation, we preferred to engage only in the trading portion of the business and did not continue production activities. The active management's operations began in 1987. In 1996, Likit Kimya was established with its current name. Until Likit Kimya was established in 1996, Turkey had no chemical storage facility on the European mainland. At that time, all bulk chemical raw materials used by industrial establishments were stored in storage facilities in the Gulf Region. Subsequently, with bridge tolls and additional costs, these materials were transported to approximately 1,850 small and large industrial establishments in the Çorlu-Tekirdağ-Çerkezköy region. This posed problems in terms of both time and cost, and more importantly, lack of rapid access to the producer.

Likat Kimya's founding vision is to be positioned in close proximity to end-users and deliver quality products to our customers at appropriate costs in very short timeframes.

Based on this vision, bulk chemical raw material imports to western Marmara began through Likit Kimya with a 3-tank investment on a 12-hectare plot of land in Tekirdağ-Marmara Ereğlisi. Subsequently, when it was understood that this was the correct strategy, 2 years later in 1999, we implemented the investment of our second, 100 percent equity-owned tank terminal in Adana Yumurtalık Free Zone. As of November 2019, we continue our operations with 54 tanks with 51,500 m³ storage capacity on 40 hectares of land with 100 percent equity in Marmara Ereğlisi, 14 tanks with 26,000 m³ storage capacity with 100 percent equity on a total of 30 hectares in Adana Yumurtalık Free Zone, and rental tanks with 4,000 m³ capacity in the Kocaeli Gulf Region. With our 2018 sales volume, we secured our place on both the ISO 500 list and the Fortune 500 list. The fundamental reason behind Likit Kimya's success is our vision of serving industry and producers from locations close to them and maintaining the line of being a reliable supplier that fulfills its commitments under any circumstances.

In your view, what are the essentials for a supplier company?

The most important element that a supplier company must have is reliability. When purchasing or selling chemical products, unfortunately we encounter many forms of fraud. Some chemical materials we import are adulterated with water and various additives and sold as fraudulent products to end-users. For these reasons, we always advise the companies that purchase products from us to carefully analyze the goods they receive at the delivery stage, and even to conduct remeasurements from time to time while the goods are in stock. Because with certain additions to the material, fraud may not be detected in analyses conducted at the delivery stage, but when a second check is performed, it becomes clear that the product's values are not compliant. Reliability should not be characterized solely in terms of product quality. Timely delivery of the product and adherence to agreed prices are also reliability factors. Under any circumstances, the product must reach the customer at the time promised. To provide examples from past years; following the earthquake that occurred during the Olympics in China in 2008, and following Hurricane Harvey in the United States in 2017, serious supply problems arose for certain raw materials both worldwide and in Turkey. Thanks to the high storage capacity at our terminals, as Likit Kimya, we delivered all of our three, six or annual contracts to our customers at the promised time and at the agreed prices. As Likit Kimya, our priority is to maintain our position as a reliable supplier, to ensure timely, appropriate-quality, and agreed-price delivery of products to our customers.    

Which sectors do you serve?

As Likit Kimya, we primarily serve textiles, detergents, construction, chemicals, paper, cosmetics, food, and countless other sectors. Caustic soda, in which we have the largest import market share in Turkey, is the second most-used chemical in the world. Therefore, in any production process, manufacturing factories use caustic soda as an essential input in their production.

What are your product varieties? What criteria do you consider when determining your product diversity?

In the 1990s, since textile companies were predominantly located in the Çorlu-Çerkezköy region, Likat Kimya began product supply with the import of acetic acid and caustic soda. Since acetic acid and caustic soda were the main chemicals used by textile companies in the region, our journey that began with 2 products continues today with a product portfolio exceeding 20 items. When we are about to begin supplying a new product, we conduct preliminary research about the product and sector, and if it offers continuity, we include it in our portfolio. While in 2005 approximately 90 percent of our sales met the needs of the textile sector, by 2019, textiles' share in our total sales declined to around 17 percent. This situation stems not from selling fewer products to the textile sector, but from our effort to diversify our sector distribution and not put all our eggs in one basket. Since our equity-owned tank terminals are suitable for bulk chemicals, our past experience concentrated in this direction, and when adding new products to our portfolio, we ensured that these products were liquid bulk chemicals. Of course, in addition to bulk chemicals, we have various packaged and intermediate products in our portfolio, but a large portion of our business still consists of liquid bulk chemicals. Until a year ago, the cosmetics sector was not among the sectors we served, but we now hold a significant share in the cosmetics sector with 2 products. In addition, we have products that we add to our portfolio in line with requests and demands from our customers. As mentioned earlier, this is an important feedback in creating a reliable supplier perception among customers.

What are your domestic and international sales activities?

We actively conduct sales in our country with the products in our portfolio. In the top 5 products that make up the weight of Likit Kimya's sales volume, our domestic market share is quite high; in these products, we are either the leader or second in the Turkish market. Therefore, we have a quite strong position domestically. In addition, we place importance on our sales and marketing activities; we expand our market share by developing our expert team in this area, conduct preliminary research on products, and add new products to our portfolio taking into account our customers' demands. Ultimately, these actions contribute positively to our sales activities. At the same time, we have a separate export team for our international sales activities. We conduct product sales and shipments to various parts of the world. We store products we import from abroad in our tanks and subsequently have them handled under customs supervision, that is, packaged, and export the products through transit trade to neighboring and overseas countries. The Balkans, Europe, Middle East, North Africa, South and Central America, and Turkic Republics are among the regions where we conduct exports. I think it is a source of pride as a Turk to be able to manage the operation of importing products in high tonnage, having them put into containers, and shipping them to nearly the same geography, and I believe this situation is the result of meticulous work.

Could you tell us about the precautions you have taken regarding the storage of chemical materials at your strategically important facilities?

First of all, we are a company that is completely under 7/24 customs control and is subject to inspections, monitored by cameras by the Customs Directorate and Authorized Customs Consultant. In addition to inspections, we have a detailed control process within the company. The primary concern we give importance to at our facilities is the health and safety of our colleagues, so we regularly conduct training and control processes. At our terminals, all administrative and technical measures mentioned in the regulations regarding occupational health and safety have been taken. To summarize, these include the requirement that tank vehicles used in transport comply with ADR standards, the presence of fire-fighting systems at facilities designed by authorized bodies and kept continuously effective, the effective use of risk assessment and work permit systems in contracting services and non-routine activities, training of all personnel to comply with these systems and regulations, the use of appropriate personal protective equipment, the performance of periodic inspections of all equipment, and an effective maintenance system are just a few examples.

You have an important mission at national and international levels in the textile sector. Could you tell us about your work in this field?

The Tekirdağ region has significant importance in textiles for our country. Since our establishment purpose has been to serve this region, Likit Kimya has a very important mission in the textile sector. Throughout the process from our establishment to today, we have continued to deliver products to our customers on time and at the most appropriate costs. Our fundamental purpose is to provide chemical raw material supply to textile producers at appropriate costs, enabling them to also produce at competitive costs, and thus helping them succeed in export markets that will bring foreign exchange to our country.

What are your targets for coming years? What benefits will these targets provide to the sector and your customers?

Among our forward-looking targets, the project that excites us the most at present is the Dolfen Platform and Pipeline investment on which we have begun construction. We recently held the groundbreaking ceremony for this project in Tekirdağ-Marmara Ereğlisi. The permit process for this project took approximately 8 years. We have obtained all necessary legal permits and have begun construction activities. The platform and pipelines to be built approximately 1 kilometer offshore will provide both loading and unloading services to the chemical and oil products sectors. Up to 2 vessels with a maximum capacity of 90,000 DWT can dock at this platform capable of liquid and gas transfers. This platform will not only be highly sensitive to the environment and worker health, but will also be directly connected to Turkey's first and only chemical storage tank terminal on the European mainland. This investment will bring significant cost-saving opportunities for industrial companies in the Çorlu/Çerkezköy region that previously had to store their products in the Kocaeli region. At the same time, with this project, the fuel costs spent by road tankers during product shipment and the negative environmental impacts of their emissions will be eliminated. Through this, we will also provide tank rental services to our customers who wish to store their own products. Therefore, this investment opens different business lines for Likit Kimya such as port operations and tank rental. With the falling costs, it will become possible for industrialists to gain access to cheaper materials. We sincerely believe that this project, which we will complete in June 2020, will be a very positive initiative for both Likit Kimya and our customers as well as for sustainability awareness.