We Had an Enjoyable Interview with Pınar Yokeş

Yokeş Makina Operations Director Pınar Yokeş shares insights on the company's services, manufacturing processes and goals. Ms. Yokeş provided us with valuable information about Yokeş Makina, which has been operating since 1943, its services, manufacturing processes and objectives.

First of all, could you introduce yourself to our readers?

I was born in Izmir in 1978. I graduated from Izmir Özel Türk Koleji and Bilkent University. I started my professional career in Istanbul. I worked for 12 years in Turkey's leading holding companies, with important names, in various roles. Since 2012, I have been continuing this knowledge and experience as a third-generation representative in our family company. [caption id="attachment_151594" align="aligncenter"] Yokeş Makina Operations Director Pınar Yokeş[/caption]

Yokeş Makina has been operating since 1943. Could you share with us the stages your company has gone through over these long years?

Yokeş Makina was founded in 1943 in Izmir by my grandfather Mehmet Emin Yokeş as one of the city's first machine shops. During that period, production was mainly focused on agricultural machinery. Following my grandfather's death, my father Meriç Yokeş, a graduate of METU, took over the business. Starting from 1972, in response to increasing demand, the company began operating in the paint manufacturing sector and initially produced the "PM Series, Vertical Type-Open Sieve Pearl Mill" wet grinding machine. As different sectors continued to bring different machinery requests, the company moved to the 1st Industrial Zone in 1984 to expand production capacity and develop the product portfolio. In 1998, my brother Mehmet Yalım Yokeş, a graduate of ITU Department of Mechanical Engineering, took over as Company Partner and Manager and continues to actively serve as manager of Yokeş Makina. During this period, machinery continued to be manufactured for the paints, chemicals, agricultural chemicals, cosmetics and food sectors. In parallel with our growing business volume, in 2015, we relocated to our factory in the İTOB Organized Industrial Zone, where we continue production today.

Could you provide information about the machinery you supply to the paint sector, and is there a particular machine you focus on promoting at trade fairs?

In addition to the Dispersion and other Wet Grinding Machines we manufacture, our two products that attract considerable attention at trade fairs and which create the most serious competition with our rivals in the global market are our Horizontal Type Wet Grinding machines; Powermill - Convecta and Powermill - Performa. Powermill Convecta is the most modern and advanced model of the Conventional Horizontal Type Bead Mill / Wet Grinding machines that Yokeş Makina has been producing for over 25 years and is categorized as a "High-Flow Bead Mill". Thanks to the robust structure of the agitator disks and the specially designed separation system, very high flow and grinding rates can be easily achieved. It is a Wet Grinding Machine with very high efficiency thanks to its appropriate grinding chamber geometry and parameters. Powermill Performa, on the other hand, is a new generation machine designed to achieve much higher fineness values in a short period with higher capacity compared to conventional horizontal wet grinding machines, faster wet grinding and more aggressive grinding performance. Through the ability to use very small grinding beads, very high grinding rates can be achieved, and thanks to the lower amount of beads used during the process, it can operate with lower energy consumption. Due to its special design, with a small grinding chamber volume and low bead quantity, more wet grinding results can be achieved in less time than conventional Bead Mills achieve with large volumes and large quantities of beads. The general applications of these two machines are the production of all paints and ancillary products, the production of flexographic and rotogravure printing inks, the production of water and solvent-based inkjet inks, and production for the agricultural chemicals sector.

What points do you focus on in the manufacturing process of your machinery?

Quality is indispensable for us. One of Yokeş's best-known characteristics is that we manufacture long-lasting, stable-running and efficient machines. This stems from our emphasis on quality and precision in our workmanship as much as in the materials we use. Of course, we also follow the latest technologies in production and plan our machinery and equipment investments accordingly. However, even though our machines have a standard structure, since we serve different sectors and different productions, in fact, each machine is somewhat custom-made (tailor-made). This way, we can provide the most appropriate solutions to each sector's changing needs. We define this as flexibility in production.

We are in the age of technology and new developments happen every day. Nowadays, 5G and automation technologies are particularly attracting attention. How do you work to keep up with these developing technologies?

We are quite familiar with the building blocks of Industry 4.0 and IoT components. As I mentioned earlier, just as we select the latest technology machinery and equipment for our own production, we also pay attention to ensuring that the machines we produce are compatible with Industry 4.0. With this in mind, zero-defect product continuity, system monitoring and rapid detection of potential failures, increased flexibility, lower energy consumption, minimized heat generation, and increased production efficiency are always our priorities.

We know you also continue your operations abroad. In this regard, which regions are you currently selling to abroad and do you have international targets for the coming period?

We are a company that exports 70 percent of its production. We have established dealership operations in many countries. We have sales and service networks in Eastern and Central European countries and Eurasian Union countries. We already have brand awareness and operate in Middle Eastern and African markets. Although we already have market share in Western Europe, our current target is to increase our activities in this region. For this reason, we participate in international trade fairs and are carrying out work to expand our dealer and technical service network in these regions as well. Besides sales, what services do you provide to your customers, and could you elaborate on your "trial production" service in detail? Within our Test and Pilot Production facility set up in our factory, we enable testing of both our machines and our customers' formulations. Additionally, when necessary, we can provide a pilot production facility service where dispersion and wet grinding processes can be carried out with a capacity to produce between 1 and 2 tons per day.

How do you assess the development of the paint sector in Turkey and which areas should we focus on for sectoral development in the economic conditions the world is currently facing?

Due to inflation and post-pandemic supply chain concerns, the paint and coatings market is expected to have a volatile growth trend in the long term and to continue through 2023. Geopolitical tensions such as the Ukraine War, natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in Turkey, changes in environmental policies, fluctuations in raw material costs and economic factors have played an important role both domestically and globally. We expect that the paint and coatings industry will focus on acquiring new technologies, securing raw materials, optimizing the supply chain, strengthening product portfolios and developing capabilities in order to sustain growth during these difficult times. Nevertheless, since we expect the market to shift its focus and spending habits towards renovations and refurbishments, we maintain our optimism that the sector will regain its pre-pandemic performance. We estimate that the global turnover of the paint and coatings sector will increase by 80 percent by 2031.