Interview with Nural Evin, General Manager of Proil Oleo

We conducted an enjoyable interview with Nural Evin, General Manager of Proil Oleo, in which we discussed the company's founding purpose and areas of operation. Evin also shared with us the actions the company took during the pandemic period. [caption id="attachment_123113" align="aligncenter"] Nural Evin[/caption]

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

I was born in Ordu in 1970. I graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Istanbul University Faculty of Engineering in 1992. Subsequently, I worked at Alemdar Kimya for 19 years, holding positions as Quality Control, R&D and Management Systems Manager. During the phase when Alemdar Kimya was being sold to Cargill, I joined May Group. For 5 years, I served at the level of Production and Operations Director. For the past 3 years, I have been continuing my role as General Manager at Proil. Throughout my working life, I have actively worked in technical departments on the production, quality control, product development and facility establishment of oleochemicals such as vegetable oils from diverse sources (palm, seed, cocoa, kernel-based), fatty acids, esters, amides, glycerin, margarine, and emulsifiers.

What is the founding purpose of your company?

Proil was founded with the aim of being a pioneer in the production of sustainable, biodegradable, high-value-added strategic products that pose no risk to the environment and human health. Our company has concentrated its efforts on reducing dependence on imported products that are not produced in our country and require know-how, and on being competitive with imported products. Currently, by producing 6 imported products domestically, we are both strengthening our industry and reducing foreign dependence. One of the greatest motivations behind our establishment was our sister company Petroyağ's work in designing and developing plant-based equivalents of process facilitator industrial oils needed by industry in Turkey and foreign markets. In this direction, we are rapidly pursuing work on producing specially designed products in new sectors every day. In these activities, we also place emphasis on the use of domestic raw materials and inputs. As the company's domestic input ratio increases day by day, our ratio of domestic product sales to imported product sales also increases proportionally.

What are your product varieties and which sectors do you serve?

Proil works intensively with the food sector. With our BROİL brand, in Kesart oil, which is used as process oil in bread dough release agents, we rank first in many countries both domestically and abroad. In the food sector, in addition to this product, we have produced the first successful domestic pan oil for cake production. We also produce band lubricant oils for sugar-coated chewing gum. In the food industry, we also produce ester-based products as essences and color pigment solvents. We produce and sell process lubricant oils that come into contact with food; as examples we can mention oils used in the production of aluminium containers and stretch films. In the cosmetics sector, we produce and sell lubricant and solvent esters. In the veterinary pharmaceutical sector, we can say that we are pioneers in the production of solvent oils and that export potential in this field is high with neighbouring countries.

What is your approach to R&D? Could you tell us about the R&D work you conduct at your company?

R&D is one of our departments that provides the greatest support in achieving our goals and objectives. It is obvious that in order to bring innovative products to the market, we need experienced, trained workforce and a solid infrastructure. For this reason, the first R&D centre in the sector, approved by the Ministry of Industry, was established within Petroyağ in 2017. Our R&D centre has 23 personnel. One of these colleagues has a doctorate degree and 7 have master's degrees. We also encourage our colleagues as a company for academic studies. Our centre, with ongoing TÜBİTAK and European Union Projects, continues to increase its personnel number every day. In fact, during the pandemic period, 5 new experienced colleagues joined our ranks. In our R&D work, we want to use the industry-university-private sector triangle as it is used abroad and make it more efficient. We can say that we monitor the commercialization rate of our projects at frequent intervals and take all kinds of actions to improve efficiency.

What are the difficulties in bringing new products to market?

Human and facility investments are essential for bringing a new product to market. Especially if innovative products are being produced, supply source, technology, market size and competitor analysis become very important. Particularly, when research shows that only 10% of products are still on the market and still profitable three years later, it is essential that a very good feasibility study is conducted before work on a new product begins. Another issue is that despite claims that domestic production is very strategic in our country, there is unfortunately hesitation and reluctance we have observed and experienced in industry to take responsibility in this regard. Purchasing departments, R&D and management of companies are in a position to convince on the use of new domestic products. It appears that the use of domestic products can present low price and long payment terms as conditions. I believe we must develop a perspective towards understanding domestic products as main supply products rather than viewing them as alternatives. When we succeed in this, our domestic manufacturers will be much more proactive, willing and dedicated in new product development.

The world suddenly entered a pandemic period. So what actions did your company take in the face of this unexpected situation? How did this period progress?

As Proil, we entered the pandemic period with investment. Due to the special infrastructure requirements in the production of the new products we developed, our increasing sales volume, and the need to create areas and equipment complying with standards, we relocated from Gebze to Köseköy together with Petroyağ under the same roof. We put our factory established in Köseköy into operation in August. We obtained ISO 9000, 1400, 45001, 22000 standards along with legal permits. We successfully passed Pladis inspection. We carried out all these activities with the mandatory precautions that had to be taken during the pandemic period. We acted without wasting time in taking precautions. In determining the conditions, we maintained very close communication with all our colleagues and ensured their voluntary participation. We took the necessary steps to safeguard ourselves. We grouped these into 4 main headings: Our Health, Our Safety, Our Unity and Our Security, Our Future… These became widely accepted by our company employees and were successfully implemented. The most valuable resource in our success was understanding and unity. Regarding our commercial activities; we determined our needs and gave great importance to supply chain management. We were careful to evaluate all our alternatives and standardize them. By establishing very close communication with our customers and managing our finances well, we did not keep our stock levels low; we optimized them. For our new products, we assured our customers that they would not experience supply problems. We strengthened our commercial activities through business partnerships and collaborations. Thanks to our digital infrastructure, we implemented the remote working option in departments where possible. Our technical personnel switched to rotating work. We made arrangements in the use of our social areas. During the pandemic period, experienced new colleagues joined our ranks and we gave more emphasis to training than ever before.   For detailed information: http://www.proiloleo.com/?utm=Turkchem-roportaj-2021