An Engaging Interview with the Founders of Purotto Kimya

A Delightful Interview with the Founders of Purotto Kimya We conducted a delightful interview with Purotto Kimya founders Mustafa Mecit and İsmail Bülbül regarding their company's activities. Mecit and Bülbül shared valuable information about Purotto Kimya's future goals.  

Could you introduce yourselves and share your professional background in the sector for our readers?

Purotto Kimya was founded by us, Mustafa Mecit and İsmail Bülbül, who were university classmates. I am Mustafa Mecit, born in Malatya in 1966, and I graduated from ITU Chemical Engineering in 1988. After graduation, I started my career as a Production Manager at a company producing paints and alkyd resins, and I have continued my professional life with the family company we established in 2007. As CST Kimya, we produce alkyd resins, solvent-based paints and varnishes, and sell to domestic and international markets. Since 2019, I have continued my knowledge and work focused on the polyurethane sector under the Purotto Kimya umbrella. I am İsmail Bülbül, born in Erzurum in 1965, and I graduated from the ITU Chemical Engineering department in 1988. I started my career as a Research Assistant at ITU Chemical Engineering and completed my master's degree in ITU Natural Sciences in 1995. While pursuing my doctorate, I moved to the private sector as a Sales Specialist in the materials department for paints, inks and construction chemicals at an organic chemistry company. From 2003 onwards, I continued contributing to Turkey's chemical sector as a partner in Reaction Chemistry and TAYF Kimya companies, engaged in production and distribution. In 2019, I founded Purotto with Mustafa and transitioned to the polyurethane sector.   [caption id="attachment_144816" align="aligncenter"] Purotto Kimya Founders Mustafa Mecit and İsmail Bülbül[/caption]

Could you share with us the founding story of Purotto Kimya and the sectors it serves?

The founding story of Purotto Kimya actually began with the CST Kimya infrastructure. Having considerable experience in polymers, we developed an interest in polyurethane products within this structure. After small-scale production here, we gained experience and knowledge, and to utilize this expertise, in 2019 we started Purotto Kimya's story with an experienced colleague from university in the sector. Purotto Kimya was established as a systems house. Although a new company, it has moved forward with rapid steps owing to the partners' long involvement in this sector. Therefore, we have products in many areas related to polyurethane. Leveraging our experience in chemical processes, we produce plant oil-based polyols. First, we began using these products in sports flooring and industrial flooring systems. Subsequently, we continued our work according to market demands. Rubber, EPDM, foam and stone binders, insulation, athletics tartan track system products, automotive and viscoelastic foam, polyurethane concrete, sealing gaskets for the packaging sector, PVC compound, moisture-tolerant PU primers, and polyurea systems are the main areas of our production. We provide products and services to many different sectors ranging from construction to the foam sector, from packaging to the automotive industry.

What are the product groups you offer to the polyurethane sector?

Integral and seat foam for the automotive sector, viscoelastic foam for the medical and bedding sector, PU concrete flooring systems for the construction sector, primers, bitumen-based PU super-elastic coatings, polyurea systems and 1K brush-applied coatings, sandwich systems for the sports sector, rubber and artificial grass adhesives, PU flooring systems for indoor sports halls, binders for rubber and EPDM, wood-look PU products for the furniture sector, PU sealing gaskets and PVC compound products for the packaging sector, PU foams and adhesives for the filter sector, decorative 1K stone carpet binders, aliphatic and aromatic prepolymers, and plant oil and coconut oil-based polyols are our main product groups.  

Could you tell us about the work you are doing to develop your products and offer more innovative solutions, and the resources you dedicate to these efforts?

As we all know, to develop our products and produce innovative solutions, it is first necessary to identify market needs, conduct research to develop different application areas, and strengthen our infrastructure. As a new company, we conduct this work by participating in domestic and international trade fairs and visiting customers. As a result of these studies, we plan experimental work in our R&D laboratory for the innovative products that emerge and the existing products in use, and then evaluate the experimental results obtained. Following this, we conduct production trials with the help of our project partners and launch our successful products to the market. We act with the awareness that the chemistry sector's kitchen is the R&D laboratory, and we continuously improve our laboratory infrastructure and facilities. Through the dedicated work of our chemical engineer and chemist colleagues, since our company's founding year we have participated in trade fairs with innovative products we have produced and introduced ourselves.

Could you share the innovative products you have launched to the market in recent years?

Although Purotto Kimya is a very new company, the innovative products it has offered since its founding are: 1K PVC compound sealing element for the packaging sector, water-based PU concrete system for the flooring sector, PU 1K stone binder (stone carpet), and pneumatic viscoelastic foam. Could you share your domestic and international sales volumes? Which product groups are your main focus for sales? Of our annual production volume of approximately 3,000 MT, 20% is exported. Our main product groups of focus are adhesive binder groups and sports sector flooring systems. We anticipate that isolation systems and viscoelastic foam systems will gain momentum in 2023.

How do you assess the development of the polyurethane sector in Turkey?

The polyurethane sector in our country is in a development phase. While production work continues from general end products to specialized end products, dependence on raw materials from abroad, as in many areas, weakens the hand of our country's producers in this field. However, it is also a fact that among regional countries, we are the country with the highest production, knowledge and technology potential. For these reasons, the rise of polyurethane systems in our country will continue and will please the companies working in this field. Being respectful to nature and producing environmentally and human-friendly products are among your principles. What are the points you pay attention to in production in this regard? The importance of the environment and human health is great, but it is even more so about our children and the world we will leave for future generations. Like everyone, we pay attention to developing products with innovative and environmentally-conscious approaches to the best of our ability. For this reason, we take care to increase plant oil-based and water-based products.

Could you share Purotto Kimya's future goals?

Evaluating on a global scale, we see that the polyurethane market has reached approximately 20-25 million tons and was at USD 73 billion in 2021, with expectations of 4-5% annual growth through 2030. In recent years, with increasing environmental awareness, we believe that polyurethane systems will find increasingly more applications in the construction sector due to increased investment in green buildings and smart residential and commercial spaces with efficient energy use. We believe polyurethane foams will make important contributions to the sector in this regard and their use will increase in the global market. The challenges experienced during the pandemic process have positioned our country as an even more important production center for Europe. We believe that the energy crises experienced in Europe in recent times will further strengthen the position of polyurethane foams among building materials for thermal insulation. Of course, to meet the needs for the European market demands, while production capacity is rapidly increasing on one hand, control of emissions from raw materials such as TDI and MDI used in polyurethane production is gaining more importance. Sustainable air quality for the entire world must be valued by the polyurethane sector and the necessary criteria and standards must be met. As Purotto Kimya, we are aware of our responsibility in this regard. On one hand, as we position ourselves as a reliable producer in the Turkish and European markets with our product quality, at the same time we are working with all our strength for an environment-sensitive, standards-compliant working environment.