Interview with Duygu İçingir Çapar, Commercial Director of Ravago Chemicals Turkey

We conducted a pleasant interview with Duygu İçingir Çapar, Commercial Director of Ravago Chemicals Turkey, about the company's sales activities and policies. Could you tell our readers about yourself and your professional background? After graduating from Istanbul University Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department in 1996, I completed the Istanbul University Business and Economics Master's Program. First, I would like to summarize my professional career spanning over 20 years. I began my career at Mefar İlaç Sanayii A.Ş., a contract manufacturer. Over 7 years, I held various positions including Quality Control Manager, Production Manager, and Assistant Production Director. Subsequently, due to the growth in sales and marketing, I made a radical decision to pursue a different direction in my career path. In 2004, I joined Tara Kimya A.Ş., which imported chemical raw materials, where I worked for 1.5 years as a paints and cosmetics sales representative. In 2006, I joined the Ravago Chemicals Turkey family (formerly known as Kemiropa Dış Tic. ve Paz. Taş. Ltd.Şti.). I have held various positions including Cosmetics Sales Representative, Cosmetics Business Unit Manager, Industrial Business Unit Manager, and Commercial Director. I currently continue my career at Ravago Chemicals Turkey as Commercial Director. Could you provide information about the areas your company operates in and its organization in Turkey? Ravago Chemicals Turkey acts as a distributor and agent for products from contracted manufacturers and suppliers, selling and distributing them to various sectors in Turkey. With a supplier and product portfolio that has grown from the past and continues to expand daily, our experienced technical sales teams present the market's highest quality products in the most economical manner, while conducting sales activities with innovation and in line with changing trends, offering environment and human health-friendly high-technology products in a competitive environment with a customer and service-oriented approach without compromising quality. Ravago was established in Belgium in 1961 and has grown to provide comprehensive services to the petrochemical industry. Over time, the company's goals of global expansion and leadership in polymer and chemical representation, recycling and compounds, and building materials sectors have been realized. Today, Ravago is a truly global firm with over 50,000 customers, operations in 55 countries and 325 locations, and 8,000 employees who have played the greatest role in making this possible. Our activities in Turkey can be summarized as plastic production by our group companies, insulation products manufacturing and sales in the construction sector, and chemical distribution activities conducted by us. We joined the Ravago Chemicals family when our former company Kemiropa was acquired by Ravago in 2016. During these 6 years, we have achieved nearly 4-fold growth in turnover and continue to grow both organically and through acquisitions and mergers in the sector. Ravago's four core principles—people-focused approach, professionalism, entrepreneurship, and humility—define who we are, what we believe in, and how we are recognized, and guide all our activities. Could you tell us about the product groups you serve as Ravago Chemicals? As Ravago Chemicals Turkey, we supply specialized chemicals and additives to a wide range of sectors including all types of paints and coatings, inks, construction chemicals, plastics, rubber, composites, asphalt, paper, mineral oils, textiles, leather, agro, personal care and cosmetics, industrial cleaning and detergents, and food. Looking at our very comprehensive product groups, as the Industrial Chemicals Business Unit we offer: calcined kaolin, acrylates, acrylic and alkyd and PU resins, antifoaming agents, wetting agents, starch esters, glass and ceramic microspheres, solvents, PTFE dispersions, natural & PTFE & PE waxes, colloidal silicas, acids, aluminum pigment pastes, catalysts, silicones, thickeners, drying agents, monomers, rheological additives, adhesion promoters, and surfactants. Could you tell us about your sales activities? Which regions do you primarily sell to? Thanks to our extensive logistics and storage network, we can make daily sales to all parts of Turkey. The majority of our sales team comes from chemistry or chemical engineering backgrounds, and we place great importance on this. Because with our experienced team that has a service approach to provide added value, we are always able to support our valued customers in developing special formulations and solutions based on safety and reliability. Could you tell us about your application laboratory and its activities? For our manufacturing units, we have an R&D center that we established in 2017 with a USD 3.5 million investment at our factory located in Taysad, alongside an application laboratory for industrial, personal care, and cosmetics. In our distribution activities, we continuously collaborate with the R&D departments of the global manufacturing companies we represent. In this way, we try to be a solution provider for technical problems our customers may face. As a global distributor, what are the points you pay attention to in order to better serve your customers and maintain your quality? Our priority has always been to present the latest technology products in line with human health and environmental protection policies to serve the industry. In this direction, we introduce innovative products and environment-friendly and naturally sourced solutions to our customers during their production and develop joint projects with them. We want to demonstrate a position regarding what sustainability means to us and what kind of impact we aim to create on a global scale. We are very selective about our suppliers and work exclusively with all of them. Thanks to our expert technical staff and collaboration with our customers, we believe we make the right choices when adding new raw materials to our portfolio. Could you tell us about your environmental and occupational health policies? We hold all necessary certifications regarding environmental and occupational health issues and regularly undergo occupational health and safety training. During our extensive storage and logistics activities, we take actions to control any adverse effects that could harm the environment and human health. I can say that our main objectives are meeting customer expectations by storing and shipping appropriately, ensuring business continuity, and minimizing risks arising from security breaches. Will you introduce any new or priority products at the paintistanbul & Turkcoat fair? The products we focus on include "Coalescent Agent," "MEKO," "Epoxy Resin," "Hydrocarbon Resin," "TGIC," "Benzoin," "Chlorinated Paraffin," "Attapulgite Clay," "HMEC," and "Redispersible Powder" varieties, which rank among the essentials of the paints and coatings and construction chemicals sectors, as well as innovative, sustainable, and environmentally friendly products such as "Biobased Resin & Softener," "Self-Cleaning, Anti-Viral and Anti-Bacterial" products. Could you once again discuss the focus areas of Ravago Chemicals Turkey? In the digitalizing new world, we continue to maintain our leading role in the market by using all necessary marketing methods as we always have. Due to this characteristic during the pandemic period, following the actions we had taken long before, all our employees have had healthy, secure, and fast access to all necessary data from day one and have been able to continue their work. Supporting our customers' technical needs with our experienced technical sales team is our first and most important primary objective. Through continuous market research and product development, we meet market requirements and new trends in a fast, quality, standard, and continuous manner. As Ravago, we move forward with a family spirit by prioritizing our values of humility, people-focused approach, professionalism, and entrepreneurship. By keeping pace with the unstoppable growth and progress of the chemical sector through company acquisitions, we are building Ravago Chemicals' recognition in a solid and lasting manner day by day. Our company emphasizes how much importance it places on social equality through both global and Turkish employee data, particularly the number of women in its workforce. While the number of women employees globally is growing daily and currently stands at 44 percent, this figure is at 76 percent within Ravago Chemicals Turkey. In addition to all of this, we plan to make our organization called "Innovation Day," which will bring our customers together on a platform outside of trade fairs, a traditional event. What are your predictions and targets for 2022? We predict that 2022, like 2021, which is still ongoing, will bring a challenging and demanding year due to continued pandemic conditions, increasing costs in supply and logistics processes, and particularly delays in the production and supply of certain chemicals. However, we always try to do our best under current conditions and continue our work without losing our positive outlook. As has happened before, we believe that despite difficult conditions, we will achieve our successful growth targets during 2022. Thanks to both Ravago Chemicals group's support and confidence in us and Turkey globally, and the opportunities provided by our management here, we are moving forward with confident steps as a team toward our strategic goals. With 21 experienced technical employees, our industrial group continues to serve relevant sectors uninterruptedly with 7 Istanbul and 1 Izmir location teams.