Interplast Business Development Manager Ms. Gonca Ünal Kabaş

We conducted an enjoyable interview with Gonca Ünal Kabaş, Business Development Manager at İnterplast, about the company's growth process and the products it has offered to the industry.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself and your educational background?

I graduated from the Chemistry Department at Middle East Technical University in 1993 and completed a master's degree in chemistry; during my master's thesis, I conducted projects at Istanbul Technical University and Marmara University. I spent many years conducting research and development work in the paints industry. After working as an R&D engineer at Dyo and R&D manager at Meges, I redirected my career toward technical sales and business development. In 2012, I joined the İnterplast team as part of the efforts to establish the Paints and Adhesives Division. Could you tell us about İnterplast's development process since its founding? İnterplast was established in Istanbul in 2004 as an engineering plastics sales company. Following its merger with Safic-Alcan in 2011, it expanded its operations by establishing Rubber, Paints & Adhesives, and Life Sciences divisions and now serves with a team of 36 people. As of 2016, İnterplast became a 100% subsidiary of Safic-Alcan. In addition to our application laboratory, we operate with inventory in 4 different warehouses and storage facilities in Istanbul and surrounding areas for product ranges with different specifications, and we are able to ship a significant portion of our product portfolio very quickly. Our company, which specializes in the sales and technical support of chemical raw materials, has more than 50 representatives from over 20 countries. As İnterplast, we continuously participate in trade fairs related to the sectors we serve. Paint Istanbul, PlastEurasia, and HPCI are some examples. Safic-Alcan was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Puteaux, France. Its operations span 50 countries including China, India, and the United States. The Safic-Alcan Group is one of Europe's leading distributors of specialty chemicals.

What are your product groups for the paints raw materials sector and their characteristics?

The İnterplast Paints & Adhesives Division was established in 2012, and since then has grown day by day serving with pioneering representations in their fields and strong specialty chemicals. We serve as Turkish distributors for Evonik, Tronox, Blackburn, Arkema, Vencorex, Clariant, Momentive, BASF, Chemguard, Chitec, Cray Valley, PMC Organometallix, Labema, and Nanocyl.

Our activities are not limited to Turkey alone, and we actively serve customers in the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Middle East countries as well as the North Africa region, which lie within our country's natural export attraction area and the historic "Silk Road."

From Evonik silanes (Dynasylan), from Tronox TiO2, from Blackburn foam suppressants (Dispelair), from Arkema organic peroxides (Luperox), from Vencorex aliphatic isocyanates (Tolonate & Easaqua), from Clariant pigments & pigment pastes (Colanyl, Hostatint, Hostafine, Novoperm, Permanent, Hansa, Hostaperm, Savinyl, Sanolin, PV Fast, Feloxonyl, Flexoprint, Hostacopy, Hostajet, Renol), from Momentive boron nitride, from BASF polyisobutylene (Oppanol), from Chemguard fluoro surfactants, from Chitec UV absorbers, photoinitiators, flame retardants (Chiguard, Chivacure, R-gen, Zuran), from Cray Valley hydroxyl butadiene-based polymers, styrene-maleic anhydride copolymers (SMA, Krasol, Poly-BD), from PMC Organometallix tin catalysts (Fascat), from Labema corrosion inhibitors (Emadox, AB-Rust, Vegerust), from Nanocyl carbon nanotubes (Nanocyl) we conduct stocked sales. In our company culture, success is measured by our customers and suppliers preferring us first and maintaining their trust thereafter. As Safic-Alcan, we also have chemical raw materials under our own brand. Acrylic resins (Nebores), epoxy resins and hardeners (Nebores ER, Nebores EH), vinyl chloride vinyl acetate resins (Nebores Wam), PU hybrid emulsions (Neoplast), moisture absorber (Safic Chem TI), anti-corrosion pigments (Safic Chem P), aldehyde resin (Safirez), nitrocellulose solution and similar products under our own brand serve the industry. With the strong product groups of leading companies in the sectors we represent, we serve the paints, coatings, insulation, adhesives, construction chemicals, glass, ceramics, leather-textiles, plastics, and cable industries.

Do you have laboratory operations?

Our application laboratories constitute an important part of the services we provide to our customers. We have application laboratories in Istanbul as well as in France, the Netherlands, Italy, England, and China. With our chemistry-trained team, we support our customers in these laboratories. In this way, we help our customers develop innovative applications while also ensuring they are familiar with all technical properties of the raw materials we supply and achieve synergy in our work.

Could you provide information about your targets and projects?

Since its founding in 1847, Safic-Alcan has diversified and structured its operations to meet industrial change and market trends. Our objective is to become our customers' technical consultant and preferred supplier through our innovative solutions and services. Our goal is to go beyond being a simple logistics organization and become the right hand and natural extension of the brands we represent. The formulation support we provide from our expert laboratories is the most important service promise in fulfilling this commitment. Another objective of ours is to go beyond providing technical support to our customers through our expert team and offer cost-saving and production streamlining solutions, thereby providing added value to our business partners.

Could you provide information about your export activities?

Our activities are not limited to Turkey alone, and we actively serve customers in the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Middle East countries as well as the North Africa region, which lie within our country's natural export attraction area and the historic "Silk Road."

Could you provide information about İnterplast's environmental policy and sustainability approach?

As members of the Responsible Care® group as the Safic-Alcan Group, we closely monitor laws and regulations relating to our products and services. Our fundamental objective is to disseminate our environmental responsibility understanding throughout our entire organization and make it operational. Our implementation approach works in communication and cooperation with our partners, supporting increasing health, safety, security, and environmental safety demands and needs across all links of the supply chain in the presentation of our products.

Could you tell us about the quality principles you apply for the reliability of your products and the continuity of your company?

In our company culture, success is measured by our customers and suppliers preferring us first and maintaining their trust thereafter. For this reason, quality is focused not only on products and services but also on continuity. Quality management is built on operational quality assurance and control processes as well as the consistency of quality over days and even years. As Safic-Alcan, we value the continuity of our customer and supplier relationships and see them as true partners. We place importance on selecting and developing our engineering and sales teams from among people who are familiar with the specific needs of the market in which we operate and are experts in their own field.