We had an enjoyable interview with
Bilesim Kimya R&D Manager Mrs. Betül Çelik about the R&D activity, their targets in the coming years and the advantages they will bring to the sector.
Could you tell to the readers about yourself and your professional background?
I have completed my high school education at 50. Yıl Anatolian High School. Then I graduated from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Chemistry Department. Since my early childhood, I was very interested in science; that helped me choose the chemistry department. Simultaneously with my 2 years training from Mr. Aydın Senler I worked in the Quality Assurance Department. At the same time, I completed my training in R&D and product development with Mr. Müfit Sabuncu. I have been working as R&D and Product Development Manager for about 8 years.
What would you like to say about Bilesim Kimya? Can you give us information about your activities and product range?
Bilesim Kimya entered the sector 20 years ago in the early 2000’s. Through innovative&high quality products; market share increases in local and global markets. The product groups we manufacture are personal care and household cleaning. Our products include but are not limited with: hair shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion, skin care cream, whitening cream, air fresheners, deodorant, roll-on, foam soap, liquid soap, liquid cleansing cream, softener, surface cleaner, dishwashing detergent and vegan certified cosmetics.
Could you tell us about your domestic and foreign sales activities? What are the activities you have carried out to improve of your sales activities?
As of October 2019, 45% of the total turnover is from international markets and 55% is from local market. We export to more than 45 countries in overseas market. In the domestic market, we develop our own brand and private label products together. In order to improve our sales performance research and development is our priority: We determine the needs of our customers and consumers and focus on innovative, high value-added, products that provide time&performance advantages.
What is your perspective on R&D? Could you give us information about your R&D activities?
If we define the company as a living organism, R&D is at the heart of a company. Developing innovative products, delivering them to consumers, marketing them, explaining the advantages of the product compared to another, and using sustainable resources are very important. For this reason, we attach great importance to the competencies of the team, measurement of these competencies, international system, regulation, continuous monitoring of chemical inventory information, and we provide continuous resources for them. At the same time, being the R&D manager, I regularly organize quality trainings to all departments of our company. We conduct our R&D activities together by continuously training our team. We keep our researches on raw materials, regulations, legal and country conditions at the highest level and we carry out studies for important critical control points such as product stability and microbiological quality.
I think there are 2 basic questions for the development of a product: What the consumer needs? In order to develop this product, which raw material, material, test measurement and legal obligations I need to meet? When these two questions are answered correctly and studies are carried out carefully success will come. In 2019, Bilesim Kimya allocated significant budget to it is R&D resource needs, renewed it is laboratories, and added 4 new test devices to it is inventory and a software program for monitoring international legal regulations.
What do you thing the recent changes are about the personal care and household cleaning sector?
The personal care and household cleaning sectors have made significant progress as a result of a conscious consumer base, economic changes and rapid the sharing of scientific knowledge in the world. The cleaning need of the people, which started many years ago, continues to increase and change.
We know that the first known soap in history was made about 6.000 years ago, in Ancient Babylon, when it was discovered that animal oils were mixed with wood ash and water to form a cleaning agent. We also know that the Vatican devotes the largest budget to the incensing of the palace, as the increasing odor (actually germs) in the Vatican causes a large number of people to become ill.
It was believed that incense would destroy bad smell (actually germ) and diseases. Cosmetics and cleaning needs not only increase but also change day by day. Bilesim Kimya is constantly researching and producing in parallel with these changes.
Could you talk about the social responsibility projects you have been involved?
We are in contact with charities such as LOSEV, Gönüllü İyilik Hareketi. We are trying to contribute to our families there as Bilesim Kimya. We support the children of our company’s employees to go to school. In addition, our social project ‘Let’s Read” initiated by our General Manager Mr. Sedat Çelik and Company Advisor Mrs. Tülay Arsu will come to life in 2020.
Could you give us information about the measures you have taken while producing for a more livable world?
In the name of a more livable world, using our natural resources such as water and energy without wasting, giving importance to sustainable natural resources, providing system improvements for human resource power, time value and management is the most important policy of Bilesim Kimya. In our TUBITAK project, we are developing an ecosystem sensitive product range that can be obtained with very little water, very little chemical and very little energy. We are working to integrate this perspective into all our product groups and to adapt it to all Bilesim Kimya employees. We keep waste treatment, recycling, water footprint and works at the highest level.
