In our interview, Mapei Turkey General Manager Mr. Selman Tarmur gave information about Mapei’s products and
technologies.
Would you briefly mention about yourself, academic career and professional background?
I got my license degree in Mechanical Engineering from İstanbul Technical University and completed my MBA at Marmara University. I worked for Bosch Thermotechnology for many years.
Between 2009 and 2013, I was the General Manager and the Middle East & Caucasus Regional Director. From 2013 till 2015, I worked as the Global Vice President of Central Air Conditioning Systems of Bosch Thermotechnology GmbH (Germany).
Between 2015-2017, I took on Vice Presidency at Kaleseramik A.Ş. and then worked as the General Manager at Belenco Quartz Systems between 2017-2018. As of June 2018, I’ve been working as the General Manager of Mapei Turkey.
Could you please give information about Mapei’s history, milestones and current structure?
Founded in 1937 in Milan, Mapei is today one of the most important producers of adhesives and complementary products for laying all types of floor, wall and coating materials, and is also specialised in other chemical products used in the building industry such as waterproofing, flooring and thermal insulation products, exterior
coatings, special mortars, products for sports facilities, admixtures for cement and concrete, products for underground constructions and for the restoration of concrete and historical buildings.
Mapei Group’s 2018 profile may be summarized with the following figures: 79 production facilities and 82 subsidiaries located around the world in 34 different countries and in 5 different continents with more than 10.000 employees and an estimated consolidated turnover of 2.5 billion euros in 2017.
Mapei, with its wide and cutting-edge technology product range, offers specific and advanced solutions to more than 66.000 clients all around the world. Mapei also offers technical support in all its offices.
This service offered by expert engineers and qualified site-support teams; is greatly appreciated by designers, architects, contractors and professional floor applicators.
To which industries and with what kind of products does Mapei Turkey mainly serve?
Mapei Turkey was established 5 years ago and introduced a wide range of products to Turkish Market; tiles adhesives and grouts, screeds, self-levelers, products for the substrate preparation, waterproofing systems, special repair and anchoring mortars, materials for thermal insulation, indoor and outdoor coatings, industrial
floorings, sealants and other construction products that are always kadrooffered as a complete system. Mapei Turkey operates with a production plant in Polatlı – one of the most important industrial zones in Ankara – and 3 offices located in Ankara (HQ), İstanbul and İzmir.
Could you please tell about your domestic and international sales activities? To which regions and what kind of products does Mapei mainly sell?
As Mapei Turkey, we serve the market with 16 different product groups brought together under 4 main groups. Our countrywide sales operations proceed through a network of more than 120 dealers who have specialised in Ceramic Line, Building Line, Restoration, Thermal Insulation & Coating Line product groups.
As the world leader in the production of adhesives & grouts, we offer our ceramic line products through a carefully selected top-line ceramic dealer network.
We are in a significant number of major projects in Turkey such as; İstanbul 3rd Airport, 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, Marmaray, Galataport and different district hospitals. With the support of our selected dealers, we provide timely and precise services to construction sites all around Turkey.
Our expert applicators and technical support team ensures that our products are used correctly in the projects.
As Mapei Turkey, we are aware of the importance of our strategic location and for this reason, we make sure to include neighboring countries to our medium-to-long term business plans.
With a highly qualified and dedicated team - from marketing to finance, from logistics to all other commercial departments – we have started to run commercial operations with Caucasian countries, Qatar and Ukraine and our aim is to expand these operations to near-east and in the long term to far-east within the frame of Mapei’s global policy.
Could you please give information about Mapei’s innovation and R&D studies?
The primary objective of our commitment to research is to supply users with innovative and safe solutions in construction sites, including the most complex ones. 12% of Mapei Group’s employees are involved in research and we channel 5% of our annual turnover into R&D.
Mapei’s research scientists work within a global network of 28 main Centres, with our Corporate Research Centre in Milan acting as a central analysis laboratory and central hub to coordinate the activities of the other 27 laboratories.
They also provide support to the Technical Services Department to help solve all the problems and reply to the most complicated requests from our customers, and are supported by the quality control laboratories present in all Mapei Group’s 79 production facilities.
Can you give information about Mapei’s environmental policy and sustainability approach?
The ability to offer eco-sustainable and certified solutions to save the environment is a fundamental commitment for Mapei. Safeguarding the environment by uniting quality architecture with sustainability is important to us.
We provide products and solutions that are safe, reliable and durable over the years and which have the lowest impact possible on the environment.
As Mapei, we make a substantial contribution to the concept of “green” building by formulating products made from innovative, recycled and ultra-lightweight raw materials, specifically developed to reduce energy consumption and to have very low emission levels of volatile organic compounds.
Through the development of products with improved mechanical performance characteristics and durability, we allow construction members and structures to be fabricated with a longer service life; leading to a reduction of waste materials and lower consumption of materials and energy for their construction.
To be closer to the concept of eco-sustainability we have developed solvent-free products with low emission of Volatile Organic Compounds which can guarantee a high good indoor quality where they are applied both for the applicators and for the end- users.All Mapei products meet the standards of GEV (Gemeinschaft Emissionskontrollierte Verlegewerkstoffe, Klebstoffe und Bauprodukte e.V.), an international organisation for controlling the level of emissions from products used for floors.
Could you give information about the investments you have made up today? Does Mapei have any investment plans in near and far future?
For the past 5 years, we have been improving our dealer and applicator network via continuous trainings – both theoretical and practical - in our plant. Within this year, we installed a new production line to our plant in Polatlı to produce cement additives and it has been operating since August.
Additionally, we planned to increase our market share with our epoxy-based and cement- based decorative coating products and to increase our operations in the Marine Industry.
With our newly developed product group for LVT - which is becoming a highly popular trend - we propose a complete range of systems for vinyl tiles on walls and floors. Our plan from now on is to grow to become the market leader with our products that have proven their quality in the projects and markets all around the world.
We will continue to introduce the Turkish market with innovative products developed by Mapei within the scope of our yearly strategic plans.
