In the interview we held, Kalekim General Manager Mr. Timur Karaoğlu answered
our questions. Karaoğlu drew attention to the importance that Kalekim attaches
to R&D and gave information about the innovative brands which are developed
in line with consumer needs.
Could you please briefly tell us about yourself, your educational and professional background?
I graduated from Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Construction Engineering in 1998 and complete Istanbul Technical University’s Construction Engineering Post-Graduate program in 2000. After I completed my compulsory military service, I started work in Kale
Marketing, one of the Kale Group’s companies. Structural changes were made at the company 2 years later and the Producer Companies Sales and Marketing Department took me on. As I was already involved with Kalekim in Kale Marketing, I was transferred to Kalekim as sales office after the change. As a result of my sales-focused duties, I was added to the Kaleseramik team as Distribution Channel Sales Manager in 2008. I became Vice President of Sales in 2013 then Sales Assistant General Manager in 2017, after which I went back to Kalekim for the position of Sales and Marketing Assistant General Manager. Afterward, I started working as Kalekim General Manager, and I have been in this position for more than 2 years now.
Could you please give information about Kalekim’s history and milestones? What is the current structure of Kalekim today?
Kalekim was founded by doyen industrialist Dr. Ibrahim Bodur, the founder of the Kale Group of Companies, which has contributed so much to Turkey’s development. Today, we have production factories both at home and abroad. Our production activities take place
in 9 factories, two in Balikesir and 1 each in Istanbul, Yozgat, Isparta, Mersin, Erzurum, and Mardin, and 1 in Tirana, the capital of Albania. We make dry mortar in eight of them and we make paint and plaster in one (Balikesir). As of 31 December 2020, our dry mortar capacity was 930,000 tonnes and our paint/plaster capacity was 50,000 tonnes.
To which industries and with what kind of products does Kalekim mainly serve? Could you please give information about Kalekim’s products, brands and services?
As the leader in Turkey’s construction chemicals industry, Kalekim has become a generic name in the construction chemicals industry thanks to its innovative, environmentally friendly, and sustainable products. Our company started out producing ceramic adhesives and joint fillers in its first years as part of the Kale Group; today it has a wide range of products used in the construction sector from thermal insulation and waterproofing products to paint and plaster and all kinds of floor solutions.
Then, there is our innovative Bi’Boya brand, which we have developed in-house in line with consumer needs. Bi’Boya is a young brand that we have brought to life with Kalekim assurance, and with it, we add color to our customer’s living spaces. The latest product to be added to our broad range is our new brand, Visuelle, which we developed with a focus on design in line with changing market needs and launched in September. We believe that Visuelle, which is the combination of Kalekim’s powerful roots and innovative spirit, is going to bring dynamism to the decorative coating industry.
Could you please tell about your domestic and international sales activities? To which regions and what kind of products does Kalekim mainly sell?
Exports and investment abroad matter a great deal to us at Kalekim. Our foreign sales made up 29.6% of the company’s total turnover in 2020 and we consider increasing them further to be a strategic goal in the period ahead.
The Middle East is a key market for us due to the ease of logistics. In that region, we are strong in Iraq, particularly northern Iraq. We are still active in southern Iraq, though relatively less so. Here, too, we have oriented our growth plan and investments toward the
Middle East together with this region. In addition to that, we are taking various steps to increase our export markets. Some of them are under way right now. We have an investment that we are serving to the export markets in Mersin. In addition to Iraq, we are pressing ahead with our production capacity expansion activities here to counter potential capacities from regions such as Syria, Egypt, and Libya.
Could you please give information about Kalekim’s innovation and R&D studies? Do you have any projects that were developed in the context of university - industry cooperation?
We at Kalekim attach considerable importance to R&D activities by keeping innovation at the forefront in all our processes from the products we make to the services we offer. It is not just completion of the product range in line with our company strategies that is seen
as a key strategy for Kalekim R&D, but also the development of products that could be a first in Turkey.
Our R&D division was registered as an R&D Center by the Ministry of Science, Industry, and Technology in 2017 and possesses one of the best-equipped laboratories in the industry. It is a center that operates at European standards with a team made up of experts in
their field and its technical equipment and infrastructure worth TL 9.5 million. Kalekim’s R&D division was registered as an R&D Center by the Ministry of Science, Industry, and Technology in 2017. This paved the way for the division to be able to benefit from the Ministry’s various incentives. Our R&D division completed development work on 23 products in 2017, 68 in 2018, 53 in 2019, and 67 in 2020 within the scope of our government-backed innovative products and our collaboration with our country’s key universities.
Could you give information about Kalekim’s environmental policy and sustainability approach? What kind of works and studies are performed in the area of worker health and safety?
We have been paving the way in our sector with our human-centered innovative products and practices for the past 48 years now. As a company that respects mankind and the environment and that adds sustainable value to society, we are working to always give our customers the best and the newest without compromising on quality in any stage of production.
Its sustainability approach is a perspective the Kale Group and its companies have internalized, prioritized, and brought to life through their activities since the years they were founded. The Kale Group calls this perspective “respect for mankind and the environment” from its Common Cause. Kalekim has created its “#TakeGoodCareOfYourWorld” policy to generate a common understanding within the Kale Group as a whole and to support its strategies. The Take Good Care of Your World Policy was given meaning with the slogan “Your Home is Your World, The World is Your Home” and stands out as an approach that has been integrated into Kale Group values and encompasses all stakeholders. This is why the “Take Good Care of Your World” movement, which the Kale Group began, shines a light on us and illuminates our way in creating a sustainable future. Kalekim’s short-, medium-, and, long-term objectives and action plans have been revised on an Economic, Environmental, and Social basis as in the context of the Sustainability Strategy and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The objectives were identified based on the United Nations Sustainability Goals, the UN Global Compact, the Organizational Life Cycle, and Stakeholder needs and expectations.
By way of commendation of our work, we have twice been awarded the “Low Carbon Hero” award in the chemicals industry category, the first in 2019 and the second in 2021 by the Sustainable Production and Consumption Association (SÜT-D) within the scope of our VII. Istanbul Carbon E-Summit with our “Leave a Green Mark on the World” project. Our green conversion efforts such as our project in which we are trying to give nature room to
breathe by reducing our carbon emissions in many areas across the supply chain from purchase to shipping are going to increase and continue from now on.
We have set our priorities, our short-, medium-, and longterm objectives, and our action plans in the name of sustainability. We are going to press ahead with our work in line with the priorities, objectives, and action plans that we have set. We created the governance mechanisms for this process based on the aspects of sustainability (Economic, Environment, Social). The governance mechanisms include the Management Sustainability Committee, the Sustainability Ambassadors, the Sustainability Organization, the Volunteers Platform, the Study Groups on the Sustainability Aspects Basis, and so on.
What are the priority criteria of Kalekim when creating investment plans? Does Kalekim have any investment plans for near and far future?
Our priority objective, which we mentioned often when we were floated in 2021, is to be a larger and more powerful Kalekim both at home and abroad. We are continuing to work for even greater successes with the power and energy that our investors are giving us now in the construction chemicals industry, which we have led to date with our innovative products and practices. Kalekim’s success comes from making the right investments, having the right business plan, up-to-date logistics, and effective human resources. Our investments at home and abroad continue.
With our licensed production project that we began in Kenya in 2016, we adopted the license production model by forming local collaboration. This collaboration at the same time is our company’s first production base on the African continent and is the first example of this business model there. In addition to this, production is under way right now in our factory in Albania’s capital Tirana, which started operating in 2019 and produces 27,300 tonnes of dry mortar annually. We took our first step in our investments in Algeria by forming a 50-50% partnership with a local company.
And in Russia, we have started marketing activities by making warehouse investments in 2020 on behalf of our OOO Kalekim company. Similarly, we set up our Kalekim France Company in France this year. Finally, we have invested TL 23 million in an extra production line in Mardin OIZ for the production of our concentrated products that our foreign investors need. Furthermore, our Sarl Ha Building subsidiary in Algeria has had its government loan support approved.
