We had a pleasant interview with Ravago Chemicals Turkey’s Commercial Director, Duygu İçingir Çapar, about Ravago Chemicals sales activities and policies.
Could you please tell us about yourself and your professional background in the sector?
After graduating from Istanbul University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering in 1996, I completed the Master of Business Administration and Economics program at Istanbul University. First of all, I would like to summarize my business life
that has been going on for more than 20 years. First of all, Mefar İlaç Sanayii A.Ş. I started working in the company. For 7 years, I took part in different positions as IPK Chief, Production Chief and Deputy Production Manager, respectively. Then, due to the rise of sales and marketing, I made a radical decision and started to continue my career journey in a different direction.
Tara Kimya A.Ş., which imports chemical raw materials in 2004. I started to work in the company and worked as a “Paint and Cosmetics Sales Representative” for 1.5 years. In 2006, I joined the family of Ravago Chemicals Turkey (formerly Kemiropa Foreign Trade and Market Taş. Ltd.Şti.). I held various positions such as “Cosmetic Sales Representative”, “Cosmetic Business Unit Manager”, “Industry Business Unit Manager” and “Commercial Director”. I still continue my business life as “Commercial Director” at Ravago Chemicals Turkey.
Could you please give information about the fields in which your company operates and its organization in Turkey?
Ravago Chemicals Turkey is an exclusive base distributor and agent of global manufacturers and suppliers for various markets. We have a very strong historic partnerships of supplier and products portfolio and we are constantly growing with our experienced sales team. Our daily goal is to offer the market best quality products at most economic conditions without compromising our focus customers, product quality and
innovation.
Ravago was founded in 1961 in Belgium and grew into a comprehensive service provider to the petrochemical industry. Over the years, the ambition of global expansion and market leadership in polymer and chemical distribution, recycling and compounding and building materials became a reality. Through its production activities and the acquisition of chemical distribution companies. As of today, Ravago is global company with more than 50,000 active customers through 325+ locations across more than 55+ countries. This all would not have been possible without the help of its 8,000 employees. present in 55 countries with 1200 employees.
Our Turkey organization of group companies is in production of plastics, insulation materials for building industry and sales of specialty chemicals and additives which is carried by us. We joined the Ravago Chemicals family in 2016 when our company
at that time Kemiropa was fully acquired by Ravago, since then we grew by almost four times in revenues and continue to grow through our new mergers and acquisitions in the chemical distribution sectors. During its evolution, Ravago has always put relentless
emphasis on its four values; human focus, professionalism, entrepreneurship, and humility, therefore we always follow these company’s principles that define who we are, what we stand for and how we want to be perceived.
What are the product groups you serve as Ravago Chemicals?
As Ravago Chemicals Turkey, we are very active in supplying specialty chemicals and additives in wide range of applications eg all type of paints and coatings, inks, construction chemicals, plastics, rubber, composites, asphalt, paper, lubricants, textiles, leather, agriculture, personal care and cosmetics, food, industrial cleaning and detergents.
Looking at our comprehensive product groups as Indrsutrial Chemicals BU, we can name
calcinated kaolins, acrylates, acrylics, alkyds and PU resins, defoamers, wetting agents, starch esters, glass bubbles, solvents, PTFE dispersions, natural and PTFE waxes, PE waxes, colloidal silicas, acids, aluminium pigment pastes, catalysts, silicones, thickeners, dryers, monomers, reology additives, adhesion promoters, surfactants, flame retardants and antivirus additives.
Could you please talk about your sales activities? Which regions do you mostly sell to?
Thanks to our broad logistics and warehouse network all around Turkey, we make day deliveries covering the whole geography. Majority of our sales team has background and education in chemistry or chemical engineering. We provide value added service with our
in-house expertise and continuous focus on safety and reliability. Our technically trained sales force has long-term experience. Therefore, we are able to develop and provide specific formulations and solutions for our valued partners.
Could you please tell us about your application laboratory and activities?
We have a R&D center in our Taysad production site which started in 2017 with 3,5 million usd investment. We also have application laboratory for industrial applications and personal care and cosmetics. In our distribution business, we constantly collaborate with the R&D department of our global suppliers. This way we strive to be a solution provider for the technical issues our customers may encounter.
As a global distributor, what are the points you pay attention to in order to better serve your customers and protect your quality?
Our primary target is always to offer the market latest technology and innovations products and projects as it’s our corporate policy and commitment to protection of human health and enviroment, therefore we introduce tomorrow’s products starting from today to make difference for our customers in their work with green solutions.
We want to take a stance on sustainability by sharing our interpretation, what it means to us and how we aim to make a difference on a global scale. We are very selective with our suppliers and we work with all of them on exclusive agreements. We strongly beleive that we make right choices of new product portfolios thanks to our expert technical team and our strong partnership with our customers.
Could you please talk about your environmental and occupational health policies?
We have all the necessary and required certifications of ISG and all our employees have periodic trainings and tests of ISG and enviroment protection. While having an extensive warehousing and logistics operations we always take the necessary actions in order to prevent any kind of negative impact on enviroment and human health without compromising in our work quality in consistent service to our customers.
Will there be a new or prioritized product or products that you will introduce at paintistanbul & Turkcoat?
Among our new focus products, there are “Coalescent Agent”, “MEKO”, “Epoxy Resin”, “Hydrocarbon Resin”, TGIC”, “Benzoin”, “Chlorinated Paraffin”, “Attapulgite Clay”, “HMEC”, “Redispersible Powder” alongside with many innovative, sustainable and environment friendly products (Green Solutions) such as “Biobased Resin & Softener”, SelfCleanning, Anti-Viral and Anti-Bacterial”.
Could you please tell us once more about the focal point of Ravago Chemicals Turkey?
We utilise all available marekting medias to keep our leadership position in the market. We have implemented all necessary technological and communication tools at a very eary stage and all our employees had the ability to reach all the necessary datas during the pandemic period by our measures taken at a very early stages. Our first and foremost goal is to support our customers’ technical needs with our experienced technical sales team. With continuous market research and product development, we provide their requirements and new trends in the market in a fast, quality, standard and in constant process.
As Ravago, we move forward with family spirit by prioritizing our main values of human focus, professionalism, entrepreneurship, and humility. By keeping up with the unstoppable growth and progress of the chemical industry with company acquisitions, we are building our Ravago Chemicals awareness in a solid and permanent way.
Our company puts the most importance to social and gender equality with the number of women working in its staff, both globally and in Turkey. While the number of women working globally is increasing day by day and it is 44%, globally while this figure is 76%
in Ravago Chemicals Turkey. In addition, we plan to bring our customers together with our suppliers from abroad on a platform other than the exhibition, by organizing seminars as we call “Innovation Day” for the industry sector and make these events more our company tradition.
What are your predictions and goals for 2022?
Like in 2021, we still are under a global pandemic situation, effected by increasing logistics and transport costs, shortages of many chemicals create a very challenging 2022 for all of us. We continue to do our outmost best under these conditions as we always do and look optimistic towards the future. We have no doubt that the trend of growing our business will
continue also in 2022. We have a very strong support from global Ravago Chemicals team and from our local managent which gives us the strength and energy to ensure our success as a team We continue to provide uninterrupted service to the related sectors with our industry group 7 Istanbul and 1 Izmir location team among our 21 experienced and technical employees.
