We had a pleasant interview with Mr. Semih İşçimenler, the General Manager of
Prosim Kimya, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Mr. İşçimenler shared with us valuable information about the company’s activities, sustainability policy, future goals and the production company Polimer Ar Ge they established.
Could you please tell us about yourself and your professional background so that our readers can get to know you?
I come from a family that has been working in the production and trade of chemical raw materials for 3 generations. When I was a teenager, I used to produce PVAc
adhesive in my grandfather’s chemical factory and give them to my friends at school.
Thanks to my interest in chemistry, I continued my education in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Boğaziçi University. While I was studying at university in Istanbul, I supported my father in the sales of the products at his company. After university, I worked with my father for a while and then in 1997, my wife and I founded Prosim Kimya, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
While our agency and trading business was developing, we established our Joint Venture company in 2006 to produce polyester resin in Turkey with Reichhold Inc. We have grown our production business, and then, in order to be more competitive in export markets and to develop new technological products, we first acquired Reichhold Turkey’s shares and started investing in a new factory in 2015.
In 2017, we commissioned our Polimer Ar Ge factory to produce saturated and unsaturated polyester resins with the highest available technology in the Western world.
Today, while Prosim Kimya continues to trade raw materials, as Polimer Ar Ge, we continue with the production of saturated and unsaturated polyester resins, also with our producer partner İlkalem.
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Mr. Semih İşçimenler, the General Manager of
Prosim Kimya[/caption]
Could you please share the founding story of Prosim and its fields of activity?
I worked at my father’s manufacturing company between 1994 and 1997,and then in 1997, we decided to establish our own company Prosim Kimya, with my wife, Yakut İşçimenler, in order to grow in different sectors that we believe to grow faster and bigger.
Today, as we are celebrating our company’s 25th anniversary, we are proud to be the market leader in many product groups that we are active. We continue our business plan with our excellent partners Özlem Çınar, Sema Ertan and Görkem Beşer, who have been in our group companies over 20 years and who have successfully joined our journey with great value.
Today our biggest goal is to produce chemical raw materials which are imported or not
manufactured in Turkey. We are chasing our ambitious goals by working hard with patience.
Prosim Kimya provides chemical raw materials to powder coatings, liquid coatings, printing inks, composite, engineering plastics, EPS-XPS, plastic masterbatch and construction chemicals industries.
In addition to our agency and trading business, we produce saturated and unsaturated polyester resins for powder coating, coil coatings and composite industries within our new factory Polimer Ar Ge.
What are your product groups that you offer to the paint industry?
Prosim Kimya being the agent and distributor of 40 world leader international chemical companies in Turkey serves to liquid coatings, powder coatings, printing inks, composite, engineering plastics, plastic masterbatch industries.
We supply high performance organic and inorganic pigments, metallic pigments, silica matting agents, micronized waxes, rheology and anti-settling agents, anti-corrosion additives, epoxy resins, epoxy hardeners, UV & AO additives, melamine formaldehyde
resins, silicone resins, catalysts, and many more special additive agents to coating industry.
Beside our agency and trading business , we also serve our customers by producing saturated and unsaturated polyester resin from our manufacturing plant Polimer
Ar Ge, which was constructed in Arslanbey Organized Industrial Zone with the highest available technology in the western world.
Could you please talk about your R&D activities and what are the opportunities you allocate to these studies?
In our new resin polymerization plant we have been actively carrying out our R&D activities for over 4 years. We continue our product development activities with our technical and engineering team and polymer experts and chemical doctors. Our R&D laboratory operates
24x7, and our R&D team works day and night, constantly synthesizing products to develop alternates to imported products.
As a result of these studies, we not only produce better alternatives to imported products,
but we also produce various bio and regenerated raw material base polymers for paint and composite resins industries. We also carry out projects on new polymer technologies with our global clients.
With our growing sales network, we export our polyester resin products and additives to European countries such as France, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Austria.
As Prosim, you have a wide supply network. Could you please convey the prominent features of your supply network?
We supply products manufactured by the world’s leading chemical companies in their fields to our customers. The business partners of Prosim Kimya must be good companies that are leaders in their field, as well as adding value to our customers in technology and cost.
With this understanding, we try to take part in our customers’ product development projects. Prosim provides technical and commercial services to Turkey’s leading and innovative companies with supplier-managed inventory, agency and distribution network of variety of products that are also complementing each other.
In addition, we support environmental policies by making bio-based products in the sectors we serve, with sustainability action plans and reducing carbon footprint.
What are the points you pay attention to in order to keep customer satisfaction at the highest level?
We always aim to meet our customers’ expectations for quality and technical support with our business partners and to take part in our customers’ business projects with our high-quality advanced products.
We closely follow the trend in the industry and try to satisfy our customers with our quality management and energy management systems. In addition, we follow sustainable development goals to minimize the potential damage to the environment with low carbon footprint products.
Could you please share Prosim’s sustainability policy? What are your works for a more sustainable future?
As a 3rd generation business entrepreneur, I am aware that our resources are decreasing in the world and that we have a responsibility to deliver a better world to future generations. We have a policy to support students for higher quality education in Turkey aiming the correct use of these valuable resources and not to waste the investment on young generations.
We also have continuous internal trainings for all our employees since awareness and correct act can only be developed by high quality education. We know very clearly and share with all our members and partners that future generations will pay a much higher
price for the mistakes that we make today.
Therefore, it is very important to take action today and we give priority to informing all our members in this direction. Our company Polimer Ar Ge was awarded silver medal from the international sustainability platform EcoVadis, and we have received 5 certificates in the
fields of Quality, Environment, Occupational Safety and Health, Information Management and Energy Management in 5 years.
Our group companies’ sustainability policies are;
• Continuously improving the environmental, health and safety information and performance of our technologies, processes and products throughout their life cycles in order not to harm people and the environment,
• Minimizing the waste by using the resources efficiently,
• Being clear about our performance, achievement, and shortcomings,
• Interacting with all our stakeholders to understand and solve their concerns and expectations,
• Cooperating with governments and organizations and taking part in the development and implementation of effective regulations and standards,
• Promoting responsible chemical management for all those who manage and use chemicals throughout the product chain.
We have entered the last months of 2022. What are your evaluations for this year and your goals for 2023?
2022 was a very difficult year due to both the global economy and political reasons, and unfortunately it looks like it will continue to be so for a while. It is like a stress test for all countries. Bu I strongly believe, Turkey has and will always come out such challenges
by growing and getting stronger.
I expect that after the second half of 2023, Turkey will be a country that continues to grow and has a stronger industrial manufacturing position in the world market, and we, as Prosim Kimya, will take our place in this growth. In addition, we are in discussion with two very big global chemical manufacturers in order to be able to produce two important products in Turkey.
We hope and work hard to bring such investments into Turkey. My message is; Turkey could only grow and take its deserved position at global level with hard work. I believe
that this principle should be implanted into all young generations.
We will continue to work harder for our country wishing that locally manufactured
products would have priority by Turkish companies such as in South Korea and Germany. Future generations will be the product of todays’ businessmen who continuously work, invest, and support education.
