Hello Mr Erdem. As a company, can you share with us your strategies and targets for export in the lift sector?

Hello. We are trying to sell the lift, which is an electromechanical solution that we have difficulty in expressing the technical-commercial parts correctly and completely even in our own culture and system, to completely different cultures and people in different structures in these cultures, where ordinary citizens can hardly get directions and even have difficulty in expressing what they want to eat. We try to complete these products, which are perceived as purely commercial by investors but are in fact purely technical solutions, fully and completely on the basis of accepted global product standards and our total quality values, with our engineering perspective, to make the first sale to the right-reliable and financially suitable customer and to ensure regular continuity after the first order.

Considering the difficulty of creating qualified staff in today's economic conditions and in the region where we are located with limited labour force, we have made great efforts for 2 years to reach the current situation. We are gradually reaching the stages where we will reap the rewards of this effort. As you know, as the late Vehbi Koç said, a factory can be established in 3 years. In our factory, which has been actively producing for only 1 year, we have crowned hundreds of elevators, starting with DAĞ Holding construction sites, giving products to dozens of assembly companies in the domestic market, and exporting to nearly 20 countries. By evaluating the 'feedback' from these places one by one and without skipping, we continued our efforts to increase the total quality with customer complaint / problem notification meetings, where we fully emphasised all positive / negative details. At the same time, after bringing the factory to the stage where we can produce and ship the factory in full and complete, as we foresee and plan in 2021, we set out with the strategy of introducing ourselves to our customers with domestic and international fairs, which we expect to be in 2023, by trying the first productions in our own projects and companies in the domestic market, creating an export team consisting of honest and correct characters, and our strategy of providing effective entry to the foreign market. Our domestic fair was very productive and successful, and we received very positive feedback from the market. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to directly explain our products and systems to our customers by participating in fairs in Morocco and Russia. We want to continue this with other fairs in the coming year. Based on all these issues, our goal is to become one of the few most important manufacturers of our country in this sector by further developing and maintaining the perception of "reliable and robust manufacturer that does not compromise on quality, provides accurate and complete products" that we have established even in our first 2 years in the sector.

Competition in the sector is quite intense. As a company, how do you evaluate the competition in the export market? Also, in this context, has your competition as a company been able to gain a place in the world beyond the borders of your country or do you have such a target?

We have a very enterprising structure as a nation. For this reason, while there are only around 600 lift companies in Europe, new lift companies are established in our country even in the worst economic conditions. It is obvious that the general expenses and operation of a facility like ours, which has a production capacity of 2000 complete lift systems per year installed on 25 thousand square metres, and a facility where 2-3 people will serve with a laser and a press brake do not compete under the same conditions. Here, the customer should definitely know that he/she will have to pay a little extra based on the size and reliability of the facility. However, this does not happen in practice. Marketing and sales are the backbone of a company and its face to the outside. A salesman can never market a product he does not believe in correctly. Firstly, he/she must believe himself/herself. We provide what is required of us in the specification. It takes years of work to build the reputation, but it is a moment to break it. Our aim is to apply the rules of trade correctly, to give the product we have committed to our customers in full and complete, and to receive the return on time and in full. Here, it is our main duty to protect both the customer and our company. We do not have a price-orientated sales policy. Without compromising the product, sometimes important projects can be approached strategically differently. However, today's companies that are price- oriented, which depend on a few lifts to be sold that day, confuse the customers' minds and unfortunately disrupt the price and payment method balances of the whole sector. The final choice here is the customer's, it is important that the customer has the knowledge and equipment to compare the added value of the product he/she buys outside the price focus. Otherwise, we constantly encounter export customers who have problems with their suppliers. Without even turning to alternative suppliers in Turkey, the logic of "I will not buy from Turkey again" both undermines our trade and lowers our country score globally. We need to put a stop to this all together.

Which are the leading markets in Turkey's lift exports, what position do you have in these markets, to which countries and markets do you export? Which regions are your strongest in exports?

Our desire and goal is to reach the whole world. Step by step, we are developing our market in this way. In our first orders, we naturally focused on our existing portfolios. Based on the positive feedback and our fair performances, we started to make agreements with completely new customers. Taking into account the current balances in the global market, we have made various certificate purchases for the Middle East-Russian Regions-Africa-Balkans and Eastern Europe regions, which we see as potential, and we have expressed ourselves directly to the customers in a correct and effective way with point shot country visits. We are only a 2-year old company, we are still in the stages of introducing ourselves correctly and showing our quality and system with the first trial orders. We anticipate that the establishment of the brand will take 2025. In this way, we continue to work hard without compromising on quality.

What are your strategies for entering new markets? What kind of competitive advantage do you gain by establishing collaborations or partnerships in exports?

As in our own culture, customers, wherever they are in the world, prefer solution partners that they can easily reach upon request by establishing eye and elbow contact with people from their own language and culture. Independent from the companies that reduce both their own brand and country values to zero with price-oriented one-off spot sales, we localise globally and ensure that the right contacts in that region are actively engaged in sales/assembly/periodic maintenance there by training them here when necessary and teaching them our jargon. We take care to compete with the market in the country we are sending to, not with our neighbouring companies in our country. The aim should not be to deceive the customer of the factory next door, small aims do not bring us anywhere, when we look at the big picture, a total of 200 countries use elevators and the market is big. While we only produce a few thousand elevators, the global need is expressed in hundreds of thousands. Especially the right moves we will make as a country in this period of serious opportunities will move this sector from the focus of saving the day in general to the point of investing in R&D and innovation by earning money. Turkey, which has been serving in this sector for years, has unfortunately not been able to offer any innovative new solutions with a price and delivery time orientated approach, and has not been able to exhibit an approach beyond copying and selling the solutions of various European companies.

As a company, what kind of expertise do you have in the production and export of elevators, what are your differences from other competitors and what are the unique advantages you offer to attract your customers?

We have been operating in our sector for 2 years, our most important strength here is that we are a subsidiary of Dağ Holding, which has been operating in our country for 30 years. We are part of a strong family that has produced over 40,000 houses, received awards from many global organisations, and provided thousands of jobs to our country. This gives confidence to both us and the companies we work with. Trust is one of the most needed issues in the period we live in. From a technical point of view, it is the principle of being an "engineering" company that we take as a basis in production. In addition to being a material supplier, many of our colleagues in senior management, including myself, come from assembly and project management. This means that we can look at the situation from the point of view of the assembly companies to which we send the material. Imagine that we send a car disassembled to the garage of the purchaser. We are companies that work in this way. In automotive, the complete vehicle comes off the belt in seconds and the key is given to the customer. In our case, everything is tailor-made according to the given lift shaft. Very, very elaborate and "art" work, unfortunately, cannot see the value it deserves in our country due to the inability of small companies with thousands of technical backgrounds to explain it correctly and the lack of commercial knowledge. For this reason, even if you offer value-added products and solutions, it becomes the determining factor of the sector thanks to the buyers who use the wrong strategies of these small companies. Cheaper materials and cheaper solutions, including global companies, appear as a general point of view.

You operate in a rapidly changing environment in the business world. What will be the path you will follow as a company while these changes are developing in the foreign market, how do you plan to offer innovative products and solutions to customers?

Our production depends on global construction projects. No one foresaw the pandemic period, all targets were suddenly reset. Martial law can suddenly be declared in the countries you set while making annual target analyses and budgets. Or a serious natural disaster, war situation, etc. We may encounter various consequences. The negativities experienced by China and Russia and the Western society, the Ukraine-Russia war, China's increasing prices and customers' search for alternative suppliers, the development of general demands in Africa. Within all these uncertainties experienced globally, it is also a process to make new building investments, to bring the rough work to a point and to start purchasing elevators, and as an elevator operator, it is also a process to wait for this process. As I mentioned in the previous question, in this period when inflation and price increases are constantly being experienced all over the world, even my customers, with whom I have been discussing the price issue in the third and fourth plan for years, ask us for a price reduction, and the key opener of the market is prices above 90%, as I mentioned in the previous question, it prevents R&D for innovative solutions, and innovation is restricted to the issue of negotiating with suppliers in the "economic" product.

Countries have their own laws, as a company, what approach do you adopt to comply with the local legislation and standards of the countries you export to other than your own country, is the process difficult?

First of all, some countries have product certification processes for product approvals. We are very sensitive about this issue, we take care to complete these issues with the right companies. There are also countries that require certificates according to the shipments, we are prepared for this issue and we carry out our regular checks.

How do you plan logistics and distribution processes in your export activities? What measures do you take to ensure timely delivery to customers?

Since the day we started our business life, we have never committed to any of our customers the product that we cannot give at the desired time, we do not give. Every job has a value and a reasonable time. Unfortunately, the commitments given to the customers in the dimension of "we will do it, we will handle it" that do not stand on the ground are constantly coming to our table, we convey the right time to them in writing with a work programme and by clearly and clearly stating the pinpoints. In this way, we convey the bad scenario from the beginning and proceed in the direction of not being embarrassed at the end of the work. We also follow the information that the works, which are given very ambitious deadlines in the works that we cannot get, cannot be done on time, penalties are paid, and the work is more expensive than it is worth, and we feel sorry for our country on behalf of the situation. In cases where our work programme is accepted, we collect material purchases within 3 working days without wasting time, and in this way, we concentrate on our production without being affected by fluctuating prices, and we make the shipment and management in the shortest and healthiest time under the leadership of our planning department, which includes our industrial engineers.

What factors come to the fore in your customers' export preferences and what approach do you adopt to meet these demands? What strategy have you determined to establish long-term relationships with your international customers, what kind of competitive advantage do you gain by establishing cooperation and partnerships in exports?

Our philosophy is, "The work is in the eye of the beholder". In this way, our customers are aware of the way we handle the work at the beginning and at the end of the work. Our sales team are the representatives and followers of our customers within the company. The planning group follows the ERP process with all departments and forces all the necessary opportunities to fulfil our commitments on time. The work we do is the guarantee of what we will do. In general, our customers who make their first trial order with us continue to trade with us unless there is a financial or technical problem with them.

Which factors come to the fore in the lift preferences of your foreign customers and how do you respond to customer demands during the export process?

Our companies that plan, pay and send the team to the field for assembly, if there is a delay in the product, if the product is faulty, if there is missing material, they are in great trouble. We know this problem very well as former project managers. We make product-shipment and delivery in a way that will not cause this problem. When receiving requests, we receive all actual technical data in writing from our customers in detail, actively listen to our customers, determine their needs and offer appropriate solutions.

How do you approach the export process to ensure customer satisfaction? How do you evaluate customer feedback and how do you use this feedback to improve your products?

Our "Customer Complaint & Problem Notification Meetings" are a must. The customer who returns to us and informs us about any error is the crown of honour. Regular weekly meetings are held in order to follow up and close this error or the issue that needs to be corrected, customers are regularly informed that it has been closed, and confirmation is received from the customer that this issue has been closed in the next order. We also list the corrections realised by the team, other than the customer, under the name of problem notification and we meet regularly to close these issues as well. Many problem reporting issues end with product development.

How do you define the difficulties of this process in terms of competition and market search, what are the difficulties you face as a company and what do you do to overcome these difficulties?

We have full confidence in ourselves and our parent company Dağ Holding. Unfortunately, the total quality achieved in the company is not enough. As a society, we need to go a long way in this regard. Turkey has the potential, power and determination to be number 1 not only in the lift sector but in all sectors, and we can see this by looking at the past. In this regard, our breakthroughs and success in the defence industry are obvious. Imagine that it spreads to all sectors and all of them are progressing with this power and order. Wouldn't that be nice?

What are your future export targets? How do you plan to respond to the demands of the market and how do you aim to expand your export activities?

Solutions such as our Bayraktar İha and Siha have created a new market. We can think of many examples of this for different sectors. Electric vehicles, smart phones, smart watches, etc.

Unfortunately, the lift sector is in a very simple situation where even a passing entrepreneur can start immediately and get results. It has become a sector where nothing innovative has been done for years, where the same system products have been sold since the 90s, when MRL solutions started, with cliché satin stainless decoration and many products produced without thinking.

Independent lifts in the same shaft offered by a few global companies as innovative, systems that can make horizontal direction instead of vertical with magnet systems, no matter how much effort is made, cheap solutions receive the necessary attention in the market.

We are expanding our export team, we are progressing on our expansion targets step by step with fairs, symposiums, planned visits to the relevant countries, our references and our correct reputation.

Could you give information about your export activities for the first 6 months of 2023?

We started the year with a lively start, as of this month, there is a lethargy on the customer side brought by the summer, and we have turned to the production of the orders we have, our shipments continue to increase, the market is getting to know us better day by day, and in this way, our portfolio is expanding.

Is this year's data favourable or unfavourable compared to the same period last year? Could you share your projections for the year-end 2023 based on these data?

Considering that we have just started production compared to last year, we are confident that our progress to much better points this year will be a harbinger of our success in the coming years. I would like to conclude my remarks by wishing for the days when our sector achieves total quality, attaches importance to R&D and innovation, and appeals to customers in the top lane not only with price but also with quality.