Ms. Gülşah, how was Yükseliş Asansör's export performance in 2023, did you reach your export targets? Can you share your 2024 expectations or targets?

The year 2023 presented many opportunities for us. At Asansör Istanbul Fair, we exhibited for the first time 3 different types of gearless elevator motors, which we started mass production in 2023. We also introduced our other products to the visitors. The Horizontal Elevator with its special concept of Taksim Tunnel was one of our most popular products at the fair. Despite many global crises in 2023, we observed an increase in our export figures and reached our export targets for this year. We aim to increase our exports in 2024 as well. With our R&D studies, we are adding new products to our product range and improving our existing products. In 2024, we plan to add new countries to our portfolio and bring the Yükseliş brand to more countries around the world.

How much do you invest in your company's R&D and innovation activities to ensure differentiation and competitive advantage in global markets? What are the tangible effects of these investments on the product development process and your export performance?

Yükseliş Asansör attaches great importance to R&D and innovation activities. In 2020, we completed and put into use the construction of Phase 3, which includes the elevator test tower, administrative offices, elevator market, R&D center, showroom and motor factory. Our tower, which is currently 110 meters high, is the 3rd highest elevator test tower in Europe. We have also started mass production for gearless elevator motors. These investments have accelerated our company's product development process, raised quality and reliability standards, increased customer satisfaction and improved export performance. We have taken another step in our R&D investments and started working for the 4th stage. In this stage, we aim to continue engine production. With the construction of Stage 4, we will be able to allocate more resources to R&D activities, develop new products and technologies, and reinforce our innovative and leading position in the sector. In this sector, R&D activities increase the quality, safety, efficiency, environmental friendliness and competitiveness of products. With our R&D investments and efforts to expand our production area, we contribute to our customer-oriented operation. As we expand our capacity, we serve more people, thus producing more and increasing our exports.

What are the effects of the European Green Deal and related regulations on your company's production and export activities, and how do they affect your market choices and targets?

These regulations generally focus on environmentally friendly production and sustainability principles and aim to reduce carbon emissions. For our company to comply with these regulations required changing production processes. This change required new investments in terms of time, resources and costs. Customers are now tending towards more environmentally friendly products and services. In this situation, we started to focus on green technology and sustainable practices in order to build a more livable future.

In recent years, while many steps have been taken for green industry around the world, many policies on this issue in Turkey have been implemented in 2023. As a company, how do you plan to integrate sustainability and environmentally friendly practices into the elevator production process in 2024 within the framework of Turkey's green industrial policies?

2023 was a year in which we took many steps and made major investments on behalf of Green Industry. Our solar panels, which we activated in 2023, have an annual production capacity of 1,500,000 kWh and produce energy equal to the annual energy consumption of 1000 houses. We initially installed 6 charging stations for electric vehicles in our factory and started to add electric vehicles to our fleet. In this way, we meet most of the energy needs of our production facility from renewable sources and reduce our carbon footprint. In 2024, we plan to make improvements in areas such as energy and water efficiency, raw material efficiency, waste management, circular economy to make our elevator production process even more sustainable. We also plan to invest more in our R&D and innovation activities. We also aim to further expand our R&D activities to test new technologies and bring them to market.

How do investments in green technologies affect the competitiveness of your products in the European market?

Our use of green technologies in elevator systems attracts the attention of European companies. In addition, Europe has assumed a leading role in the world in terms of the use of green technology. European companies have started to choose their suppliers from sustainable companies. Our investments in Green Technologies have made it easier for us to further strengthen our current position in the European market.

How have fluctuations in global supply chain management and difficulties in procurement processes affected your company's production and export operations? What are the strategies you have implemented against these challenges?

Global supply chain management has experienced fluctuations and challenges in recent years due to various factors. These include the coronavirus pandemic, geopolitical tensions, trade wars, port and transportation issues, chip crisis, energy prices, climate change, customer expectations and competitive pressure. Issues such as increased energy and transportation costs, payment and delivery delays due to political problems have a negative impact on our production and export operations. Therefore, we developed more flexible and faster solutions to solve logistics and customs problems in the countries where we export our products. We optimized logistics costs and shortened deadlines.