Hello Mr. Salih, would you like to talk about the organization of Vital Asansör in Turkey and around the world? What would you like to say briefly about your field of activity?

Our company, which is expanding its connections day by day, has opened new branches and expanded its connections in Europe and Africa, especially in the Russian region. Although our company has increased the foreign trade team working within its body, it has made and continues to make long-term agreements with the companies in the field. Our company started production with elevator doors; then it continues its way by producing other packing materials such as cabin, suspension, and elevator board. 

In the last stage, we help our customers with our complete elevator solutions. In the last stage, we help our customers with our complete elevator solutions. 

Would you like to talk about the new products added to your product and service range and the changes you have made to existing products if any?
We make new regulations and developments in existing products day by day. We expanded the panel section we opened in 2020. Our product has been greatly appreciated at home and abroad, and we are currently having a hard time growing orders. We aim to increase the capacity in the new season. Our experienced domestic and foreign trade team, which deals with the installation and operation of the elevator starting from the project design stage with the customers, provides immediate notification to the R & D department in case of any return in our customers and provides the necessary changes and developments immediately after presenting the possible solution to our customers. This puts us ahead of most competing companies. 

If we asked you, which product would you be the most assertive of in terms of production quality and competence?
I have a hard time deciding because we can't really compromise on production quality. However, I can show our semi-automatic and fully automatic elevator doors, which are one step ahead of the others, and among our most ambitious products. Our doors have proven themselves by working smoothly and quietly at home and abroad. Apart from this, our complete elevator solutions also make a difference. 

How do you define innovation? 
Innovation is discovering and being able to do what no one else is doing It takes expertise, talent, and courage. 

Can you give information about the current R&D activities in your company and your R&D unit?
A significant part of the work of our R&D unit is carried out by obtaining documents and certificates of our products and making tests and tests. Our elevator automatic doors have CE, EAC, and ISO certificates and fire resistance and pendulum test certificates. Our elevator systems have Module B certificates with NormLIFT and SlimLIFT brands. With the NormLIFT brand, we offer affordable normal elevator solutions for places with sufficient shaft dimensions. With the SlimLIFT brand, we create practical solutions with special designs in wells with limited dimensions.

What are your company's plans for R&D studies in the short and medium term?
Our company aims to increase the capacity of the R&D unit in the short term. We have new employees and continue to do so. We make improvements IN existing products. 

Our R&D engineers from A to Z are interested in the production structure of our company. In addition to producing quality and perfect products, this inevitably restricts our capacity. In the long term, our plan is to turn production into separate units with R&D units. Thus, we aim to obtain both perfect and error-free products and to provide faster solutions.

How do you evaluate the impact of your company's R&D operations on sales and export figures?
Although our R&D activities are not direct to our sales and export figures, their indirect contribution is very large. Especially in foreign companies, prejudices have been formed against Turkey due to the previous mistakes and deficiencies of some small-scale companies. Of course, this is a small part of the cake. However, it can still create a lack of trust in Turkey for customers. Therefore, customers make one-to-one company visits. After seeing the R&D unit and production, the prejudices of the guests who come to us are completely removed and trust is formed. 

If we put aside the initiatives of our important brands in the elevator sector, R&D is a slightly neglected area. What are the reasons for this and what do you think should actually happen?
R&D activities in the elevator sector have been neglected. One of the most important indirect reasons for this is especially the domestic competition conditions. Unfortunately, especially assembly and maintenance companies are in unfair competition. Assembly companies have also had to reduce expenses in order to protect competition and make profits. Therefore, this puts manufacturing companies in a difficult situation. Manufacturing companies also took their share of this unfair competition by minimizing the profit. However, the overseas market has been the savior of the manufacturing companies. 

Considering these competitive conditions, it seems quite difficult for small and medium-sized companies to invest in R&D activities. There is a lot of burden on the state here. The state needs to address competition, improve competition conditions and prevent unfair competition. In this way, I think that the R&D activities of companies will improve indirectly and investments will increase in the same way.

Do you have any new innovative products you are working on?
We have completed the prototypes of our 220 V home elevator product, which we are currently working on. We tried our best and then made the necessary corrections. We took 1 elevator tower to the 2022 TÜYAP fair, which we attended for the first time. It was extremely popular and appreciated.

What do you want to say about your company's short- and long-term goals? How was 2022 for you and what are your expectations for 2023?
The year 2022 was very productive for us. Although our year, which started intensively with the Tüyap fair held in March, seems to decrease a little due to the indecision in the market due to the Russia-Ukraine war afterward, when the environment of trust was provided afterward, there was an excessive intensity in order to complete the gap between them. We have reached our sales targets, we have decided that our capacity is not enough and we need to increase it. Therefore, one of our goals for 2023 is to increase our capacity.