Interview with Mr. Atalay Özdayı, General Manager of Baumit Turkey

In the interview we conducted, Atalay Özdayı, General Manager of Baumit Turkey, one of the sector's established companies, provided information about Baumit's operations both in Turkey and on a global scale.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and your professional background?

I was born in Istanbul in 1975. After completing my middle and high school education at Saint-Michel French High School, I graduated from the YTÜ Faculty of Architecture in 1997, which I entered in 1993. At the beginning of my career in the sector, I worked on various construction sites in both rough and finishing construction. Later, in 2003, I started working as a Sales Representative at Hafele, a German giant in door and furniture accessories. In the following years, I served as Product Manager and Sales Manager at Hafele before leaving in July 2007 to join GEZE, another German company. At GEZE, a major global brand in door closers, automatic sliding and revolving doors, smoke and heat exhaust systems and glazing systems, I served successively as Turkey Country Manager, Sales Director and General Manager. Since March 2015, I have been General Manager of Baumit Turkey, an Austrian company operating in thermal insulation systems and building chemicals. I am married and a father of two daughters aged 2 and 6.

Could you provide information about Baumit's founding process and the stages it has gone through to the present day? What is your company's current structure, considering production facilities, machinery fleet and number of employees, as well as data such as turnover and production volume?

Baumit is a company belonging to Schmid Industrie Holding Group. This internationally structured group operating in the building materials sector has a history spanning over 100 years. Schmid Industrie Holding is headquartered in Wopfing, Austria and is a family-owned business. The holding currently has more than 90 operations with a turnover of EUR 1.5 billion. Baumit is one of these operations. Founded in 1988, Baumit has become Europe's third-largest dry mortar producer with a capacity of 6.5 million tons across 40 factories in 30 European countries in just 25 years. Baumit, which annually performs thermal insulation on approximately 40 million square meters, is the largest thermal insulation system manufacturer for external facades in Central and Eastern Europe. With turnover of approximately EUR 1 billion, it is Schmid Industrie Holding's largest brand. In Turkey, we have been operating since 2006. The foundation of our Gebze production facility was laid in 2007 and the facility became operational in 2008. Opened with a total investment of EUR 14 million, the facility has an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons. Our production facility, which is extremely modern and technology-intensive, is among the sector's most advanced facilities. We plan all our activities to utilize our production facility and knowledge base most effectively. We focused on sustainably continuing the rapid growth figures we achieved in recent years and expanding our organization and operations alongside the numbers. Within this focus, we are developing new projects in the areas of team, product range, sales channels and marketing. We currently have a team of approximately 60 people.

Which sectors does Baumit mainly serve, and what types of products does it supply? Could you provide information about your company's products, brands and services?

Baumit's main activity is external facade thermal insulation systems, or facade insulation systems as we more frequently use the term in Turkey. As I mentioned in the previous answer, with our annual facade insulation system sales of approximately 40 million m² across all Baumit countries, our experience and expertise in this area continue to grow. We have significant work in the facade insulation field in Turkey as well. We strive to provide solutions tailored to the needs of our customers and business partners both in projects and in the renovation market. For this, we are making improvements in terms of both products and systems as well as services. In addition to external facade thermal insulation systems, Baumit Turkey's product range includes facade coatings and paints, mortars, joint compounds, tile adhesives and grouts, ready-mixed concrete and masonry mortars. Over the last two years, we have been differentiating ourselves particularly with our self-leveling compound product Nivello Quattro. Our product is preferred in many hospital and shopping mall store projects for its zero-crack feature.

What kind of work are you doing at Baumit in the areas of innovation and R&D? Do you have projects developed within the scope of university-industry cooperation, and if so, what are they?

Innovative and novel products enable industry development, allow users to access products at higher standards, and make it possible to live in healthier and more comfortable spaces. Baumit ranks among Europe's leading brands in product diversity and quality understanding in the building materials field. Different countries, different climate conditions, different needs; as Baumit Turkey, with the experience gained, we present innovative products developed and systems created for professionals to the market simultaneously with other countries where Baumit operates. R&D work is carried out at the Innovation Center located in Wopfing, Austria. This high-quality R&D center works on creating new products and product formulations for all Baumit facilities and improving existing products. This enables greater innovation for facades, better plaster and coating products for healthy indoor air quality, and the creation of materials that are far more durable in every way. In the future, facades, like all other materials and details used in buildings, will come to the forefront with their energy efficiency. We have cooperation with universities on product and material knowledge. We regularly visit universities to meet with students regarding dry mortars and thermal insulation systems, providing them with both technical and practical information. Over the last two years, we have met with students and distinguished faculty members at Istanbul University, Anadolu University, Osmangazi University and Namık Kemal University.

Could you tell us about your domestic and foreign sales activities? Which regions do you primarily serve domestically and abroad, and what types of products do you supply?

Baumit operates in 31 countries. Each country focuses on its own market. As Baumit Turkey, we operate in the domestic market. We currently operate in the Marmara region and Ankara. We have a total of 3 separate regions. Our primary goal is to expand our operational area within Turkey. We currently have a certain amount of exports, but our priority is growth in the domestic market. In all 3 regions where we operate, we serve with our entire product groups. Outside these operational areas, we also provide product supply and services, particularly on a project basis.

Could you provide information about Baumit's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you tell us about your work related to occupational health and safety?

We believe we must do our part to protect dwindling green spaces and slow global warming. We can begin this individually by reducing the amount of energy we consume in our homes. With external facade thermal insulation systems, we can achieve two-way energy savings by reducing heating costs in cold seasons and reducing air conditioning needs in warm seasons. We all now know that thermal insulation in both existing and new buildings will make a huge contribution to energy savings and the country's economy. We must work to raise this awareness throughout the entire country. As a company, we regularly organize seminars at various universities. We provide application-focused seminars to our distributor partners in their regions. We conduct organizations to develop their knowledge about the mistakes made and problems that arise in application, and the measures to be taken. When we meet with apartment management associations, we again share our knowledge and experience. Baumit, both domestically and internationally, places environmental sensitivity at the forefront when making all decisions. This includes every stage from the emission rates of the vehicles we use to the technological infrastructure of the factory we built with a EUR 14 million investment. We manage all our production processes according to the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. We work to ensure that environmentally and human-friendly products are produced with harmless raw materials, equipment equipped with clean energy and modern technology, under ergonomic working conditions, and delivered to the end user in a risk-free manner. We continuously conduct research and improvements to enable the reuse of all products, semi-processed products and raw materials that can be recycled, reduce waste amounts and energy consumption in line with targets we set each year, and use natural resources most efficiently. We have procedures regarding occupational health and safety. Humans are very important to us. With regard to occupational safety, we organize training for all our units, from production personnel to field personnel and office personnel, and take necessary measures according to possible risk situations.

When Baumit's investment plans are being formulated, which criteria are given priority? Do you have investment plans for the coming periods, and if so, what are they?

As Baumit, we have been investing in Turkey since the day we entered the market; our long-term expectations are very positive. During the crisis period, while many people were avoiding investment or turning to savings measures, we were a company that invested. This is also a sign of the importance our headquarters in Austria places on Turkey. Our current installed capacity is an investment that was well-planned with leadership goals in mind and is adequate. Our production facility is quite new and represents a sufficient investment in terms of capacity. However, in 2014 we made an investment to produce our paint products at our Gebze factory. Until this year, we were importing our external facade paints from our central facility. We completed the infrastructure for paint production and started producing our paints at our factory. While the thermal insulation market in Europe is turning towards renovation of existing buildings, in countries like Turkey the number of new buildings is increasing with urbanization. But at the same time, the existing building market also has huge potential. Today we have one factory. As Baumit, we have set a medium-term investment plan. Within the framework of this plan, as long as we achieve our targets and the sector grows in the direction we expect, we aim to open our second facility in Turkey.

Do you have a message you would like to convey to the sector?

The external facade thermal insulation sector is currently one of the fastest-growing areas within Turkey's construction sector. Although awareness is increasing thanks to legal requirements, individual consciousness and the overall benefits have not yet become clear and assimilated in people's minds. Thermal insulation, which we face as a legal requirement to obtain permits for new buildings, is being delayed or postponed in existing buildings due to common decisions that need to be made by building associations. The external facade thermal insulation sector is one of the most important agenda items in protecting our world. Developed countries are reviewing their regulations and standards to impose restrictions related to carbon emissions. Three fundamental points can be identified for preventing global warming: abandoning fossil fuels, countries reviewing their carbon emission statements every five years, and keeping global warming below 2 degrees. Turkey's commitment submitted to the UN is to reduce the increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 21% compared to the reference scenario by 2030. As a result, to prevent global warming, insulation thicknesses must be increased and system use should be encouraged. As a country dependent on energy imports and consuming fossil fuels, producing insulated buildings and renovating existing buildings contributes greatly to both the country's economy and consumers' own economies. In fact, 85% of existing buildings in Turkey still lack insulation. Therefore, it is a fact that as a country we still have a long way to go on the insulation issue. Although energy savings does not immediately bring to mind thermal insulation, we observe that awareness of this issue increases every day. The most important point here is preventing unfair competition and raising consumer awareness. Our recommendation to prevent unfair competition is to increase market inspection and supervision. Beginning to conduct these inspections very seriously will benefit consumers and contribute to the sector growing in a more correct manner. In fact, promised standard values being identical to actual product values is the first step in producing safe structures. We are trying to do our part in raising awareness. We believe that the support of sector publications like yours and the work of associations are very important in this regard.