Interview with Erbil Zerenler, Business Development Specialist at Graco

We conducted an interview with Erbil Zerenler, Business Development Specialist in the Industrial Products Division at Graco. Zerenler provided detailed information about the company's products and services.

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

After completing my undergraduate degree in Economics in Turkey, I finished my Master's degree in Economics at Central Michigan University in the United States. Throughout my entire career, I have worked consistently in sales and business development in different sectors such as paper and printing and consumer electronics. Since 2011, I have been working as a Business Development Specialist in the Industrial Products Division at Graco.

Could you provide information about Graco's founding process and the stages it has gone through to reach the present day? How long has the company been operating in Turkey?

Gray Company Inc was founded in April 1926 by brothers Russell and Leil Gray to manufacture and market a portable, pneumatic lubricator that Russell invented while working as a parking attendant and car mechanic in Minneapolis. The company expanded its production line to meet growing demand for lubrication equipment, adding larger and specialized lubrication equipment to its product range and pioneering the use of mobile equipment display and demonstration trailers. Gray Company made changes to its production in response to war requirements during World War II to help meet the lubrication needs of allied trucks, terrain vehicles, tanks and aircraft, and developed the renowned Convoy Luber. The first paint pump introduced to the market in 1948 was called Paintmaster. This pump eliminated the need to transport paint to a pressure tank before spraying. While Gray Company maintained its leadership in the automotive service sector, it also began designing material handling and finishing equipment for companies manufacturing consumer products. The company established an international sales division in 1962 with subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. Five years later, Gray Company went public and changed its name to Graco Inc. In 1986, Graco common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol 'GGG'. A new European headquarters was opened in Maasmechelen, Belgium in 1994. Over the past two years, Graco's Finishing division has been developing key products such as electric circulation pumps for the paint application industry, diaphragm pumps for small or medium-sized paint circulation and paint supply systems. In addition, we are working on 2K paint metering and mixing systems, automatic electrostatic spray guns and belts. Graco opened its first distributor in Turkey in 1990; the company has been operating in Turkey for approximately 28 years.

What is Graco's current structure taking into account production facilities, machinery fleet and number of employees, as well as data such as turnover and production volume?

Graco's company headquarters is located in Minneapolis, USA. Graco has a total warehouse area of 7,500 m² and a production area of 1,700 m² worldwide. Since Graco is a multinational company, the company is divided into regions with their own headquarters: North America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), South and Central America and Asia-Pacific. The EMEA headquarters is located in Maasmechelen, Belgium and provides the following activities: customer service, technical support, sales, marketing, training, assembly and distribution. Currently, more than 250 people work for Graco in the EMEA region. Approximately 130 of them work at the EMEA headquarters; 120 Business Development Specialists work from home-office to be close to their distribution networks. Graco is responsible for the sales and distribution of all Graco products. We promote our products exclusively through distribution; we have established an extensive and highly active distribution network. We work with more than 3,300 distributor partners that provide local service and support in over 100 countries worldwide.

What sectors does Graco primarily supply and what types of products? Could you provide information about Graco's products, brands and services?

Graco's Finishing division has a very comprehensive product portfolio. This means that Graco can offer the ideal product for any type of surface requiring finishing, whether it is paint, varnish or other coatings. Its products include paint circulation and paint supply pumps; two-component paint proportioners; accessories used to filter, transport, mix and regulate fluid; spray nozzles, seals and filter screens; and a wide variety of applicators that use different methods in the atomization and spraying of paint or other types of coatings depending on the fluid density and the type of finish desired. The company's finishing equipment is used in many different sectors such as automotive, aerospace, agriculture, building materials, woodworking and metalworking industries. Graco's EMA headquarters in Maasmechelen, Belgium focuses on wet finishing products. While its products can be used by small, single-person operated businesses such as a carpenter wanting to spray varnish on a table or a car repair shop spraying paint on a car hood; At the other end, Graco finishing products are used in large industrial production lines. Examples include a furniture manufacturer that paints thousands of bookcases and operates globally, or an automotive manufacturer that performs paint pumping operations in all its production facilities. In some applications, general or "low-technology" equipment can be used. These are traditional finishing products well known in the market; they are technically simple to use and easy to support. From the Graco portfolio, examples include Endura-Flow high-pressure diaphragm pumps, Merkur airless spray machines, Dura-Flo piston-type pumps and pneumatic mixers.

Other applications require specialized or "high-technology" equipment.

These are technically more complex products that require extensive technical sales support. Typical Graco examples include ProMix PD2K proportioners, E-Flo DC electric circulation piston-type pumps, electrostatic automatic applicators and ProControl 1KE in-line fluid monitoring package. This product segmentation includes products and packages that Graco is developing to meet the needs of specific customers in the most effective and cost-efficient way. These are parallel to the size of paint shops that we can distinguish by three dimensions according to customers: Small, medium and large. While "low-technology" finishing equipment is available for all kitchen sizes, "high-technology" finishing equipment is limited to medium and large paint shops where greater automation is usually the driving force. Graco sells finishing products through a comprehensive global distributor network. However, in recent years Graco has moved into much closer communication with end users. One of the ways Graco takes advantage of this opportunity is to provide on-site application training to end users of high-technology products. Application specialists provide training sessions for distributors at the Maasmechelen headquarters. These are divided into three categories: basic, advanced and specialist training. On VIP days, distributors and end users are invited to the Maasmechelen Demonstration Center where they receive detailed training with explanations on how specific products work. This approach was implemented three years ago and has proven to be quite popular and successful. The company also works in close collaboration with material manufacturers to enable Graco to develop new products or customize existing products to take advantage of new paints and varnishes. This focus partially includes organizing Material Manufacturers Days, where Graco invites material manufacturers to discover and learn about the newest products. Finally, Graco also provides a technical support team throughout Europe to provide troubleshooting and advice on specific finishing challenges.

What types of work do you conduct at Graco in the areas of innovation and research and development?

Development of high-technology products is a permanent focus of the Graco R&D division. Regular software upgrades are released to enable customers to optimize their equipment and achieve greater productivity and production improvements. In research and development work, we prioritize investing in human and financial resources to ensure quality and respond to changing market needs. Our team of 440 engineers conducts research, product and process development work every day. By obtaining input from the entire organization and also from our distribution teams and customers, we direct the wealth of knowledge and experience we have accumulated over the years toward development. In this way, everyone contributes to the improvement and enhancement of our products and services. Over the past few years, we have introduced an average of 30 new products to the market each year. Innovative technologies and extensive field testing are a natural part of our new product development processes. At the same time, all aspects of our production are continuously subjected to tests and evaluations. This rigor forms the foundation for delivering products with long service lives and low cost of ownership.

Could you tell us about your domestic and foreign sales activities? What types of products do you mainly sell to which regions domestically and internationally?

In Turkey, good operations are maintained in the entire Finishing product range. Graco has a strong presence with paint circulation pumps (high-pressure piston-type and low-pressure diaphragm pumps) and regulators, pulse dampers, filters and similar circulation accessories in all vehicle manufacturers located in Turkey. Single-component spray packages with manual air spray, air-assisted and electrostatic guns are also preferred. Additionally, automatic spray guns such as ProMix 2KE and 2KS as well as 2K paint mixing systems are also distinctly present. Besides the Finishing products we offer today, we are also conducting market research work to develop new products that could provide advantages to the Turkish Finishing market.

Could you provide information about Graco's environmental policy and sustainability approach? What can you tell us about your efforts regarding worker health and safety?

Graco takes time to conduct work and comply with regulations to develop products that are environmentally friendly and optimize worker safety and health. For example; thousands of workers experience hearing loss each year due to high noise levels in the workplace. This is a preventable situation; however, hearing protection becomes expensive when worker compensation claims and regular hearing tests are taken into account. When developing E-Flo DC electric paint circulation pumps, Graco ensured that exposure to dangerous noise levels is reduced. The unit is very quiet compared to pneumatic or hydraulic pumps; it even exceeds the OSHA noise regulation by 15 dBA. Additionally, the E-Flo DC motor uses three to five times less energy compared to pneumatically-driven paint circulation pumps. Proper control and safety structure meets the newest safety standards of the paint application industry. Operators hear better; the work environment is more comfortable and manufacturers save time and money.

What criteria does Graco prioritize when formulating investment plans? Does Graco have investment plans for the coming periods, and if so, what are they?

Investment decisions are made based on return on investment analyses carefully prepared at every level of the company. We have a single, company-wide return on investment model for making decisions on all types of capital expenditures, including investing and capital equipment, facilities, new product development, software applications, acquisitions and significant hiring. After an investment is approved, we measure by comparing actual results over a long period with our return on investment model to determine how it performs. We continue to maintain laser focus in implementing our four core growth strategies: new product development, new markets, geographic growth and selective acquisitions.