Ersin TURGUT, Member of the Board of Seval Cable and Export Director, noted that exporting 75% of its production, Seval Cable is the Leader of Turkish Cable Industry and Denizli Exporters and emphasized that they aim to further this success in the new year.
Sektörüm Dergisi: Can we hear the story behind the establishment of your company? How was the growth made possible?
The foundation of our company was built in 1974 when Çağdaş Electric was established in Izmir by Hasan Ali TURGUT, current Chairman of SEVAL CABLE. For long years our firm have successfully conducted sales of electrical equipment and cables in Izmir and the surrounding area in order to become a firm recognized nationwide.
Our manufacturing operation has started in Denizli in 1980 with a manufacturing plant of 300m2 and our facility is now one of the most modern and largest facilities of Turkey. Seval Cable is now operating with a capacity of 30,000 tons of copper and 40,000 tons of granule processing annually in its 6 integrated factories operating on 70,000m2 of space 50,000m2 being indoors are along with its experienced staff of 500 people. Products of Seval Cable complies with TSE – HAR – BASEC – SII – VDE – KEMA – GOST – TUV standards; IS0 9001 – 14001 and OHSAS 18001 management systems; CE directives and RoHS.
Seval Cable exports 75% of its production while the remaining 25% is distributed to the domestic market. Our domestic operations are conducted through our Çağdaş Cable brand in order to serve to the market dynamics and customer demands.
As Seval Cable family we are constantly working in order to satisfy the needs of our customers and to offer the best services to our solution partners with our experienced staff of 85 people in our branches in İZMİR – ANKARA – İSTANBUL – BURSA (with stocks) and Denizli Logistics Center.
Human factor is the most important element for a company. Our company has always been meticulous in its investments into qualified people. As Seval Cable, we consider our staff not only as our employees but also as members of the Seval Cable Family.
What are the most recent investments of Seval Cable and when are these investments come to fruition?
Seval Cable has always been investing since the day it was established. Our most recent investment was into Copper and Aluminum Conductive Medium Voltage Cables up to 66kV and it was completed by the first quarter of 2015 rendering our product range perfect.
One of the recent investments was made into the capacity increase of the Copper Processing Plant which increased our copper processing capacity from 2,000 tons to 3,000 tons. With the investment into Halogen Free manufacturing plant along with the most modern Quality Control Lab available in Turkey and the valuable work of the engineers in our R&D center we are planning to add several products to our product range in the months to come.
Nevertheless, we have increased our manufacturing capacity by 35% adding new production lines. We have machinery being installed as we speak and production lines soon to be delivered and we will continue with our investments also in 2016.
What are your targets for 2015 and the future?
As a firm internalizing the strategic management approach, our target for our 35th year in the industry was to become the leader of exports and we have already achieved that goal in 2014. Yet, as you may know “One who fails to grow will lose”. Therefore, we have set bigger targets for our 40th anniversary.
Our target for our 40th year is to have the largest manufacturing plant available in Turkey in the cable industry. We don’t take the term large only in terms of endorsements but also in terms of undertaking strategic and extensive projects.
We will be working towards these goals from now on. We believe we have already achieved 50% of our cumulative goals so far. We will be increasing our R&D and quality control efforts. We have much more to achieve.
We assume an important status in public projects. From now on, we are aiming to gain ground also in private sector. Therefore, we are focusing on private sector projects in Izmir, Istanbul and Ankara. Our efforts are not only foc
using on the residence industry but also the industrialization projects. We are manufacturing strategic products and offering warranties. We are expressing the uses of our cables in each branch of the industry. We are planning to further the success we have achieved in the construction industry with industrial corporations and to be in the center of the industry.
What do you believe is the most important issue for your industry and what is your solutions for this?
Turkish cable industry has a worldwide share of $5 billion. The largest share, on the other hand, belongs to energy cables. Approx. 400 manufacturers of small to large scale operates in Turkey. These firms manufacture energy cables, communication cables and custom cables. These firms are only accountable to TSE. Each one of these firms produce their cables and offers them to the market with or w/o TSE certification. Turkey hosts the world’s 10th largest cable economy today. Majority of the cables manufactured in
Turkey is exported to the Middle East and Europe. It is not possible for Turkey at the moment to export products with high added value.
In a segment in which investment and operating costs are rather high, in which a valuable and variable metal is used as raw material, we can say that large manufacturing plants being not able to make profit is one of the biggest problems in our sector.
As the price is the matter of preference in our industry; as supply surpasses demand; as there are firms suffering commercial and capital losses; and given the structure of an industry which desperately needs to sell the point the competition came today is not surprising.
Shortly, being unprofitable, insufficient cable production, lack of quality and unfair competition are among the important drawbacks we face in the industry. It is harder than ever for those brands affected by internal and external factors in both local and global markets to survive.
Today’s consumers expect to be the center of attention for those brands they are loyal to.
As a result, we are delivering products which concerns human life; therefore we believe we are delivering responsibly what is expected from us.
We have taken necessary measures in such a complicated period of time in order to overcome such problems.
What are your targets for 2016?
In the face of politic chaos in the world, crises we face and the uncertainty of raw material prices we aim to increase our market share also in 2016 with our quality products as a result of prospective investments.
In this context, Seval Cable has always been a forward-looking company never compromising on the quality, which takes customer satisfaction as its primary principle, which is sensitive to the people and the environment, which renovates itself, which pursues fair competition, which adopts an honest and righteous commercial approach, and it has set its vision to grow and become a global brand. Our motto is ‘We Produce for the World’.
All in all, Seval Cable has become the “Turkey’s Leader” in the cable industry while “#118 of Turkey” among all the exporters and “#233 of Top 500 Industrial Corporations of Turkey” according to the data available for 2014. It is not only the product, product quality or the management or capacity which keeps a company as a whole.
Your motto, ‘We Produce for the World’ sounds important. Which countries are you exporting to and are there any new target markets?
Seval Cable exports 75% of its production to more than 70 countries. 50% of all our export involves European countries. Europe is known for cut-throat competition and for being hard to reach.
With our quality certificates, consistent sales policy, product quality values and customer satisfaction the number of countries we are exporting to is ever increasing while we further increase our market share in the markets we are already operating in.
We want to further our dominance in the industry increasing our export markets especially with Balkan countries and the Africa continent without compromising on our quality principles.