Ahmet Reşit Vuruşkan
Business Development Manager
Vurmak Makine
Vurmak Makine, one of the leading brands of the concrete batching plants sector, has continued to grow and develop in recent years. Could you first tell us about the company’s establishment and structuring?
Vurmak Makine started its operations in 1985 in the field of ready mixed concrete plants. The company’s founder is Eyyup Reşit Vuruşkan. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and worked as a chief engineer in a different company between 1982 and 1985. Then he returned to Mersin and founded a company on electrical transformers. In 1992, with changes in the world and in Turkey, the company started to manufacture ready-mixed concrete plants for the first time. Back then, there were concrete batching plants called dry system. We manufactured and sold our first plant when the technologies in this field were newly developing and computerized production was not common in Turkey. Then, we started to make our first automation software in 1993-1994. Until today we
have continued to grow our market share. Now we are working with fully automated and technological software systems in line with industry 4.0. In addition to this development, we started the production of ready-mixed concrete plants in the 2000s which we call wet concrete, where the mixture is made with mixers. Here, too, our company has the status of being a pioneer. While concrete batching plants generally come from abroad or while distributorships are given, we have switched to domestic production and after the year 2000 we started to manufacture ready-mixed concrete plants, including the software. With this, we try to reduce our dependence on foreign countries.
We are now able to sell 20 percent of our mixer production to foreign markets. Until a short time ago, mixers were bought from Europe. Today we even have a dealership in Switzerland. As we
have proven our quality, we have become a competitor to European manufacturers. On the other hand, the variety of ready-mixed concrete plants is also increasing. Exports are increasing. With time our production area, number of personnel, and engineering services have expanded. Today we are actively working with 95% of Turkey’s cement plants. We serve both as machine and software group. In addition, there are also leading companies in the sector that we work with abroad.
Diversity has also been made in ready-mixed concrete plants. In the past, there were fixed-type power plants and their capacities started to grow. Then mobile models emerged. Their capacities grew as well. Since the developing market and transportation costs are difficult for importers, companies have directed us to machines that are a little more compact and cheaper to transport. Upon this we started to think about what we as a company could contribute to this. Therefore, we started to make mechanical and pneumatic machines, which we call bulk product unloading machines from the ship.
What type of products do you produce for the cement industry?
After the ship unloading units came out, we carried out very serious studies and we can transfer the bulk product to a desired point with a pneumatic conveying system, not only from the ship but also from existing stocks. We are not only selling these products in Turkey but also abroad. Lately we have undertaken projects in Oman, Georgia, and India.
In addition, we also manufacture cement packing, Big Bag packing, and Big Bag unloading machines. For the last 5 years, we have concentrated on systems where the discharged cement is pneumatically transported, that is, cement companies can establish a complete turnkey optimized system.
Most of our products are regarding cement plant manufacturing. However, we also have a 40% special project sale. Companies that made ship unloading machines were apart from us, located only in Europe, we were the first to realize this on the Turkish market. If it is done abroad, we thought to ourselves, why not do it in Turkey, and why not bring the system here? We can now manufacture machines that will unload both mechanically and pneumatically from ships of 50,000DWT, especially from 1000DWT ships.
Will there be any other services that you have developed or conducted R&D studies on regarding the cement industry?
Apart from these, two new products are coming, of which we have done all the design and production works. We carry out studies that require a high great engineering infrastructure and
experience. These necessitate big investments and budgets. We work with serious investment costs. Our projects will be realized within the year 2022. In addition, the problems our customers experience in production will be optimized.
One of our biggest short-term goals is to adapt industry 4.0 standards to our entire company that we have already started in mixer manufacturing. We are also trying to speed up our domestic machinery production and increase our capacity. We are working to manufacture 60 percent of our machine production with robots in 2022. Now, we are realizing 20% of our production with robots. We allocate our budgets accordingly.
Recently, raw material costs have increased a lot, which has become a very serious problem for companies. Can we get your views on this issue?
Increasing costs complicates the work of us producers but the frequent increase in costs makes our job even more difficult. Normally, our offers include long-term projects, with a deadline of 30-40 days, sometimes even up to 2 months. Now, the validity period of our offers is 15 days. We were forced to keep the offer period of one of our customers at 3 days. We must constantly revise our offer, because our main material is steel, and the costs of steel is constantly increasing, so we need to do constant updates. Also, as the projects and plans are very big, the product ranges and the number of items is very large. Therefore, the cost of this creates an extra problem. Because here also, we need to do constant updates. We had to solve this problem with ERP. This way we have established a system that will constantly create an up-to-date product list and up-to-date costs.
Did this affect your sales a lot?
Our sales were not affected. There is an extra increase in the market because the pandemic is also gradually slowing down. However, this situation will affect the domestic market long-term. Many
projects abroad were stopped because of the pandemic. Now they are gradually starting again. Our biggest advantage at this point is that our brand perception has come to a certain point.
What needs to be done for the company, according to you? What are your priorities?
Optimization in dealership and production is our first priority. We have already started our works in this regard. We will have a large dealer network by 2023-2024. We will create a different system with our dealerships. We will give them both responsibility and share the risk. We will work with the principle of 50%-50%. Apart from that, a dealer starts working with you but may leave you when he finds a better dealership. We will share the risk, the profit, and the expense. Therefore, everything will progress under our control and observation. Then, our second plan is to establish an office network in the field of engineering.
Another project is turnkey cement packaging plants. We are designing a process until for packaging and loading after the cement is produced at the factory. There is a study we are doing in Oman regarding this. We are very well known in the industry both domestically and abroad.
No company is bad, in the end everyone works for its own country but there are differences, and these differences create quality and a brand. The equipment and materials we use are
selected after long-term testing and R&D studies. First, we listen to the customer. We are tracking our own processes regularly and intensely. As of 2012, we have switched to a new system to facilitate tracking within ourselves. We follow all the work processes of the personnel working on that project. In the event of the slightest issue, we first solve the problem of the customer, then we look at ourselves and intervene at the source. We try to solve the problems on-site before they get bigger. One of the reasons why Vurmak has become a brand is that it always supports its customers. Also, the fact that all processes are carried out by a single company makes us stand out.
What kind of policy do you follow in the field of human resources?
We do not support a layoff policy in our company. There is a huge shortage of personnel in the industry. Our primary goal is to increase the female employment rate to at least 50% in our staff Currently, 30% of our current white-collar personnel consists of female colleagues. We are also opening new positions for our newly graduated colleagues.
How long did the R&D studies of the work you currently develop take?
They have been continuing for about 1 year. We will put them into operation by 2022. We are currently conducting prototype work. Due to the relationships, we have established in the sector for many years, there are companies that help us when we want to try the products. In addition, as you know as well, environmental awareness is increasing day by day and pressure is created on our customers. 10% to 20% of these special projects we carry out are about preventing dust in general and solving these problems of customers by providing technological support in cases that harm the environment with cement. Our environmental awareness is also very high. Our most important priority among our goals is to emphasize environmental awareness.
Engineering and a minor in Finance and Accounting. I graduated from the German High School in 2016. Now I oversee R&D and Business Development. At the beginning of all processes, I am working on the development of new products or on various updates we can make in the facilities we have built so far.
