“We are here to stay. Once you get the taste of cement dust, you cannot leave this sector again. Since I started drawing projects as a project engineer in 2007, cement has been very important to me. When a new subject comes up, I sit down, learn, read and study. Turbo Makina has the same excitement as a company, and we want to be permanent in the cement industry.”
We talked to Bahadır Ürkmez, Turbo Makina Service and Cement Industry Sales Director, about their entry into the cement industry and their goals.
Can we get to know you briefly?
I was born in 1972. After completing my education in Izmir Science High School, I graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Following my graduation, I decided to pursue a career in sales and project management and started as a sales engineer at a large holding company for several years. I quit this job to move to the USA. There I worked as a project manager at a university. Upon my return to Turkey, I began working in the cement industry for my family’s company. Here, we were preparing layout projects, feasibility studies, making detailed calculations, and providing consultancy, especially to new investors who would take their first steps into the sector. Unfortunately, this adventure ended due to personal reasons. I am now the Sales Director at Turbo Makina after collaborating with the company’s founder, Mr. Can, who expressed interest in entering the cement sector. Our combined expertise in both fields led to this opportunity. In our company, titles are not given much importance. Our focus is on working collaboratively with our customers to create a synergy. We made a good entry into the industry as the equipment supplier for several different projects with Beumer.
Turbo LTD. is a machinery and equipment company established in 1989, a well-known company in the mining industry. Can you tell us about Turbo? Where did it come from, in which areas did it specialize, and what was its contribution to the sector?
Turbo Makina is a company founded by Can Özdemir in 1989. They first started by taking the representation of Detroit Diesel in Turkiye and then stepped into the mining sector. Here they represent the important companies in the sector. Our main company is in Turkiye, but we also have USA and UK companies. We carry out our activities with three sales managers, one service manager, sales support staff, six service personnel, and office staff. Until 2022, the company, which mainly operates in the mining sector, has worked on crushers, screens, screen panels, hydro cyclone, stock equipment, and complete aggregate plants. For example, the company was actively involved in all construction processes of Deriner Dam, one of Turkiye’s largest crushing and screening plants. Our entry into the cement sector was with the Köppern brand. Köppern is a well-established German company producing Roller Presses for the mining and cement industry.
As Turbo Makina, we are currently specialized in separation in wet processes. We represent the world-famous South African Multotech brand, the world leader in its market. One of our biggest features as a company is that we never work with an inferior brand in its field. We have adopted this as a general company philosophy, and we are determined to keep it that way. We pay attention to the quality of our work. Our brands come from nations that lead the way in innovation rather than merely duplicating or mimicking technology. In the mining sector, we have developed a habit of conducting tests and reviewing process calculations as needed to confidently provide solutions that meet our customers’ requirements.
Which are your most ambitious machinery and equipment in the cement industry, and why are they so important?
We are relatively new in the cement industry, but we continue our way with the strongest and best brands in this field. Let me give their names here so that it can be written down, as you know, the palest ink is better than the sharpest memory. We represent Beumer, Köppern in our country and we partner with Christian Pfeiffer on a project basis. We offer our customers various solutions for grinding with roller presses and increasing grinding efficiency. It is necessary to think of this business as both a machine and a process. As a result, we examine the processes of all plants in advance and work on how we can improve them. Cement grinding without a ball mill using only Roller Press is a brand new process.
As far as I know, the process is used in 7-8 factories worldwide. There are none in Turkiye. We aim to realize a line that grinds cement using only roller presses in Turkiye. Currently, cement grinding is done with vertical mills and ball mills. Roller presses have very high energy efficiency in grinding. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons compared to other grinding systems. We make it a point to personally meet with our customers to discuss ways they can enhance their processes and how we can assist them during this time of rising energy costs. We provide valuable information to help them improve their operations, at least I hope we do that. We endeavor to offer the best products to our customers by following current developments and technologies in this field. Beumer is a company that attaches importance to R&D and has made very good developments in elevators. We are proud to present their new solutions to our customers. Christian Pfeiffer is very experienced in the field of ball milling; they are lucky to have a partner like us as we work together on mill liners, diaphragms, separators and mills and of course, we are most proud to have them in our portfolio.
You have offices in Scotland and the USA. What are the purposes and contributions of these offices?
The main purpose of our companies in the US and UK is to provide optimum benefit to our Turkish customers. Sometimes, you cannot find a product in Turkiye, but it is available in the UK. So we buy the product from UK and send it here. At our US-based company, we work on projects, especially in the field of mining. Both of these companies offer numerous financial benefits and valuable support to us. Our company owner Mr. Can spends much of his time in America. Our main goal is to provide maximum service to the customers and, in the meantime, to provide maximum financial convenience. In the past, the service companies within the cement industry were not as global as they are now. Thanks to Mr. Can’s visionary leadership, international structuring was implemented just in time. This has greatly simplified our work when needed.
You serve your customers with your Istanbul Headquarters and Ankara Branch, on the other hand, you have a TSE- certified service center in Istanbul İMES and you offer service including spare parts support. What is the state of spare parts and service in Turkiye and what makes you different from your competitors in this field?
First, we must distinguish between mining, aggregate, and cement. In mining and aggregate, all of our service personnel are very experienced. They assemble and repair the screens. We can bring them to our workshop and repair them, or we can provide on-site service. We change parts. Our team is currently erecting a sand- washing plant. As a new company in the cement industry, we took the time to understand the market before venturing into service provision. We have now recruited Selim Çıtak, an experienced Service Manager with a background in machine maintenance in different factories of a major cement group. To enhance his skills, we provided him with overseas training opportunities, and he participated in a certification study on Beumer elevator belt changes and chains. We are committed to developing our team’s expertise and providing quality service elevators. Our priority is to ensure that our customers receive adequate support even after purchasing our machine. While the service department incurs significant costs, it is crucial for us to keep it as an integral part of our organization. We want our customers to feel supported and never left to fend for themselves. We are committed to addressing this matter effectively during the process.
You can supply machinery and equipment to sectors such as construction, mining, oil and natural gas. What are the equipment and machinery that the sector needs the most? The Turkish cement industry deserves praise for its size and success. It takes hard work and skilled employees to achieve this. The industry is constantly adapting to global trends and implementing them in local contexts. Many times, they are ahead of the game compared to others in the industry. The managers and project managers are knowledgeable and attentive to everything that goes on. Yet, two heads are always better than one, and our communication with them is easy because of their experience and expertise. At Turbo Makina, we believe technical experts are preferred in this industry, and we are proud to represent them. We hope to transfer our knowledge and experience from mining to cement.
In the next stage, what will be your upcoming strategies? Is there a new brand, a new distributorship? Especially in the cement sector.
Getting an agency can be a tough process, and there aren’t always many new big projects available each year. Therefore, the fuller your basket is, the better. But on the other hand, there is a very delicate balance. It’s important to understand the technical aspects of our equipment in order to provide valuable information to your clients. In other words, if you don’t know how your equipment works, what are the fine points of operation, promoting this equipment will get harder and harder. In short, we want to add 1-2 more representative offices to our basket while keeping that balance. In cement, we have acquired the important brands I mentioned above. These brands are very well-known in the market. We will develop our presence in the industry. We are here to stay. Once you get the taste of cement dust, you cannot leave this sector again. Since I started drawing projects as a project engineer in 2007, cement has been very everything to me. I cannot leave, I tried once but I couldn’t. Cement called me back. I love it. When a new subject comes up, I sit down, learn, read and study. Turbo Makina has the same excitement as a company, and we aim to serve our clients for a long time.