In addition to its offset field, Teknova exports the printing chemicals and materials that it produces in its own facilities with high standards and with Fogra certificate to more than 30 countries, as well as the packaging sector and flexo as an investment in the future.
The company, which has made serious investments in the field of flexo with water-based products for the last two years, aims to increase its exports to neighboring countries.
The company, whose share in the turnover of flexo products increased from month to month in the country, opened a 300 square meter retail sales and marketing office in 100. Yıl Mahallesi Mascis – Matbaacılar ve Ambalajcılar Site this year, separating the sales organization and relieving the production area in the head office.
Suat Sonakın, one of the partners of Teknova, answered our questions at the Eurasia Packaging Istanbul Fair.
Is the packaging fair a little busier this year, what do you think?
We are attending the Eurasia Packaging Istanbul fair for the fifth time; I think so. In general, everyone’s idea was that they were a little more intense and more efficient. Foreigners are more common in the first two days. We have had important meetings so far.
Which countries did the visitors mostly come from?
First of all, our own distributors came from Moldova, Romania, and Albania. There is also from Europe. There are also visitors from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Africa. I met Kuwaiti and Syrian.
How are relations with neighboring countries and Africa?
Banks are very strict in this regard, but in the past, we have resolved our Iranian sales through bilateral relations. We have long-standing relationships with our customers in Iran. The international embargo is challenging our relations. We think it will be obvious in a short time. There may be silence in the following months in the companies we sell, and then a purchase is made again, but it is not periodic, but a random shopping.
We sell to many countries such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, UAE, Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and the Republic of South Africa. We are generally satisfied with Africa. We even participated in a fair in South Africa in recent years.
How is the interest of Turkish visitors?
On the 3rd and 4th day of the fair, nearby provinces started to come as collective teams. İzmir, Bursa, and Ankara are concentrated. At least we are happy to have the chance to express ourselves face to face at fairs. In that sense, the fair is an absolute gain.
What is the situation with the chemicals?
Although it is not felt much at the moment, there is a somewhat troublesome process in chemicals. Because while buying a product, the currency risk is always an obstacle in front of you. Many of the raw materials we use in manufacturing chemical products are not produced in Turkey. You buy these products in your stocks to maintain uninterrupted service. There are input and stock costs. Our customers do not look at the event like that, they expect the prices to change by looking at the exchange rate. However, this is not the case. Our companies continue to purchase products, but ignoring the responsibilities and risks undertaken by the company providing this service, they enter into expectations. However, there are many additional costs incurred in the production process. This cannot be withdrawn with such currency movements. If it can be pulled, we would do it anyway, nobody should doubt about it. In such times of crisis, garbage products emerge to grab the market, very different prices fly in the weather. These are the periods when we have difficulty in expressing ourselves for companies with a certain quality and certain reliability like us.
What is the advantage of your anilox cleaners over other products?
There are two types of products. One is a liquid product that can be used both machine and manually, and the other is a product in the form of a gel. There is a significant price difference between the two product groups. We are on the liquid side for now. The advantage of our product is that it is suitable for both manual and machine cleaning. It can also do a deep cleaning with this product. It can be used in brushed, classical daily anilox cleaning processes as well as deep cleaning processes. So it has a big advantage. R&D studies on gel washing liquid are continuing.
What is the color status of flexo inks?
Everything is as it should be. We have a very good laboratory team. We trust our color side very much. We deliver products to customers with a delta value close to zero. We have established a very fast and very solid infrastructure in our color production center compared to our competitors. We respond very quickly to our color experts. I would say that we have not had any problems with color until today.
Which colors are available as standard production?
There are CMYK, green, orange, brown, red, white, dark blue, and pink colors as standard. There are also special colors that companies want. We make these colors too, and they can buy them and mix them themselves. We can also provide 16 base colors, including white. According to the rate of return of our competitors on this issue, we turn very fast and very accurately. This is our biggest advantage.
You have been producing flexo ink for three years now, what is its share in your turnover?
Its share in our turnover increases every month. Its share in our current turnover is about 20%. 4% next year
We have a goal to reach 0. We were busy getting to know the field we entered in the first year. In the second year, we started to invest in this field. We are entering a new area, trying to go a little controlled. We continue by increasing our sales significantly in line with our company goals. A good sales team has been formed. We set up our technical infrastructure accordingly, we made our investments knowing our goals. We also started the production of water-based dispersion lacquers.
Are you considering switching to UV?
We have ideas for UV, but we may need know-how support on this issue. Our work on this subject continues.
Will you also have new products on the flexo side?
We got the representation of LeadEdge, a British company. Sub-cliché feeding products known as airbags in the market are available in our stocks and we started to sell them. We are currently exhibiting at the fair. Suddenly, we do not want to say to customers that we are in everything, we are progressing product by product. We are already producing the anilox cleaner.
We have a representative office on the ceramic Anilox roller side. Other British firms that have a ceramic and lacquer roller Cheshire Turkey started to sell in the market. CHESHIRE, which produces rollers for large companies working in this field (such as Nilpeter, Gallus, Mark Andy, KBA, Heidelberg, Komori), is the largest UK’s and the world’s leading manufacturer of Anilox rollers.
CHESHIRE is a major roller manufacturer that finds its place at the forefront of the market with its special coating developed against corrosion, its EFIA GOLD award-winning cell structure, and its production reaching 1600 Vickers hardness.