‘‘Our Expectations are High for the Growth of the Turkish Market’’

Archroma Turkey moved to its new office building and laboratories in Gebze Organized Industrial Zone. Heike van de Kerkhof, the new CEO of Archroma, said that ‘‘Turkey is definitely a very important market and our growth expectations are pretty high for this particular market.’’

The Swiss-based company Archroma ranks among the leading companies in the world in color and specialty chemicals related to sustainable solutions. The company, with 3 thousand employees in 35 countries, and in addition, 26 production facilities, employs 40 in its Turkey office.

Archroma Turkey, continuing its activities in Gebze Organized Industrial Zone, organized the opening of the new office space and laboratory last month. Emrah Eşder, General Manager of Archroma Turkey, hosted the grand opening ceremony, to which Archroma’s new CEO Heike van de Kerkhof, as well as many guests, attended. In his opening speech, Emrah Eşder said that the new office and laboratory will work on product application development and pilot-scale production trials. Eşder continued as the following: ‘‘Archroma shows that it has full support for its clients in Turkey and the EMEA regions and reaffirms its commitment to its assets, employees, and business associates in Turkey through this investment.’’

After the opening speech, the guests toured Archroma Turkey’s new office space and its laboratory consisting of 50% renovated equipment. As the Textile Technology magazine, we followed up the opening program and then conducted an interview with Heike van de Kerkhof, the new CEO of Archroma.

Can you please describe your insights and thoughts on Archroma’s moving into a new office space and opening a new laboratory in Turkey?

First of all, I would like to state that I am very impressed. As you can imagine, expenditures must be made for an investment of this scale. However, sometimes spending a lot of money does not help you to reach to a point. In order to achieve this, you need a dedicated team. When you observe this new office closely, you witness that not only is it spending money, but everyone puts in a piece of it. As part of the Archroma strategy, you see a concept that is compatible with the environment and designed in different colors.

This office will become a reference point and even a leader for other Archroma offices around the globe. Therefore, I want to thank especially for the team in Turkey in such a venture.

What are the recent trends in the paint industry? What kind of efforts does Archroma Company carry out in order to keep up with the new trends?

We generally do not desire to be a supplier of raw materials or straightforward products. We prefer to sell in solution packages by providing a systematic approach. The first reason for this is to reduce the costs that will occur on the customer side. Secondly, through the sustainability tools that we have developed, where the ‘One Way Process Simulator’ can be mentioned as one of them, we are able to reduce the amount of loads in the wastewater, do our best to minimize the effects on the environment, reduce the usage of chemicals and optimize the processing times, and use less water. These endeavors also reduce the costs of our customers and increase their manufacturing performances. Therefore, the perspective is united fully under the umbrella of sustainability and economic benefits.

In order to state more specifically; aniline-free* Denisol® Pure Indigo, which was developed recently in our laboratories, is the best example. This is already one of the innovations that the whole industry is waiting for some time now. Aniline is a product that is harmful to the environment in many ways. Therefore Aniline has been added to many ban lists. By foreseeing the necessity and developing this innovation long ago, we are fending off the customer from using dust, which is very important in terms of health and safety. Secondly, by eliminating the presence of aniline completely, we eliminate environmental damage that it causes.

Can you please provide brief information about Archroma’s latest innovations in the denim paint industry?

Apart from developing innovative ideas, the foremost important thing in this industry is to cooperate with the biggest denim brands in the world and to minimize the generated pollution and water consumption in this industry as much as possible. At this point, many famous companies are coming after us.

Among the other issues, the priority in the denim industry is to switch from dust to liquid, but this alone does not suffice. At the same time, it is very important to decontaminate denim completely from aniline. Because after all, in the future, we will leave the world that we live in as a heritage to someone else; we will leave it to our children and grandchildren. Aniline is a very harmful material not only for aquatic life but also for the workers in the denim industry. We demonstrated an example of leadership for both global markets and Turkish, the Middle Eastern, and African markets. After all, we are the first company in the world that carries out aniline free* indigo production. We have patents on this manufacturing style. Therefore, this points out to which direction we are headed.

What are the most recent and significant problems in the textile sector? What kind of efforts does Archroma company carry out in order to tackle these difficulties?

There is a constriction in the sector because of economic reasons. However, this slowdown is not at the same level for every segment. Some segments still proceed to grow. The important thing is to identify and follow these segments, to steer the focus of the company to these segments, and to subsidize the deficit caused by the constriction when necessary through these segments that do not stop their growth. In such an economically tough time, it is necessary to embrace an approach that is both environmentally conscious and maintains lower costs, at the same time. A very impressive example of this was recently accomplished by a very famous ready-made garment company and manufactured knitwear and clothes from recycled products. This is a very nice approach and we consider taking a similar approach. The Foron® SP-WF of Archroma is a very good example of this. This product, at the center of Archroma Fast Sport’ solution package, which is a coloring system for polyester knitted sportswear, provides the best fastness in the shortest possible time with less environmental footprint.

As a supplier, we are in close contact with our partners. Innovation and sustainability compose the most important reference points of our system. We focused on the removal of chemicals used in all dyeing processes and reducing water consumption. We believe that if we accomplish in doing this, we will be a preferred partner due to financial terms.

What are Archroma’s investment and growth plans for the next few years? Are you planning to establish a production center in Turkey?

As a company, we have a predetermined approach on this issue. When we want to make new investments or enlarge the existing set-up, we monitor the performance, growth rate and profitability of the related country very closely. And when appropriate, we take the necessary actions that we all had the opportunity to see the examples of this in the past. Recently, it happened again.

Since Turkey is close to Egypt and Europe, currently, it is not far away in terms of supply. Presently, the products can be manufactured and delivered on time very easily. When we feel that it is necessary, we do not hesitate to invest in this matter.

In addition, Turkey is definitely a very important market and our growth expectations are pretty high for this particular market. Investing in establishing an office space and a laboratory, even for a company of our size, clearly indicates our intentions related to Turkey.

I would like to especially emphasize that the business space here will be used not only as a laboratory but also as an innovation center. New projects in the near future perhaps will be developed in the laboratory in Turkey.

What are the 2020 plans of the Archroma company?

The most important thing for our company will be sustainability again when we consider for 2020. Sustainability has taken its speed and marches on. We will, again, continue to be proactive in this regard. Instead of waiting for the laws to be enacted to become rules, we will know about the harmful substances and take precautions before they are prohibited to be used. Especially in the forthcoming years, such rules will be even more common. What we’re going to do here is seeing things in advance, being proactive and taking action.

Interview: Dilek HAYIRLI