Mogul Invests in Machinery and Processes with Environmentally Friendly Production
Serkan Göğüş, CEO of Mogul
Ranking among the top 500 industrial enterprises in Turkey, Mogul produces nonwoven and composite products in its three facilities. These manufacturing facilities offer products for filtration, cleaning cloth, hygiene, personal care, medical, industrial, construction, environmental, home furnishing, packaging, automotive, and agricultural applications to the American, European and Asian markets.
Mogul, which has recently taken serious steps in sustainability and environmentally friendly production, which has emerged as the most important agenda of the whole world, reuses its own waste by recycling and develops products based on natural and renewable raw materials. Being there for the Turkish manufacturers during the devastating pandemic period, Mogul channeled products such as PP spunbond, meltblown, and spunlace to the domestic market. The company invested in 2 new meltblown lines to meet the increasing demand for masks and filters.
We conducted an interview with Serkan Göğüş, CEO of Mogul, for our Tekstil Teknoloji magazine. We talked about the company’s recent investments, the effects of the pandemic period, and the recent trends in the nonwovens industry.
As Mogul, you are among the leading manufacturers of nonwoven fabrics in Turkey. Can you please elaborate on the founding story of Mogul and the philosophy behind its success?
Mogul was launched in 1996 by our founder Mr. Ekrem Kayalı and started production in 1997. Mogul broke new ground in Turkey by pioneering technologies such as PP and PET spunbond, meltblown, SMS, bicomponent and microfilament. Focusing on industrial nonwovens, selling goods to world markets, continuous innovation and diversification are our basic philosophy.
Can you please tell us about your product portfolio, their usage areas, and the production capacity of the company? What are the main features that distinguish your products from your competitors?
In addition to PP and PET spunbond, bico pet, meltblown, SMS, parallel and cross spunlace, microfilament technologies, we also have products such as industrial and environmental cleaning products, extrusion coating, wide width agricultural fabric. Cleaning cloth, wet wipes, construction industry, oil-absorbing products, filtration, coating/lamination linings, furniture/bedding industry, packaging, automotive, agriculture, hygiene, medical, cable insulation, vacuum cleaner dust bag, softener pads are among the sectors that our company provides fabric. While most of our competitors manufacture with one or two technologies, we, as Mogul, try to make a difference with our wide product range, high quality, and service awareness.
What do you pay attention to in order to maintain your competitive power and quality while investing in machinery and technology in your production facility?
Instead of vertical growth in the same field, Mogul attaches importance to new technologies and breakthroughs with a constantly innovative approach. We are trying to maintain our competitiveness by constantly investing in state-of-the-art technological equipment and, of course, the human and digital infrastructure to carry them out.
‘‘We Export to More than 60 Countries’’
What is the share of export within your total production? What are the countries/regions you export to? In this direction, what can you say about your sales network and organizational structure in the world?
We export more than half of our production to more than 60 countries, mainly to North America and Europe. Mogul is one of the companies with the highest recognition in foreign markets.
As a sales structure, we sell through agencies as well as direct sales.
We can say that sustainability, digitalization, and environmentally friendly production are among the most important agendas of the whole world in recent years. As Mogul, what kind of steps do you take regarding these issues?
Sustainability and environmentally friendly production are already intertwined issues. We optimize our processes in our production facilities for energy and water consumption as much as possible, we invest in machines and processes with environmentally friendly production capacities, we recycle and reuse our own waste, and we develop products based on natural and renewable raw materials. We are renewing our ERP system, which cannot meet the need for digitalization, and we make updates in the processes in accordance with industry 4.0 norms.
Turkey Is One of the Rare Self-Sufficient Countries in terms of Medical Products
Turkey has demonstrated to the whole world that it is an important supplier of technical textiles and nonwoven fabrics, especially during the pandemic period. How do you evaluate Turkey’s success in this field? What should be done to get a bigger share of the technical textiles market?
Turkey was one of the rare countries that was self-sufficient in terms of medical products during the pandemic period. In addition, Turkey provided serious support to Europe’s supply problem, both by investing and adapting the existing apparel infrastructure. Turkey has become the second-largest fabric producer in Europe after Germany in the latest statistics, and we are at a point where we may take the lead after the latest investments. Technical textiles are not just fabrics and nonwovens, you know, investing in non-woven areas and especially in businesses that transform them into technical textiles will reinforce Turkey’s power in this area.
What are your predictions about the near future trends and innovations in technical textiles and nonwoven fabrics in the world and in Turkey?
Sustainability is currently in trend, so recycled, renewable, and natural raw materials and the processes that handle them come forward. After the pandemic, there was a serious increase in demand for medical products, air filtration, and disinfection wipes.
We Invested in 2 New Meltblown Lines for Masks and Filters
The importance of medical textiles has increased even more during the troublesome pandemic period. How were you affected by the pandemic outbreak as a nonwoven manufacturer? Has your production volume increased? Can you please provide information on whether or not you achieved new product developments and investments in this period?
During the troublesome pandemic period, we have channeled products such as PP spunbond, meltblown, and spunlace to the domestic market by standing by our manufacturers of the country and with the guidance of our state. Of course, the increasing demand has positively affected the capacity utilization areas. During this period, we invested in 2 new meltblown lines for masks and filters.
How was 2021 for your company? What are your expectations for 2022? Do you have new product and investment plans?
Compared to 2020 in general, 2021 was a period in which demand and margins approached the pre-pandemic period. 2022 will be a difficult year due to rising raw material prices, logistics problems and increased competition. As Mogul, we will always have new product and investment plans.
Interview: Dilek HAYIRLI
