“We Closed the Year 2023 with an Export Performance Above Our Targets”
Interview: Dilek Hayırlı
Azim Makine Company Owner Orhan Tahtalı; “We export to 15 countries in 3 continents. In order to increase our export market, we have strategically chosen branding. Today, it is possible to see the name of Azim Makine and our brand Azimo wherever there is textile.”
Azim Makine has been producing industrial cutting and sewing machines for terry towel garment for more than a quarter century. Azim Makine, which appeals to a wide portfolio in Asia, America and Africa with its long years of experience, quality and service network in this field; is among the top 3 players in the world. Apart from towel garment, the company plans to increase its product range, especially in the field of home textiles, and aims to expand its existing markets.
We interviewed with Orhan Tahtalı, Owner of Azim Makine, for our Tekstil Teknoloji magazine. Tahtalı evaluated the year 2023 and shared his views on export markets, sales and after-sales services, 2024 targets and ITM 2024 Exhibition.
“It is possible to See the Name of Azim Makine wherever there is Textile”
Can you give information about your export markets? Which countries do you export to?
We export to 15 countries in 3 continents. In order to increase our export market, we have strategically chosen branding. Today, it is possible to see the name of Azim Makine and our brand Azimo wherever there is textile. I think that the strength of the Azimo brand is the qualified technical infrastructure and service facilities as well as the comfort and sense of trust provided by 24/7 communication with our customer representatives. In addition to our long-standing customer habits, we aim to adapt to the dynamics of the new world trade by starting the work of our B2B sales and digitalisation process.
What changes have occurred in your customers’ demands recently? As Azim Makine, how do you respond to these demands?
If you are a company that produces solutions to the technological needs of the industry; You must have a flexible and dynamic structure. In addition, you should standardize your production processes and the quality of your products and even make these standards sustainable by improving them. More than 25 years have passed since the first machine our company produced. During this time, technology has constantly evolved and will continue to do so. In light of these developments, we have a policy of always being a company that can both respond to new demands and offer industrial innovations. The technology infrastructure we use in our machines provides minimum effort and maximum efficiency to machine operators. In addition, we can meet all the requirements of our customers according to their digital maturity level. We observe that recent customer demands are related to digital transformation processes in their own facilities.
“We replaced the majority of our vehicle fleet with 100% electric vehicles”
Considering that there is an energy crisis and water scarcity is not far away, what kind of measures do you take for environmentally friendly, sustainable production? How environmentally friendly and sustainable are your products?
As a company, we aim to ensure that our activities contribute to nature, not to consume the world’s resources. First of all, thanks to the solar power plant we established in our facility, we produce more energy than we consume for production. We even replaced the majority of our vehicle fleet with 100% electric vehicles and minimized fossil fuel consumption. We attach importance to the environmental friendliness of all the equipment we use in the machines we produce. We aim for our machines to consume the minimum possible energy when operating in our customers’ facilities.
Digitalization is essential for the future of a sustainable industry. What are your digitalized solutions as a company? Can you talk about the advantages these products provide to users?
The concept of Industry 4.0 is on the agenda of almost all companies today. We offer two important solutions to our customers in digitalization processes. IOT (Internet of Things) and predictive maintenance. Our production technology allows instant traceability of machines. Our machines can communicate with machines in subsequent processes. With the sensor data produced by our machines, we can predict maintenance times and eliminate possible production disruptions. At the same time, we enable data analysis in production by transferring sensor data.
“We are there to solve our customer’s problems, no matter what country they are in”
As Azim Makine, what do you offer to your customers in terms of sales and after-sales services?
We attach great importance to Customer Relationship Management. We believe that a good technical service infrastructure is the most important cornerstone of Customer Relations. For this reason, our good dialogues with our customers during the sales process turn into a strong bond with fast and quality after-sales service. Our process begins with installation service and customer training in machine sales. Afterwards, our support continues online, and in case of need, we are physically present to meet our customer’s demands, regardless of the country. Our customers give positive feedback about the services they receive both during the sales phase and after sales. We are very pleased with these returns. We will continue our investments in our Customer Relations and technical service infrastructure.
As Azim Makine, what are your expectations and goals for 2024? Will you have new product and investment efforts in the near future?
We closed 2023 with an export performance above our targets. The course of inflation in our country and the exchange rate policies to be followed are very important for 2024. When we cannot reflect the cost increases in production inputs to sales, it can cause serious decreases in profitability. I hope an optimum balance can be achieved in our economy. Even though global developments are against Turkey in some respects, we believe that we will expand our market and expand our product range and expand into new markets. In the short and medium term, we will be offering new models and new products as a result of our R&D studies.
“We are looking forward to presenting our new products at the ITM 2024”
As you know, it will be held at ITM 2024 in 2024. What kind of preparations are you making for the exhibition? What can you say about what ITM 2024 brought to the textile machinery industry?
Our new models and products are ready, we are looking forward to introducing them to the participants at the exhibition and introducing them to the market. We thank the ITM fair for consolidating all stakeholders of the sector. ITM, which coincides with the productization process of our R&D studies, is a milestone for us. It is a very valuable organization to introduce our new products to the market, observe the reactions of our customers and follow the dynamics of the industry closely.
