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GMach makes Genç Değirmen proud abroad

14 December 201710 min reading

“We established GMach brand last year. Our first targets were markets of North and South America. However, we entered into European and African markets rapidly through GMach brand. Genç Değirmen made serious progress in the sector across the world and became competitive with its European rivals. We showed a growth of 25 percent last year. We established 5 mills only in Kenya.”

kerim selek

A. Kerim SELEK - Genç Değirmen

Genç Değirmen of which wheat silo sprouted in Konya 27 years ago is becoming popular with its turnkey projects carried out at home and abroad. Mills of the Genç Değirmen, which open up to the world from where grain turns into effort, and effort turns into bread, provide food to people in 54 countries. Establishing its GMach brand last year in order to play a more effective role in the abroad, the company has started to reap the fruits of this invest within a short time. It has got the position to compete with its competitors in the market of North Africa. Reasonable price, quick service and customer intimacy rose the familiarity of the brand. It has established 5 turnkey mills just in Kenya within the last one year. Telling Miller Magazine about investments and future targets of the company, A. Kerim Selek, General Manager of Genç Değirmen A.Ş., stated that they have participated the rivalling in countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and countries of Far East with its GMach brand. Selek expressed that they have opened offices in Nairobi (Kenya) and Maputo (Mozambique) to obtain a big share in the African market. He announced that the company is now planning to open a spare part facility in Nairobi to keep the waiting time for spare parts under 24 hours. Drawing a considerable interest in the region, the brand is planning to establish roller and indentation bucks there in forthcoming periods.

Stressing that they have shown a growth of about 20-25 percent within the last year, A. Kerim SELEK, General Manager of Genç Değirmen sincerely answered our questions. Can you tell us how Genç Değirmen came to these days and also the vision and mission of the company? Genç Değirmen was established in 1990 and has been operating for 27 years. Its personnel consist of young people and the company has taken huge steps in the name of institutionalization over the last 5 years. It has started to stand out in the abroad especially with its GMach brand since the last year. It continues to carry out its operations domestically with its Genç Değirmen brand. We established GMach brand last year. Our target market was mainly North and South Africa. However, we entered into European and African markets rapidly through GMach brand.

The vision of Genç Değirmen is to become competitive with its European rivals by making huge progress in the sector across the globe despite the fact that it is a young company. Our aim is that. Of course, we have some strong competitors which have 60-70, even some 150 years of experience. However, we have started to compete with them since the beginning of 2017 with our younger staff, our passion to do this business, our encouragement and ambition. Our mission is always to produce quality machinery with and competitive prices, try to ensure hundred percent customer satisfaction, provide after-sales services all over the world in case of a problem, and assist our customers with spare parts.

GMach has made a quick entrance to the market despite it is a very young brand. How are the feedbacks? What are your expectations for the future? Especially with GMach brand, we have started to provide machinery to the market by participating in fairs held in the USA. We gained recognition with ‘GMach’ brand by visitors of the fairs in North America where we were previously having difficulty with ‘Genç Değirmen’ brand which is difficult to pronounce and was unknown in some markets. Our recognition has risen. We have strengthened our organizational structure. We have been significantly restructured with the increase of our turnover and market share. We achieved a serious growth with this configuration in terms of technology, manpower and our vendors. We are a company growing not through fattening but increasing our shares step by step in all markets. We have shown a growth of about 20-25 percent since last year. Will Genç Değirmen keep in the background while GMach is growing in the abroad? Which markets do you sell your products mostly in? 80 percent of our sales take place in the abroad. Genç Değirmen has achieved a substantial growth in the domestic market, it signs under prestige projects from now on. In Bursa, there is Bertan Un with 300 tons of capacity per day which we are about to put into use. It is equipped with cutting-edge technology. In addition, we continue to operate in Nevşehir, Afyon, Manisa, Diyarbakır and Mardin. Namely, Genç Değirmen puts its signature under turnkey prestige projects mostly. It is kind of a brand holding a certain quality perception in the market. Genç Değirmen also continues to carry out its activities in markets such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Algeria in which we are about to be directed. GMach operates in newer markets in general. Especially in Far East countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. What are the reasons for turning your steps towards these countries? Our company was not used to enter into markets falling behind Algeria and Ethiopia until 2 years ago. Within the last two years, we have become a company which sells the most mills and provides the highest customer satisfaction in the South Africa. We have opened offices in Nairobi and Mozambique. We are opening a spare part workshop in Nairobi. Because we are in a substantial configuration process. We established 5 mills just in Kenya last year. We are establishing mills in Mozambique. We established it in Kampala-Uganda. We are opening a spare part facility in Nairobi in order to meet the demand there and keep the waiting time for spare parts under 24 hours. We plan to establish roller and indentation bucks there in future periods. There is a big potential in Africa and a significant trend towards this continent. Are your attempts a step taken to be permanent in the African market? Do you plan to establish a plant there? Look, if a company which has been using European originated products for 20 years and has 9 mills buys mill from us and big players of the market work with GMach and Genç Değirmen, it is undoubted that there is a quality perception really. If big-scale companies of the market work with you, small-scale ones come to you automatically. ‘We want to use your mills’ they say. Until now, Turkish companies did not have a superiority in these markets. I am talking about especially the southern regions of Africa. Everyone goes to North Africa. Maybe there are 100 Turkish mills in Algeria. But there are a limited number of Turkish mills in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Considering Turkish mills, we have a serious superiority in these markets. For example, although one of the mostly-preferred manufacturing companies has a school in Kenya, it is us that established the mills there at most within one year. You said that it is institutionalization that lies behind these successes. What is the most important reason why you are preferred in African market? Why GMach is so demanded? Considering benefit/cost ratio, perhaps our machinery is number one in the world. I am talking about benefit/cost, not about quality. Those manufactured by European originated manufacturers are of higher quality, but we are better you consider the money you pay and the quality you take. Because, while there is approximately 3-4 fold price difference, all the accessories you use are the same. We use German accessories. When I say Europe, as you know there are products of two different classes, Italy and Germany originated products. However, we use German accessories completely. The remaining part is know-how and steel plate processing. We are also capable of competing in this field. When you provide a turnkey solution with engineering, steel constructions, mill engineering and quality of machinery, customer satisfaction rises. When a solution is accurate and the right money is paid for the right product, the customer chooses you. You mentioned that there are certain actors of the sector. There are companies from Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and China. What can you say for Turkish companies to stand out against these powerful players? China is not in the same league with us in this field. Considering the quality of final product, they cannot compete with us. It is very difficult for a Chinese company to compete with a Turkish, German or Italian company in terms of capacity, quality and yield. Thus, Chinese companies are eliminated against us in this market. Our competitors in the market are Italy and Switzerland. However, they also have handicaps. The handicap of Switzerland is industrialization; they produce steadier products. Constant current schemes, constant diagrams, constant quality... But they do not have tailor-made solutions. Italy has nearly collapsed in this market within the last 10 years. The major reason for this is insufficient and expensive after-sales services. In other words, service rate is so low, late and expensive. In addition, they have lost their technical people. Therefore, they do not have even 5 percent share in the world market. 85 percent of the pie belongs to the European companies, 12-15 percent belongs to Turkish companies. Only a few of them are shared by China/Far East countries.

Turkish companies have a standard quality, but provide completely customer-oriented solutions. We produce tailor-made solutions. When we visit our customer, we provide competitive solutions which are suitable for their lands, the raw material to be used and the final product desired. We know the market very well. We know Asian, African and American markets very well. We handle all these solutions about which product comes, through which means the product comes, what is the desired final product, how the customer will compete with big and small players, then provide a project to the customer. We remove all the question marks in customers’ minds. We show the monthly and weekly profit-loss potential comparing the price of wheat purchased and the price of flour sold using cutting-edge technology and automation systems. Once customers see that the only thing they will do is to decide. I mean, to decide on which market to enter, and which market to leave. You participated at JTIC Fair held in Paris with your GMach brand. What were your expectations from this fair? Were you be able to meet your expectations? Are you satisfied that you participated in the fair? People do not come here to trade, but want to see you definitely. This is our second fair in France. We have started to visit Europe with our GMach brand. We attracted a lot of attention. This makes us satisfied. Fairs are opportunities to raise your brand value...

Of course, we are at the stage of branding now. We need a certain period of time to complete this stage. Can you give some information about Treximat Roller you exhibited at the fair? Genç Değirmen was a company which was the locomotive of rollers with its Crocodile Vals. Together with GMach, it met with Treximat Vals which is another series. It is the best-selling roller of the Europe. Of course, selling and performing very good works are not the same thing. With this machine, we have brought many innovations such as automatic lubricating systems, lubricating up to 32 rollers from a single point, measuring vibration from bearings, measuring temperature in the bearings, and measuring top temperatures with a thermal camera. We sometimes add these innovations to our machinery, or sometimes remove them depending on the needs of the market. Now, Treximat Vals is equipped with cutting-edge technology. It can be operated through an iPad. Thus, when the miller goes to sieving section, he can control the roller, see its level and adjust its speed. I can say that we have state-of-the-art technology in our machinery.

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