Geri DİKKAN GROUP CEO FATİH MEHMET SANCAK'S INTERVİEW İS PUBLİSHED İN CAPİTAL MAGAZİNE
- Could you briefly tell us about the corporate history of the Dikkan Group?
With a great entrepreneurial spirit and a very small team, Dikkan started its activities in 1978 with the production of casting and industrial valves. Nowadays, Dikkan continues its way as an international brand that exports to all over the world and carries on the path of sector leader of Europe. Dikkan Group is a leading domestic and national group of companies that offer solutions to major projects around the world. Dikkan, performing series of 360-degree analysis to assay todays industrial needs, structures the business processes in its sustainability center. This management strategy brought Dikkan to the 453rd place among the Top 1000 Exporter List according to the Turkish Exporters Assembly in 2019. With its experienced, expert and dynamic engineering staff and around 1300 total employee, Dikkan continues to work with the vision of being green, safe and more efficient. Dikkan Group has an organization that brings together Dikkan Valve, Dikkan Cable, Dikkan Rolling Mill, İz-metal and Işıksan Ship Recycling Facilities.
Dikkan Valve is the company that manufactures industrial and marine valves. It has succeeded to be the leader of Europe in the marine sector. It has been exporting to more than 60 countries by producing valves for shipbuilding, infrastructure, construction and agriculture sectors for about half a century. Dikkan Cable, the youngest establishment of Dikkan Group companies, has been producing low voltage cables in the cable sector since 2015. With its successful performance in a very short time, it exports to nearly 20 countries today and takes its place among the important players of the sector.
In the Dikkan Rolling Mill production facility, which was included in the group in 2010, brass and bronze semi-finished products are manufactured. Calibrated and pressed round, hexagonal and square bars, billets and ingot products are manufactured mainly for automotive, telecommunication, aviation, electrical, plastic, pharmaceutical industries; as well as for the armature, valve, pump, hydraulic and pneumatic sectors and in the production for mold, fasteners, furniture & decoration, door handles and locks.
İz-metal, one of the important subsidiaries of the group, has been producing bronze, tin bronze, aluminum bronze, copper and copper alloy products with bronze casting and bronze spinning-casting techniques since 2000. A wide range of products are also used in the petroleum and mining industry, defense industry, hydroelectric power plants, gears, pumps and valves, and heavy machinery industry.
Işıksan, which has been operating in the Aliağa Ship Recycling Area since 2000, joined Dikkan Group in 2011. Işıksan supports economic development and eliminates environmental problems by bringing scrap metals back to the metal industry, that are obtained as a result of the dismantling of ships and marine floating vehicles that have completed their service life. Offering solutions to major projects around the world in the field of ship recycling, Işıksan carries out its activities with a sustainability perspective within its economic, environmental and social dimensions. Being one of the largest facilities in ship recycling industry in Europe, Işıksan is one of the primary companies that received the Hong Kong Convention Certificate in 2017. Işıksan subsequently entered the European Union approved Ship Recyclers list in 2019 and is also a member of ISRA (International Ship Recyclers Association) and SRAT (Ship Recyclers Association Turkey).
- How does Dikkan Group position itself in its sector? What are your strengths that differentiate you from the competitors?
We established Dikkan R&D Center, which is the first one of the sector. With the awareness that design and innovation are at the center of sustainability, we carry out our R&D and P&D studies by using resources correctly as well as developing technological ideas and products, which create extra value and solutions to customers' needs. We became a brand that creates privileged solutions in our sector and has a flexible production capability thanks to the strategies we have determined in line with our foresights. In addition to our 42-year organizational memory, we have put continuous development at the focus of our experienced employee. For the very reason, we established Dikkan Academy. In this way, while strengthening the corporate culture, we reflect the benefit of using knowledge into all our processes. At this point, I would like to state that we attach importance to industry-university cooperation. We recently signed a protocol with the Izmir Institute of Technology. In addition to creating economic value by transferring the scientific potential to the industry thanks to the common projects, we provide university students with the opportunity to experience business life and support on a social level.
- How did the new world order that started with the Covid-19 outbreak affect business processes with your stakeholders?
The whole world is going through a difficult period. We have had different social and economic experiences and continue to do so. Being an export-oriented company has provided the necessary experience to communicate with our customers by using the advantages of the digital world. Of course, this situation has become more effective during the pandemic period. We had the chance to see the benefits of our investments in this field in real terms. In addition, we have included the issues brought by the new order that came with the pandemic into our agendas. We will structure our business model by determining our strategies in this direction.
- Could you evaluate the year 2020 in terms of Dikkan Group and tell about the targets for 2021?
2020 has been a year for us, during which we were able to take not only the benefits of our goals we have set in recent years but also the strategies we have developed for these goals as well as our business model that puts continuous improvement at the center of differentiation and expansion. In line with this, we were able to quickly adapt to the pandemic conditions that caused a completely unpredictable global change. We have also maintained a flexible and proactive approach to keep up with the new habitat.
In 2021, we will continue to analyze the changing customer expectations and demands accurately. We aim 2021 to be a year in which we will reshape our value-added products and services in all sectors, and in particular, we will continue to increase our export levels to maintain a maximum contribution to the national economy.
