What do you do in Turkey as Krono Swiss? What are you plans?
There is no change in the parquet section. As Krono Swiss Group our customers are obvious, we definitely do not plan to have any other kind of distribution system. Finding the right business partner is very hard whereas losing it is so easy. We never move to something that can harm our customers, we always grow with them. We never like to change partners particularly in risky markets such as Turkey. Since today, there have been gossips about us opening storage, which is absolutely false. We neither think nor plan it for the future. There is no such thing. If we ever plan to open storage first, we will use. Somebody is doing the job already.
What about the panels? Why is Krono Swiss here, at ZOW?
Krono Swiss Group does not sell MDF or HDF because we either use the product we manufactured in the parquet or we add value on it and sell. Because Turkey is the 2nd of the MDF production areas in the Europe and there are lots of MDF producer searching for other market makes more sense to us. World is very big and also the markets are really big. Our principle is the maximization of the profit just like any other company. This means that instead of selling a product in here for 10 TL we prefer to sell it in Asia, or Africa, for example, for 14 TL. Most of the European companies that are trying to sell their products in Turkey are either cannot sell them in Europe, or have surplus or try to consume their product n the storage or they have a long-term plan for Turkey.
Why we exhibited at ZOW Istanbul?
Because we see at Domotex Istanbul in November, that 70% of the exhibitors are global and most of our customers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Egypt, Syria Israel and so on are here. As you know Domotex was in Dubai and they changed the location to Istanbul. It is same for Zow as well. Istanbul became an exhibition center. This is why we have a booth in here. It is not that we will open a factory. As a group, we do not have such intentions. If there is a purchase in Istanbul and start of it, I have no knowledge for that. These are the decisions of Krono Holding. My main responsibility is to have and develop the export of Krono Swiss, Krono Tex and sub group of these two companies regularly. We started on focusing Asia Market. For example: we are one that exports laminate parquet to China the most. We are not buying from but sell it to which we consider this as a success.
There is 25% of decrease in both MDF and laminate parquet. Countries’ Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia sell their products through Turkey so what will Krono do for this 25% decrease? What do you think for the Turkey Market?
If we are talking about laminate parquet, I am pessimist about Turkey’s situation in 2013 because the new law about VAT will affect the sell of the houses. Another bad thing is the law of checks. People used to hesitate when they pay with checks but now they easily write it since the return payment is not fast which will lead a problem for the cash transfer of the companies. That is why I believe most of the companies will slow down because of their sub-dealers. We think this law harms the sub-dealers as well.
Europe is having economic shortage however the money traffic is safer comparing to Turkey. In addition to that, the local manufacturers’ point of view about the export is different than us. If Krono Swiss has a deal for 3 or 5 million square meters for export, we cannot tell the same customer for the consecutive year “ We are sorry but the local market demands more than you do so we are unable to sell you.” For us the consistency in the exporting is really important. Besides, we distributed the risk of marketing equally to the world, and we reach the volume we need to have.
Will you open storage in Istanbul, if you do what will you sell in there?
We do not have any storage or shop in Istanbul and we do not plan to have. ıf we ever want to have a storage in here we will use Yılmaz Yapı’s. There is no need for any other.
6. Is there anything you want to add?
Turkey is becoming the fair center and we have a new product called CDF (Compact Density Fiber) which can be used in indoors, toilets, wet floors and so on. That is why we have this small booth in here. Even though it is natural, it is water resistant and we are new at this product. We are already an old company at laminate MDF and HDF but nobody knows us at this wet floor sector so we are both researching about the sector and the market. We started to sell this product slowly to England, United Arab Emirates, America, Canada and we wanted to introduce this material in Turkey as well. We already set our partner but because it is very new, we prefer not to give the name yet.
Do you plan to be at Domotex Istanbul in 2014?
Yes, we do. We had the booth here, and there have been rumors about it a lot. Because of that, our moves should not bother our customers. Maybe we have one with Yılmaz Yapı. We are becoming more active in the Middle East Market so Istanbul is a great place for that.