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Trademark (or Brand) and Branding is one of the most important issues we have expressed on all occasions. Provides added value, incre-ases product awareness, moves your company one step ahead against to your competitors in the market. Yes, Alkan Makina A.Ş. (=Alkan Machinery Inc.) is the most important brand in textile machines industry which has produced hundreds of machines and technology in the 48 years history of the world and have achieved success in exporting to the 5 continents, who has been a pioneer in many product groups in Turkey & over the world. Half a century of history, the technologies it has produced, the confidence and satisfaction of its customers on five continents today has made the Alkan Makina A.Ş. company one of the biggest brands of textile machinery industry. The guest of this month’s issue is Alkan Makina A.Ş. Chairman of the Executive Board Mr. Cüneyt Alkan. Today we have got the chance to listen from his sentences, the story of Alkan Machinery which has become a world brand. Yes, talking about a full 48 years; time-to-time, we see that your eyes are full tears. And he begins to tell the story: ‘’we established Alkan Machinery company as a small business at 48 years ago . That is, in times when people were trying to paint fabric on giant dying tanks by tubes. In other words, there were no technology opportunities, even one over thousandth (1/1000) of today’s technologies, it was difficult to bending&welding the iron, in the days when the traces of World War II were still going on. Textile industry has rather a recent application by new developments. We have started this studies at that times; our company’s new industrialist was get pregnant to other companies in this newly developing industrialization environment and even we have made payment for new machine/s; we had to wait for machine delivery for months. We have started under this conditions. There is no project in your hands so if you copy, you don’t have the right technology in your hand so you can draw it right now and cut it in the current laser machines, you don’t have chance to get the necessary motor in 10 min & can run the motor. It was hard but also beautiful, we used to look at the future hopefully, the trade was ethical; made with the principle of righteousness & honesty, everyone was keeping their side of the bargain, i.e. the promises were fulfilled, at that days. We were excited to do our job, making it better, to deliver the machines you have produced as soon as possible, and to see how the machines were running and painting after working, it was making us quite happy. Now the situation is a lot much different. Technology is developing very fast, human needs and expectations are growing. You need to develop a technology to produce in line with human needs & demands, should be more powerful in order to compete with your competitors” says Cüneyt Alkan.
Alkan adds, “We started our studies by producing first fabric dyeing machines. The name sometimes was owerflow and sometimes HT of these machines. We have produced hundreds of thousands of ‘Alkan Machine’ with their signatures, and as I have already mentioned, we have succeeded in exporting to dozens of countries on 5 continents. Then squeezing machine, fabric reversing machine, rope opening machine, tube sanforizing machine, drying machine, just then we have produced the ram machine (sten-ter). We have become the largest supplier of Turkey’s market. When we came to the year 90s , the recognition of the Alkan machinery, the biggest brand of the domestic market. We started to be known abroad, starting export by one or two deliveries at the begi-ning, then a large portion of the production started to be exported. Exporting to Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Tunisia, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Russia, after that, Alkan Machinery has become a primarily preferred, producing technology, and a reputable world brand. Now I want to talk about one more issue: We are titled to be the first company in Turkey who firstly produced all these mentioned machines and first one who exported. Today, many companies are producing and exporting with the courage they get from Alkan Machinery. We have paved the way for Turkish companies.”
Alkan also says, “If today Turkey a respectable place in the in the production of textile dyeing and finishing machines in the world; in large part thanks to this our company and we belong to, ‘’ Alkan machinery Inc. today is a respected company and the brand.”
“It is impossible for any company not to know the brand of Alkan when you go to a textile production company wherever it is in the world. It must have certainly purchased a machine or certainly meet our brand name somewhere. You see, in Bangladesh we have activated our 79th Ram machine. This is a great success. Today when you investigate companies& people who say that they are producing technology and are assertive about it; don’t have even total 79 machines produced. You are installing a 79th machine in a country like Bangladesh. I am not even mentioning about our machines in Turkey and other countries. Believe me I don’t even know how many of our machines are operating where I’ve even forgotten the number. There is only one thing we know that the production of high-tech textile machinery that we have done, qualified production, wide service network is to serve,” Cüneyt Alkan says.
Cüneyt Alkan also says.”Sometimes every company has difficult days and periods. In 2004, we had an unfortunate incident and we lost many of our colleagues as a result of our personnel vehicle crashing. While we were living the sadness of lost our colleague that we lost, unfortunately our competitors had conducted negative campaign to destroy the Alkan Machinery trademark which is a great achievement for the brand Turkey. We had a very difficult time and a period. While there were many solutions to recovering this difficult period in a shorter time, the family of Alkan machines, which did not always compromise on integrity and honesty, decided to continue with the same brand-name. Our company, which was established 48 years ago as Alkan Machinery, continues today with the same name. Now when i check our market industry; almost no business with the same brandname (or title) or founder ongoing management not only in Turkey but also all over the world. This is a great success and this success belongs to the Alkan Machinery. Now the 2nd generation is slowly taking over all responsibilities. Hopefully when they take over the flag completely; They will celebrate its 100th year of Alkan Machinery brand,” and adds, “Turkey is a big state. I would like to have 50 years, 100 years of industrial organizations in our country. I want the same thing in the production of textile machinery, too. I will be proud of that. This is a success of all of us as a country. Now that I go 40, 45 years back when we go to the paint shops, that we established, are still active. Believe me when I go to those businesses, i am quite affected. Why this is so? The reason is that it is a great managerial success because in our country it is very difficult to do production and survive 40 years and 50 years, surviving the difficulties. Is this situation different in Europe? No, it is not. I look at the European machine manufacturers we have been competing with, many years ago, i see that; Chineese or indigenous industrialists have bought them or continue their production by other brandnames. Of course there are those who are successful and those who maintain the same stability, but I guess they will move on to other groups in the following years. They can’t resist, they can’t stand. In 2008, the economic crisis that had ravaged the world. Many of them changed hands by not being able to withstand the economic crisis. Didn’t the offers come up during the years of the accident that I just mentioned? So many offers came, we rejected them and we did not leave a company that we have made more difficult days to become a brand. Of course, this situation is also related to your goals and vision. Our goal is to think that this company has more to do.”
