In 2019 Çetin Cıvata went through a significant period of investment with the company adding further manufacturing capabilities, as well as renewing its corporate identity with new logos across all platforms – using all of its corporate experience to bring the company, and Tecde Group, into a new era and to further grow its brand globally.
The first major development for Çetin Cıvata in 2019 was the completion of its new sorting, handling and packaging facility, as well as its new logistics warehouse. “Both of these building were necessary in order to help us better serve our customers,” explains Cenk Turfanda, general manager at Çetin Cıvata. “Through the new sorting, handling and packaging department we can ensure a reliable supply of products to all our customers and through our new logistics warehouse we can guarantee that we are sending the products to customers as and when they need them.”
The next major investment by the Tecde Group was in a surface coating facility. “Our Group’s coating company has got the license to apply Delta® brand coatings from Dörken, in addition to the coatings of Magni, which we have been able to apply for the last two years,” explains Cenk. “Our coating company has also invested in a fully automatic zinc nickel line and also in alkali-zinc, with integrated deep spin, top coat lines.”
The final investment by Çetin in 2019 was in five new multi-station cold forging machines and three new combined cold headers, which were installed in the factory throughout the year. “We have a full production set-up at Çetin Cıvata, which enables us to produce a wide range of bolts, from M3 to M27, nuts, from M6 to M22, and a wide range of screws – all in various qualities and coatings,” mentions Cenk. “Our factory also has all the necessary system conformity certificates and quality certifications, such as IATF 16949, EN ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001 and the conformity certificate of structural bolting assemblies as per EN 14399 and EN 15048.”
Cenk continues: “Thanks to our ability to ensure a consistent and satisfactory service to the market – through our total quality management system, which is approved and controlled by our international global buyers’ regular audits – and also through the continuous orders and forecast order plans from our direct OEM clients, our products will continue to fit perfectly into our clients’ production lines for their daily consumption and usage, as well as their plans for the future.”
Through these investments, plus its commitment to quality, Çetin Cıvata is able to supply its products to markets all over the world. “Being a Turkish company we have a geographical advantage that enables us to reach customers globally,” points out Cenk. “We are located in the middle of the European, Asian and Middle Eastern markets with the possibility to visit customers in all three areas within 2 to 4 hours. We can also export products to these markets via road, rail and sea. Turkey has a young and ambitious population, which creates big potential for Turkish companies to grow quickly and to follow global developments in technology.”
Cenk points out that one of the challenges of being a Turkish manufacturer, however, is the difficulty of making mid to long-term strategic business plans – due to unforeseen circumstances arising from the continuous regional problems in Turkey’s neighbouring countries.
“Political inconsistency in neighbouring countries creates low economic growth in the region and means there is a lack of demand for Turkish export products from these countries, which makes it difficult for smaller companies to grow as quickly. Normally if a company is looking to start exporting it will focus on the neighbouring countries, before expanding further afield. However, this is not possible currently, which can make it difficult. At Çetin Cıvata we have been exporting for many years and have therefore already established partnerships around the world.”
Çetin Cıvata underlines that it has been able to establish such a vast network of customers due to five key properties. “Flexibility, wider product range, proactive strategy, tailor-made new and special product development, as well as a good brand name and reputation, have all played a key role in our success,” states Cenk. “Going forward we also need to be more active and dominate in the OEM market. That is why we are reinforcing our engineering staff and improving the capability of our R&D department. We are also looking to increase the dynamism of our sales team.”
One of the biggest opportunities for Çetin going forward is the reputation it has established for itself within the fastener market. “Thanks to the capacity and flexibility of our machinery set-up, and our ability to make all production processes in-house – wire drawing/annealing, cold forging, thread rolling, heat treatment and surface coating – without subcontracting, we can provide a first class service to customers and ensure long and successful partnerships,” mentions Cenk. “We are continuously investing in modern machinery and equipment to help us expand our wide product range; continue our development ability for new and special products; as well as constantly looking to optimise the service we provide to customers. All these features differentiate us from the competitors in our domestic and export markets.”
Focusing on its domestic market, Çetin has recently taken additional steps to further grow its sales activity by employing further experienced sales specialists – who will be active in the field by regularly visiting customers in strategic industry areas of Turkey. “We see moderate growth in the Turkish fastener market in the next 10 years, with the main challenges for the big players being the narrowing and tightening of profit margins, as well as huge fixed costs,” explains Cenk. “Overall, we see consistent but modest growth in the global fastener supply chain in the next 10 years – with more consolidation within the market. As a big player, one of the main challenges is the narrowing and tightening of profit margins. This has been a big ‘headache’ for all metal and steel related industries during the last decade – throughout the world. For smaller companies, one of the big challenges will be to accommodate their production set-up’s in accordance with the Kanban service markets and in conformity with Full Service Provider companies – so they can give the correct service for ‘just in time’ deliveries. I believe they also have to be more dynamic over the years to come.”
Will joined Fastener + Fixing Magazine in 2007 and over the last 12 years has experienced every facet of the fastener sector – interviewing key figures within the industry and visiting leading companies and exhibitions around the globe. Will manages the content strategy across all platforms and is the guardian for the high editorial standards that the brand is renowned.
