Member of the board of directors of Seval Cable, Mr. Ersin Turgut: From the date of its foundation onwards up to the present day Seval Cable has adopted the principle of “PRODUCING QUALITY PRODUCTS” and become successful in all the markets to which it has entered.

When we have a look at the recent years we can not say that this achievement has been a surprise for us. We have begun to reap the fruits of the investments that we have made in the past for a long period of time. We see that our place in the sector has been consolidated even more firmly this year. Mr. Turgut, who stated that they were very happy both in their own name as well as in the name of extending support to the state as a result of being able to increase their volume during a period during which the export sector followed a fluctuating trend, shared the information about the sector with us: The foundations of our company were laid by means of the foundation of the company Cagdas Elektrik by Mr. Hasan Ali Turgut, who is the chairman of the board of directors of Seval Cable now, in Izmir in the year 1974. Our company has for long years realized the sale of electrical material and cables successfully in Izmir and Aegean region and become a wellknown company all over Turkey. It has launched its production activities on an area of 300m2 in Denizli in the year 1980 and has become one of the most modern and large production plants of Turkey today. Seval Cable has reached an annual capacity of processing 42.000 tons of copper and 60.000 tons of granules with its experienced team of 500 employees in its 6 integrated production facilities with a total area of 70.000 m2 and a closed area of 50.000 m2. Seval Cable produces its products in accordance with TSE – HAR – BASEC – SII – VDE – KEMA – NF – GOST – TUV standards, IS0 9001 – 14001 and OHSAS 18001 management systems, CE directives and RoHS.
75 % of the production volume of Seval Cable is exported to foreign markets while 25 % is sold to the domestic market. The sales to the domestic market is realized through Cagdas Cable, which is a subsidiary of our company, in order to meet the dynamics of the market and the demands of the customers rapidly. As Seval Cable we continue our efforts for providing better service to our customers and solution partners who prefer to work with us, with our specialized team of 85 employees each of whom have a market experience as well as our IZMIR-ANKARA –ISTANBUL – BURSA branches (which work with stocks) and Logistical Center in Denizli.
The most important factor which keeps a company alive is the human factor. Our company has always attributed great importance to investments for recruiting qualified personnel. In our view, the members of our personnel is not only our employees but a membership of the Seval Cable family.
You have managed to take part in the list of the first biggest 100 companies according to the results of the survey on the first 1000 exporters of Turkey for the year 2015. How do you evaluate this achievement of Seval Cable?
When we have a look at the recent years we can not say that this achievement has been a surprise for us. We have begun to reap the fruits of the investments that we have made in the past for along period of time. We see that our place in the sector has been consolidated even more firmly this year. Mr. Turgut stated that they were very happy both in their own name as well as in the name of extending support to the state as a result of being able to increase their volume during a period during which the export sector followed a fluctuating trend
Does the year 2016 proceed in accordance with your expectations? What are your expectations for this year in terms of production and exports?
Every year we have realized a serious growth in comparison to the previous year. We have realized significant developments both in financial terms and in terms of customer portfolio. We have taken a serious distance in many markets as a result of our investments in machinery park and research, development and innovation activities and the quality certificates to which we continiously add new ones. The year 2016 continues as we have envisaged. Besides our sector has also been affected from the shrinking in the markets which had also affected all other sectors. However we continue to maintain our place in the sector thanks to the measures that we had taken at the beginning of the year and hope that the markets shall build up again in the near future.
Which are the countries and regions to which Seval Cable realizes an effective export of its products? What is your strategy directed at diversifying your export markets? What are your target markets and your expected volume of exports to those markets?
We generally work with all countries. Our exports are predominantly directed to Northern European – African and USA markets, to which we export our products in large scales. Awareness about our brand is increasing in these countries in which we are in the position of a preferred brand. These markets are followed by the Middle-eastern and North African markets. We choose the countries with different structural characteristics and reduce the risk in order to diversify the target markets. We determine the target markets by taking into consideration all political, economic and cultural factors. One of the most important factors for us is the environment of competition in the market. We make a detailed and scrupulous analysis of the market together with our experienced personnel whom we have recruited carefully. We use various methods like obtaining information from the commercial attachees and participating in the trade fairs. We determine the volume of exports according to the structural characteristics and needs of the target countries. Generally we want to allocate approximately 20 % of our total export volume for new, potential markets
What are the share of research and development activities and innovation in the development of your company?
Research and development activities which have a place in all the stages of our lives is directly related to the human life. Research and development department is in deed an expensive department of which number is very few in our country. Our research and development department and machinery park is equipped with the state of the art technological machinery. As Seval Cable we allocate an average amount of 500.000 USD for research and development activities every year. I may say that the problems which we frequently encounter while entering a new market are the new types of cables and the certification process. Design, quality control and research and development departments assume the greatest part of the work load throughout this process.
From the date of its foundation onwards up to the present day Seval Cable has adopted the principle of “PRODUCING QUALITY PRODUCTS” and has become successful in all the markets in which it has entered thanks to this vision. In contrast to its activities in the domestic market Seval Cable has not met very much difficulties in the export markets in which the quality of products, certification and quality of service come to the fore and has always ranked at the top of the preferences of the customer. We have the most modern and wide control laboratory of Turkey. We employ experienced engineers from almost all areas. All the products, either small or large, are produced and examined in accordance with the quality control documents.
How does Seval Cable position itself at the global arena as far as its short and long-term predictions are concerned? For example what your targets for the year 2023?
Seval Cable always intends to make new investments and works out future oriented plans. For example while we had an export volume of 20 million USD five years ago we have reached an export volume of 142 million USD today. This corresponds to a growth of 700 % within five years. We always want to increase our activities at the global scale.
Our expectation from the year 2023 is to go beyond our present level. Besides we also especially look forward to the year 2023 as all the other companies which are active in the global arena. But we always move ahead in our path under the slogan “The one who can not develope itself looses”. Until the year 2023 we hope to realize a growth through which we could make a better contribution both to ourselves and our country.