The Executive Vice President of Klas Cable Serdar Baykal

The Executive Vice President of Klas Cable Serdar Baykal We endeavour to establish a long termed strategies adopting structure instead of being a company which has built its targets on short termed benefits.
Could you provide us some information about the history and the products of Klas Kablo?
Klas Kablo, founded in 1984 and will complete its 30th foundation anniversary, is a low current cables manufacturing company. The production of coaxial cables stood at the forefront during the initial years. It has increased its production diversity in the 1990s with External and Internal Phone Cables, Signal Command Cables and Data Cables. It has introduced the KD series data cables for the RS-232 and RS-422 protocols under the brand KlasData and became a pioneer in the sector. Klas Kablo, which tracks the changes in the world and in the country closely, has included the fire proof cables group and instrument cables, which were mandatory to be applied in the world just in these years, to its product range by new investments in the 2000s. The product diversity of our company, which bears the identity of a special cables manufacturer, has reached figures like 14K and it continupusly increases. The fire cables are certified with the German VDE and the Russian GHOST Fire Certificate and the other product groups are TSE, CE and TSEK certified. 30% of the employees are white collars and 6 engineers are employed in different departments. Our colleagues in the R&D department conduct continuously new design, test and technical studies according to the customer demands. It is particular attention attached to establish a diligent, open for innovations and dynamic staff. We elaborate by our human focussed system to establish a realistic and transparent structure with the right persons in which everyone is able to express himself/herself clearly and use their creativity. The employee satisfaction and thus the customer satisfaction is our priority.
We provide services to our sector by our regional directorates in Ankara, Izmir and Antalya beside the central sales office in Istanbul Şişhane Square. Our company, which offers its product to the market via a distinguished and the sector’s leading distributor network, has preserved its position as being the pioneer, reliable and deep rooted company of the Turkish cable sector since its foundation during a period of 30 years until present.
The fire proof cables, manufactured under the registered trade mark of Klas kablo, are used at systems which need to sustain their function for a define time during evacuation in smart and semi-smart buildings. These cables are products which are subjected to flame retardation tests, non-flame-propagation tests, 3 hours horizontal flame tests, under flame mechanical impact tests, under flame water spraying tests, smoke density tests, corrosive gas tests and all other electrical and physical tests and have the feature to sustain their function in case of a fire. The products in the fire proof cables group are TSE, TSEK, Russian Fire and VDE certified. Also other product groups like coaxial, fire alarm, phone, instrumentation, bus, control cables are manufactured under the registered trade mark of Klas Kablo, too. Coaxial cables of the brand Klas Kablo are being used in our country and in the world confidently since 1984. Control cables are with their PVC and halogen-free versions one of our main product groups. The brand Klas Kablo was part of very important projects in terms of instrumentation cables. Particularly project based works are conducted depending on the specifications in this product group and due diligence needs to be provided from product selection to design at every stage.
Our Product Groups are mainly:
• Control cables,
• Coaxial cables,
• Instrumentation cables (PVC, PVC-HR, PVC-s, LSZH (HF FR), fire proof, UV resistant…),
• Halogen free flame retardant cables
• Data transmission cables,
• Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) cables,
• Fire alarm cables,
• Internal phone cables,
• Bus cables,
• Silicon cables,
• Special / combined cables.
In terms of production capacity, there is an installed capacity beyond the needs in the Turkish domestic market. Could you assess this issue? Are there any strategies regarding a solution?
Our sector, which has experienced a serious development process during the last 10 years, is actually the largest of its region. We are active in a sector, which has an export potential of total USD 5 Billion in the domestic and foreign markets. Whilst cable exports with a volume of USD 2.4 Billion were realized in 2012, the export target for 2023 is USD 8.0 Billion. The Cables and Conductors Manufacturers Association, of which are a member, too, targets to reach new export markets with its Abroad Marketing Team and the USA, which realizes cables exports with a volume of USD 8.0 Billion is being tracked at this stage. And the export of the Turkish cable sector, which had realized cable exports with a volume of USD 2.4 Billion last years, to the USA, the world’s largest economy, had a volume of only USD 40 Million. It is targeted to develop the commercial relations with the USA and to increase the exports realized by the Turkish cable manufactures, which are among the largest of the world in terms of both the manufacturing capacity and the high technology, to this country. Europe, Middle-East, Northern Africa, Russia and the Turk Republics are amongt the important markets of our sector.
What do you think would be the measures to clear the way of domestic manufacturers in the inner market?
Manufacturing companies in our sector are in the same market as the price based competition. Even if these should be searches in order to enter into new markets during the recent periods, there is commonly a price based competition in the same markets. The companies continue to enter into an excessive competition in a sector which is the 4-fold of the domestic market. Due to the fact that some companies trended towards low quality products in order to obtain added value in our sector with a poor control are the images of the sector and in parallel of the country negatively affected. This image needs to be improved for the sake of the sector. The innovation and R&D capacity is insufficient. There is no cooperation with TUBITAK and the universities. High endorsements and long termed settlements are circulating in our sector. We face in this direction the preservation and good monitoring of the credit-risk balance as an important activity in this direction.
The distributorship system is comprehended false in our sector and the distributors are perceived as middlemen, to which the risks are passed only. Or the distributors are perceived as competitors after a while and this is a failure. Particularly during the past years have the negative experiences of direct seller manufacturers forced them to conduct their sales via distributor at present, whereby it is again a failure and unfair to deem the distributorship only as a risk sharing. There will be nothing amended as a result when we can’t distinguish correct from wrong and the companies will not be aware of their failures.
One of the important issues regarding this is the determinedness at the steps regarding branding and the performed trade pursuant to the hierarchic composition. Whilst companies, which have completed the branding and institutionalization processes and established a brand value conduct their activities via distributors, a large manufacturer portion progresses on their path by establishing prices. Distributor network is the one which is hard to manage; solely price establishment, certificate qualification might be insufficient. The distributor management consists of many important headlines like bilateral commitments, policies, principles, personal and corporate reliability, honesty, an equipped team, awareness in the projects and the market, stock availability, transport easiness, premium contracts, commitments and finally the achieved service quality, constituting the strong trust band for a long termed trade. In the long run is mutual satisfaction a must.
Whilst distributing the risks is the most important rule in trade, when we look at the manufacturers, who have suffered problems in the past, we see that a couple of customers were granted credits with volumes of Millions and that the wholesaler, which suffered problems with the first crisis, pulled the manufacturer with him, too. This situation causes that the copper manufacturers, from whom we acquire raw materials, and even insurance companies, have a negative opinion of our sector and affects their view of, credits to other manufacturers, who have nothing to do with it. We as Klas Kablo have a large sales team, separate directorates, namely project and wholesale, and a rather large sector based customer – sales network.
Could you tell us what benefits the quality provides to the end consumer? What would you say about quality and compliance with the standards in the Turkish cable market, particularly in your manufacturing branch?
The most important problem of our sector is product quality and the unfair competition resulting thereof. Whilst the subject cable is really not an easy subject, it holds at the same time a very important position in the project. There is no doubt that quality provides a huge number of benefits to the end user, but the benefit to be mentioned for particularly “fire proof cables” is, different from the other groups, such to threat human life. These cables in question are subjected to flame retardation tests, non-flame-propagation tests, 3 hours horizontal flame tests, under flame mechanical impact tests, under flame water spraying tests, smoke density tests, corrosive gas tests and all other electrical and physical tests and have the feature to sustain their function in case of a fire. They are at least expected to provide these features. But in our country is this issue unfortunately left to the moral of the manufacturers. We have many times detected that some companies do not comply with the quality standards determined by the official bodies even at a minimal level. The non-compliance of the manufacturers with the quality standards harms the general image of the sector and the necessary performance and safety required to be provided by the products offered to the end consumers are unfortunately not met. Facing possible damages during the usage is inevitable and more costs are faced.
What should the consumers take into consideration when selecting cables?
The cable selection criterions are a rather comprehensive and large subject. There is no single formula or method. The conditions, the application, special situations and even habits and experiences are important at the selection of cables. The point that comes to the foreground is to select and acquire “the correct product with the least cost for the correct application to perform the correct job”. A wrong selection is possible to return as loss of time, additional labour force and a more expensive solution. Here we handle a couple important beneficial issues depending on the application. Many other questions could be added to these depending on the utilization of the cable. Every application can be expanded within itself and discussed one by one. For example is the installation method for installation cables from the conductor to the laying method a single issue itself. Bu the selection is easier since the cable types become well known. Contrary is this somehow difficult at special type cables.
Appropriate cable for the necessary job Some of the questions to be answered during the selection of cables are the following:
– What is the operation voltage of the cable?
– Are values like impedance, capacity, return losses important for the cable?
– Do the temperature conditions of the environment comply with your cable?
– Is there oil, chemicals, humidity etc. in the environment?
– Is the diameter of the cable selected correctly?
– How is the application method (fixed-moveable)?
– Will the cable be used inside or outside? Do the UV-ozone-weather conditions require a resistance? Are there any sub-ground installations?
– Does the environment include mechanical strains, impacts, rodent risks etc.? Will the cable be used at fire systems?
– Does the cable need screening?
– Are there any samples?
– Is the colour important for the application?
– Is the application distance important?
– Is the cable diameter and the minimal bending radius important?
The answers of these questions need to be investigated and the appropriate cables for the necessary works should be preferred since these criterions are important at the selection of cables.
What would you like to add as the last words?
We want to note that it is very hard to find cable companies with principle in the cable sector, where unfair competition is experienced very frequent. The sense for ethical commerce is extremely important in terms of both the employees and the companies. When this sense is not developed sufficiently will the experienced on both the side of the production as well as the side of the sales policies determined by the manufacturers only decrease the lath of the sector.
A cheap price is never a solution in trade. I want to state that we are a company, which is aware of how important the preservation of commercial benefits rather than the price is at companies managed with a distributor network. We, as the manufacturers, are not the competitors of our customers and we have never adopted a trade in this manner. We endeavour to establish a long termed strategies adopting structure instead of being a company which has built its targets on short termed benefits. Our company principle is that our job is to produce and to conduct our sales via our distributors, and to treat our distributors equal, fair and transparent. Not only during the production stage, but also in the marketing and sales scales, we offer our products under our corporate identity to the market without violating the hierarchic composition via our distributors, which are equivalent with our quality.