Murat Gulmez, Lider Kozmetik Product Manager claimed that their target was to be a leader company, which is beneficial for the public, economy and environment.
Conveying that they stepped into cosmetics industry seeing the lack of domestic manufacturers and setting up a powerful team Gulmez pointed out that he worked in every field of the company. Saying that they have a target to be a leader company Gulmez answered our questions. Could you please tell us about your company’s history and field of activity? Our business life has started in 70’s as Koseoglu Automotive with my father Naci Kose’s hot sales channel and it has changed its shell with global market’s growth and change. After moving our company’s headquarters to Istanbul, we founded Lider Kozmetik Inc. there as a family business. In this period, which our country got stronger and its economy got better starting from 80’s, in wholesales in domestic market, with Allah’s grace we have become a successful player with a powerful team. During the 90’s, we saw the lack of domestic manufacturers in the market and we stepped into the cosmetics industry with our fund of knowledge and we founded a strong team. Our first production facility was in Tuzla Industrial Estate residing on a 5000 m2 field, we kept on manufacturing until 2000’s with a staff consisting of 65 people. During this period, I learnt the job in the back of house and worked in different fields of the factory. During 2000’s we had difficulties and competing circumstances of the market and together with the financial crisis that our country was suffering we gave a decision. With this decision we have made our first export to Egypt. In 2003 we went through a reconstruction in domestic market. We started to manufacture special products of big companies. The number of countries we export increased to 45 in 2005. With the emergence of Middle East, U.S. and Russia markets in 2006 we purchased Kartal teneke Inc., the first and the biggest tin packaging manufacturer of our country and our biggest raw material supplier, and we became one of the biggest integrated facilities of the world. We set up our team by locating our permanent staff in many regions of Turkey in 2013. Today we keep on manufacturing on 30 thousand m2 area in Dilovasi Industrial Estate as the biggest aerosol manufacturer of Turkey and Middle East. Our daily production capacity is now 1 million a day and the number of countries we export increased reaching 90 countries. Our foundation purpose is to become an international power which develops quality, innovative products along with the products that satisfy customer needs in the Cosmetics and house care industries. We are aiming to grow by having our customers, whom we see as suppliers that we are in cooperation with and as our business partners, earn and to become a leader company, which is good for public, economy and environment. Could you please tell us about your field of activity and your investment plans? We laid the base of our new facility which resides on a 40 thousand m2 area in location close to our present manufacturing facility in Dilovasi Industrial Estate. Here, we develop new products in fields of cosmetics, personal care and home care by using the state of the art technology and we are preparing ourselves fast for 2023 with economic stabilization. Could you please give information concerning your R&D studies? What percent of your turnover is reserved for R&D? What can you say about the product you developed as a result of R&D? We reserve 5 percent of our turnover for R&D. There are many products satisfying ISO 9001 and GMP quality standards in the Lider kozmetik product range. Perfume, deodorant, roll-on, hair care products, body spray and lotion, hair shaping sprays, air freshener, furniture polish, carpet, kitchen, bath room, oven, glass and leather cleaners and anti-static sprays can be counted among the products we developed as a result of R&D. Many products and projects in the personal care category other than listed are still being researched and developed by experienced personnel in a modern lab. Which regions do you export? Do you have new targets? As Lider kozmetik we export our products to 90 countries around the world. We want to grow our export volume to Europe and America continent in accordance with the targets we set for the years 2014 and 2015. In order to increase the brand awareness and percentage of personal care product sales, investing more in our marketing events is among our midterm and long term targets. Could you please make a review of domestic and foreign exhibitions? Are you getting the expected results from the exhibitions? As a person following both domestic and foreign exhibitions closely, I see that exhibitions, except a few industrial exhibitions, have lost their purpose in time. Related to the financial fluctuations in the world, I observe that competitions increased very much and the participant companies increased, on the other hand as a result of this situation the number of visitors decreased. This is the reason why we keep on searching new industrial exhibitions in North, South America and Asia markets