Koza Otomotiv, which is planning to open its new office in Hamburg, Germany next year, aims to increase its export rate to 40% in the next period.
Koza Otomotiv, entering the automotive market with the retail sector, has, then, managed to become the sought-after and preferred brand of the OEM channel. Bihter Hekim Usta, Strategic Planning and Business Development Specialist of Koza Otomotiv and Sales Manager Fikret Serez answered the questions we asked about the future of the brand, currently serving the end consumer with 5 chain markets.
Firstly, can we briefly listen to your brand from you?
Koza Otomotiv was founded in 1993. Our adventure, started in the retail sector, continued as a brand that started to produce its own products as of 1997. A year later, we started to serve the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) channel. Our brand, which later moved forward with the necessary certificates and quality certificates, is among the leading manufacturers of the sector today.
Our customer network and product range have grown and expanded over the past 30 years. Koza Otomotiv products are being preferred by customers in 25 out of every 100 cars sold in Turkey. Koza that is one of the top 3 players in the sector has direct contact with the end user through its retail channels with its own brands Auto Tyrex, Sees and Carmesse. Today, we are continuing to work with the first 5 big chain markets in Turkey.
What are these products and their features?
The diversity in the production line in the beginning consisted of carpet and mat products. Later on, we started to produce traffic kits, first aid kits, bags and engine lower casings in-house. Now, we are producing 500 thousand sets of carpet mats, 2 million first aid kits and traffic kits, and 100 thousand sets of vehicle underbody protection equipment every year. In order to increase quality and efficiency, especially in the production of carpet mats, which is our main product, we have made a significant difference in customer satisfaction with the automatic cutting machine that was incorporated in the first half of 2021. Apart from this, we also turned to automation in our other products and made the necessary investments. We are aiming to continue providing product diversity in accordance with the standards of the OEM channel, by observing the demands of end users and keeping our quality standards.
Can you give us information about the brands you partner with and your collaborations with these brands?
We can divide our main sales channels into three as OEM, chain stores and fleet leasing. Firstly, if we talk about the OEM channel, Stellantis Group, previous PSA, is our flagship in this channel, which includes Peugeot, OPEL, Citroen, D’S brands. We are very excited to find special solutions for the standard equipment and after-sales needs of this brand for nearly 25 years. We are also proud to be the official supplier of brands such as Toyota, Suzuki, Nissan, Hyundai, Subaru, Fiat, Skoda and Kia, having a significant market share in Turkey.
In the chain markets channel, we are making strategic partnerships with Turkey’s 5 big market chains, which I have just mentioned, with our own brands and ‘private label’ products. Metro, Cash&Carry, Carrefour, Bauhaus, Migros and Koçtaş, which are our customers in this channel, are playing an important role in delivering our products to the final consumer.
In our fleet and car rental customer group, which is another important sales channel, we are working with Avis&Budget, Derindere (drd), Sekar, MayGold and Garanti Filo. Thanks to this customer group, we are offering our products to our customers in transactions related to corporate and individual car rentals.
Which countries and regions do you export to?
We are currently exporting to the European Union, Middle East and Gulf countries (GULF). At the same time, we have a growth strategy targeting especially England and Turkis Republics, all Asian countries. As of today, 15 percent of our turnover is being realized through our export sales and this rate is increasing day by day. We will continue to make important moves in order to realize our export-oriented targets with our fair participations.
Will you have new investments? How will these investments affect your brand?
We are planning to open our Hamburg, Germany-based office, which we see as one of the important steps in line with our brand vision, at the end of next year. With this step, our goal is to add new customers to our existing European Union customers. We would like to express that we attach great importance to this investment in order to increase the share of export sales in our turnover to the level of 35-40% within 3 years.
What changes did the pandemic process cause for your brand?
That the production shifted especially from China to closer locations, having potential, in the pandemic and post-pandemic period, caused an increase in foreign demands for our company. Likewise, the demands of the end users changed in the domestic market and that their interest in the purchase of vehicles increased caused an increase in our turnover and an expansion of our staff. As Koza Otomotiv, we will continue to develop ourselves and take a position in order to be a solution partner for new customers in the new economic order of which change continues.
How do you evaluate the automotive sector? What is the position of the sector in the world? Where is Turkey in this regard?
In recent years, we have witnessed some crises that have deeply shaken the world economy, such as the chip crisis and wars, especially Covid. In the first months of Covid, the manufacture fell to minuses worldwide, then the return to life started slowly due to masks and distance and the demand for vehicles by the end user reached incredible rates. But, this rate is far from the coverage rates of raw material and semi-raw material that OEMs demanded from their suppliers at the beginning of the year. Here, the most striking example of products with supply chain problems is the ‘chip’. Due to the lack of chips, there were delays in the production and delivery of cars. Due to the accident in the Suez Canal, you can guess that the supply chain was hit and the local supply chain strategy has gained importance. As if these weren’t enough, the Russia-Ukraine war had an upward effect on the prices of petroleum products, felt all over the world. We are paying price for those crisis experienced in every aspect of our lives as a result of increase in inflation. Today, it has also shown itself in new vehicle prices and has also brought a serious increase in the second-hand market. As Koza Otomotiv, we feel great excitement about providing local and foreign customers with a planned local supply assurance and strategic partnership by benefitting from the advantage of the location. We look forward to meeting our visitors at Hall:12.1 Stand:D37 at Frankfurt Automechanika 2022.