UGC moved to the new factory building in Selimpaşa in June 2017. Setting the target for growing 60 % in 2018-2019, UGC also plans to increase export to 40 % in 2018-2019, which is currently 8 %. UGC UĞUR GÜRBÜZ CIVATA General Manager Uğur GÜRBÜZ has expressed that they attach importance to participating in the exhibitions both in the country and abroad.

When did you start working in this sector?

Uğur Gürbüz: I started working with my father in our family company in 1983. I had worked in the family company by 2001, and later I founded my own company. I continue this job as the second generation. My son Ayberk GÜRBÜZ has completed his education at university, and started working as the third generation.

Could you give information about the foundation process of your company, your new factory building and the range of productions?

Uğur Gürbüz: Our Company was established with the name Gürbüz Cıvata as a private company in Bayrampaşa in 2001. We became a limited company in 2005. We moved to the factory in Beylikdüzü 2013. We operated in the area of 2000 meter squares in Beylikdüzü. We changed the name of our company as UGC in 2015. We moved to Ortaköy Industrial Zone in Selimpaşa in June 2017. Our new factory has 2000 meter squares of outdoors and 4600 meter squares of indoors including 4000 meter squares of production area and 600 meter squares of office.

As we have moved to our current new building, our turnover has increased 30 %. We plan to improve our capacity 60 % gradually in 2018-2019.

UGC Has Started Producing Nuts

We produce the screws, rivets and nuts for the industries of furniture and electric-electronics, especially the industries of White goods and automotive.

We may say that we are one of the most competitive companies that produce stainless screw in Turkey. We have just started producing nuts. We are trying to develop our product range continuously. We have added 150-size-machine to our machine park this year. We used to produce maximum 200mm size screws before, now we are able to produce 150 mm screws. Thus, in general, as Ø, our screw production capacity has reached minimum Ø2 mm/ maximum Ø 12 mm, and as size, it has reached minimum 3 mm/ maximum 150 mm size. 65 % of our production is customer specific, and 45 % of our production is standard. The highest circulation of our production is the circulation of the screws. I would like to clarify one more issue: Even though our company name includes the name bolt, we produce screws, rivets and nuts.

We have the ISO 9001:2001quality certificate, and we have renewed it as ISO 9001:2015. We have the ISO 14001 Work Security and ISO 18001 Environment certificates. We aim at completing the infrastructure works for the ISO 16949 certificate this year, and receiving the certificate in 2019. We manufacture with the team of 50 people, but the number of white-collar employees and blue-collar employees increases continuously parallel to the consistently developing machine park.

We worked with the 60-65 % capacity in 2016, and we manufactured around 700 million pieces of product. We produced 1 billion 100 million pieces in 2017. We aim at increasing this amount 60 % in 2018.

Despite the fact that you moved in 2017, how could you ensure this increase?

Uğur Gürbüz: We got the special consumption tax promotion in white goods thanks to the decision of the government in 2017. The period of this promotion coincided with the same period as our moving, and we got a high demand. As UGC, we could complete the moving process so fast and without problems, and meet the increasing demand in the market. We supplied some resources from the production and sales increase, and we used them as machinery investment in our factory. -

The Organized Industrial Zones Should Not Be the Place for Unearned Income

In the previous interview, you mentioned that you would like to make investment in Çanakkale. Why did you prefer Selimpaşa rather than Çanakkale?

Uğur Gürbüz: Çanakkale is my hometown, this is why I have always planned to make investment in my own hometown, the place I was born.

I think Çanakkale is such a strategic location, but it is underestimated. We searched for around 1800 meter squares of area in Çanakkale Organized Industrial Zone, but they increased the price of the meter square enormously right after the Organized Industrial Zone board meeting. Thus, we decided to make our investment in Selimpaşa- Ortaköy Organized Zone instead of Çanakkale.

As UGC, what are your targets for 2018?

Uğur Gürbüz: We aim and plan to increase our export to 40 % in 2018-2019, which currently constitutes 8 % of our turnover. We have already started generating our infrastructure. We plan to participate in the foreign exhibitions and the organizations held by IMMIB-IDDMIB abroad. Export is a process. Sometimes it takes 6 months for the samples to be tested. We have recently prepared various samples for some European countries including Germany, France and Greece; and they have informed us that there is no problem in our samples, and they wait for the mass production tests. It takes a period between six months and one year for the tests to become real orders. We estimate that when the test results of the samples are received, we will get the real orders, and our export will increase to 40 %.

We will participate in Fastener Fair Turkey and HEFI 2018 White Goods Key and Subsidiary Industry exhibitions in the country this year. We will also participate in the exhibitions held by IMMIB-IDDMIB abroad.

07.05.2018