Kırıker Metal Elevator General Manager Mustafa Kırıker, who said that export has been among the primary targets of Kırıker Metal Elevator since its establishment, stated that they have been

exporting for about 20 years. Mustafa Kırıker, who noted that their export adventure, which started with a few countries in the first years, increased over time, said, "We continue our efforts to increase the number of countries in exports every year. Our export adventure started with Egypt and then continued with Morocco, Lebanon, our neighbouring countries, European and Asian countries. Our export strategy is based on distributing risks. In the period we are in, the balances in the world are changing very quickly. Diplomatic tensions with a country to which you export intensively can disrupt your work. While there is peace in another country where you work, you wake up one morning and war starts. For this reason, we apply a strategy of spreading our exports not to one or a few countries, but to the whole. With this strategy, we organise our production in a way to set an example for the reliability and quality of Turkish goods."

Mustafa Kırıker, who also mentioned that the competition in the sector is quite intense, stated that Turkey has recently become one of the countries sought by the buyer markets in terms of foreign sales. However, Mustafa Kırıker also stated that the slowdown in the domestic construction sector has led the producers to export more, "This has brought competition. As a company, we aim to provide competition not with price, but rather with quality products, timely delivery and technical service. With this strategy, we have become the most popular door brand in some countries. We currently have dealerships and customers in many different countries, including Far Asian countries. As Kırıker Metal Asansör, our products are used in 30 countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy,

Vietnam and 60 countries through our dealers. We can say that the region where we are the

strongest in exports is currently North Africa, Middle East and Balkan countries." Mustafa Kırıker said that they conduct market research by visiting the fairs held in those countries while establishing entry strategies to new countries for export market diversity, "We determine the company that will best represent Kırıker Metal Elevator and its products locally with the data obtained after the fair visit and market researches. By making a dealership agreement with the determined company, we ensure a long-term, not short-term, work in the target country or region."

-We only produce doors

"As Kırıker Metal Elevator, the most important feature that distinguishes us from our competitors is that we only produce doors." said Mustafa Kırıker and continued his words as follows: "We do not produce anything other than semi-automatic, automatic and kramer door production. Our area of expertise is only door production and supply. Our goal is to be the door supplier of the sector without entering any other manufacturing or service. I think that the fast technical service offered to the customer gives us an additional advantage. The world is going through a very dynamic and fast process right now. It is really difficult to keep up with the change in this process. As a company, we have no difficulty in keeping up with the market by providing both product certification and the documents required by the countries in advance. The R&D unit of our company constantly evaluates the complaints, suggestions and ideas coming from sales and the field in a certain systematic way and new products and changes are made accordingly.

Since our R&D unit constantly monitors the standard changes and market differences in the target countries, our time to adapt to the situation in our target markets is shortened.

Currently, the most important problem in exports is delivery times. In order to solve this problem and even turn it into an advantage, we have established an ERP programme in our company. In this way, we can both use our resources more effectively and give delivery times to our customers in shorter terms.

The fact that we only produce doors gives us an advantage over sector actors that produce different items. Focusing our entire focus on door production increases our mobility in terms of both quality and fast production. In addition, the collaborations we established abroad also played an important role in the brand recognition we provided. We take stronger steps with one or two companies in a country, not with many companies. Domestically, we care about cooperation with export-oriented package elevator companies and we strive to provide the necessary technical service logistics support here.

Our export target in the future is to be the door supplier of the global market. We want to be a brand that is demanded and sought after from all continents and countries. We aim to achieve this goal by optimising factors such as quality, trust, timely delivery, technical service and logistics demands by adhering to a certain strategy.

Our export market is increasing every year in terms of both turnover and number of countries. We send 70 per cent of our production to the foreign market either directly or through our dealers. If we evaluate the first 6 months of 2023, there is a limited increase compared to the same period of the previous year. The limited increase in our turnover in the first 6 months of this year was caused by the financial problems in countries such as Egypt and Iraq, where we work intensively, the ongoing war and civil unrest in countries such as Ukraine and Lebanon, and the slowdown in global demand in general.