LHT - PLATFORMDERGİ INTERVIEW

KEREM BAYRAK, GENERAL MANAGER OF ELS LIFT, SHOWING THAT THEY HAVE REACHED THEIR ANNUAL TARGETS THANKS TO THE QUICK ACTIONS THAT THEY HAVE SHOWN IN THE COVID-19 PROCESS. AS A PLATFORM, WE MET WITH KEREM BAYRAK AND TALKED ABOUT MANY SUBJECTS OF ELS LIFT, FROM PRODUCTION TO AFTER-SALES SERVICES, INVESTMENTS TO TARGETS.

FIRSTLY, HOW DID ELS LIFT START AND CLOSE THE YEAR? WERE THE DESIRED GOALS REACHED?

We made a very rapid start to 2020 with the hope of getting rid of the passive effects that 2019 had on the construction equipment sector, as in every sector. However, since the third month of the year, due to the pandemic process, which has been increasingly effective all over the world, a time full of uncertainty has entered. Although the effects of the virus threaten human health, one of the points it has affected has been the economy and commercial life. During the period when Covid-19 was in an intense course, a 40% contraction was experienced in the domestic market. With the transition to the normalization process towards the summer months, a slow recovery was observed. When we consider the subject in terms of the global market, the shrinkage in exports in European countries continued until the last quarter of 2020. As ELS Lift, we have achieved our annual target thanks to the fast actions we have taken since the beginning of the pandemic process.

YOU HAVE SIGNED IMPORTANT STUDIES TO DIVERSIFY YOUR PRODUCT RANGE IN THE PAST YEARS. WHAT DOES YOUR PRODUCT RANGE COVER CURRENTLY. WILL YOU PRESENT A NEW PRODUCT TO THE MARKET SOON?

Our R&D studies, which continue to introduce three new products to the market every year, continued this year without slowing down. Our current product range includes low-level access equipment, scissor lifts from 6 meters to 14 meters, vertical platforms from 6 meters to 10 meters, and 15 meters vertical personnel lift platforms. As we recently introduced the new version of our articulated personnel riser product to the market, we will add a variety of 16 and 19 meters to our scissor lift platforms, which we are approaching in the prototype stages.

YOU ARE IMPROVING YOUR SERVICE NETWORK EVERY DAY ALSO THE PRODUCT. WHAT DID YOU DONE TO BE ACTIVE IN THE DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL MARKET IN 2020, WHEN THE DOMESTIC MARKET HAS SHRINED AND EXPORTS INTENSIVE?

ELS lift as we expand our domestic market share of 55% and as of today we have in order to be active, we also included some point in Turkey's improving after-sales service and dealer network that will serve our technical service. Unfortunately, instability in purchasing power and investment plans also negatively affected our annual order forecasts. In our renewal center, which we put into operation in 2018 with the slogan of Start Again, we continued to renew the machines of our domestic and foreign customers and to sell the machines of ELS Lift branded machines with a manufacturer guarantee for 1 year, with second hand revision procedures.

THE YEAR 2020 IS HIGHLY DIFFICULT FOR THE WORLD DUE TO CORONAVIRUS. MANY SECTORS ARE AFFECTED BY THE VIRUS. AS A MANUFACTURER COMPANY IN THIS SCOPE, WAS THERE A FAILURE IN THE PRODUCTION PROCESS DURING THE PANDEMY? IF IT HAS HAPPENED, WHAT WAS YOUR SOLUTIONS?

Since the first months of 2020, when the pandemic has just begun to show its effects all over the world, ruptures have started to occur in the global supply chains. Along with the high exchange rates that went uncertain and unstable throughout the year, the construction equipment industry went through a bottleneck. All these uncertainties also caused inconsistency and uncertainty in customer demands. The annual forecasting production processes and plans of the construction equipment sector were negatively affected. As ELS Lift, in this period of uncertainty and instability, we have reviewed all our purchasing and production processes since the beginning of the year in order to respond to incoming demands. By developing alternatives to the vendors in our supply chain, reliable suppliers who are in an advantageous position in terms of logistics and who can benefit from air cargo / express services are included. In the envisaged order planning, instead of customers making multiple purchases at one location, the profile of customers making low-volume purchases at different locations has become more important. In order to reach this profile, our marketing strategies have changed, requiring more digitalization in our business processes.

HAVE YOU DETERMINED YOUR INVESTMENT PLANS RELATED TO THE FUTURE YEAR? WHICH ARE YOU CONSIDER TO INVEST MORE?

As ELS Lift, it has been of critical importance for us in my pandemic period to find solutions to the needs of our customers as soon as possible and to ensure that they can continue their work without interruption. For this reason, we accelerated our efforts to complete the online after-sales services platform, where we started infrastructure works in the last quarter of 2019. We plan to make our digital program available to our customers as soon as possible, where they can perform many operations from spare parts requests to detailed identification of purchased machines with the method of adding to the basket.

WHERE TO SEE YOU LIFT ELS 5 YEARS AFTER TURKEY AND THE WORLD MARKET?

As ELS Lift, our 5-year goals are as follows: To be the market leader in all product models we produce in the domestic market, and to be among the top 5 suppliers on a global scale thanks to our product quality and diversity in countries where we play an active role.