Miller Magazine Issue 108 / December 2018

72 MILLER / DECEMBER 2018 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM speed in sheet metal processing by 3 times. By means of our investments on 5 axis CNC, we have increased productivity by more than 40 percent by giving a new dimension to machining. By the new welding robots we have the opportunity to offer better quality and more efficient products and services. There are a number of milling machine manufactu- rers in Turkey. What does Imas offer flour industria- lists in a sector with fierce competition? What gives you a boost? Imas makes the difference at innovation, quality, tech- nology and sustainability. Another important point is our ability to offer spare parts and technical support services 7 days in 24 hours. We have a separate team called Pro- Support for after-sales services. We put so much impor- tance to after-sales and sustainable services in this area are among our priorities. Would you please give us brief information about your recent projects? There are plants in many parts of the worlds that we have commissioned. This year we had three projects in Algiers with daily flour production capacity of 500 met- ric tons and 300 metric tons and with semolina produ- ction capacity of 120 metric tons a day. We also com- missioned flour production plants In Russia, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia and Mali with capacities from 60 metric tons to 240 tons a day. We also commissioned plants in Turkey in 2018. We built flour production plant for Torku with a capacity of 200 tons/day and for Ekol Sera a with 300 tons/day capacity. We also have other projects which installation works are going on. We plan to commission them soon. You can follow our social media accounts to get infor- med about our latest projects. Imas is among companies that highly invest in R&D. It especially focuses in R&D. You established a flour mill for R&D purposes in 2012 and that was supported by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. You also established an R&D center last year. What is your R&D budget and what do you do in terms of research and development? How your R&D activities contributed your sales and brand value? We pay so much importance to Research and De- velopment. We are among the biggest 1000 Turkish exporters and biggest 250 R&D investors. And feel right proud of this. We spent more than 6 million Turkish liras for R&D. For 2018 this will reach to a similar amount. After our R&D center became active, we increases R&D investments. Thanks to these investments, we furt- her improved quality of our products. Now, our R&D center is working for developing new products. We also attach great importance to university-industry coopera- tion. As we decrease production cost, we achieved to develop energy efficient products and this reflected in our exports in a positive way. We focused on innova- tion by recruiting qualified personnel in order to pro- duce high value-added goods. Our aim is to contribute in creating a highly efficient and competitive economic atmosphere. Let’s talk about your operations abroad. How many countries have you exported your goods? Is there a specific region you focus on? Imas Integrated Machinery Systems is one of the few brands that have their own patents in this sector. Iit exports its technology from the Central Asian countries to Africa and from Turkic republics to the United States. In 2017, we completed 19 turnkey projects for Asian and African countries. This year we increased this num- ber to 39 including ongoing projects. We have ongoing projects in 17 countries from North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. We have exported our goods to 94 countries until to- day. We especially focus on Africa. In addition to this we attend trade fairs in many parts of the world in order to increase market diversity. For instance, in the last 2 months we contributed trade fairs in Turkey, Iran, Philip- pines, Algiers, Kenya, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria, Chile. In 2018, the number of fairs we attended is close to 30. You opened an office in the USA in 2011. And you have become a supplier for giants like ADM and Ar- dent Mill. How are you perceived in Northern Ameri- ca market. Did you find what you expect? We were already aware of the fact that Northern Ame- rica market is highly competitive one when we opened our office there. We faced some resistance during the first