Miller Magazine Issue: 112 April 2019

95 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM APRIL 2019 Hitit Makina and Intermilling represent ambition and success of two young entrepreneurs who entered this in- dustry as employees in 1992. Rıdvan Karaküçük and Ali Avcu started their business in 1995 in Corum, a Central Anatolian city with Hitit Makine. They started operati- ons in the milling industry with plansifter manufacturing. Their ultimate goal was to have an internationally known brand and they focused on the European market. Rıd- van Karaküçük, one of the co-founders of Intermilling introduced innovations to the industry in a short time. Karaküçük gave an interview to the Miller Magazine and talked about their journey from plansifter manufacturing to turn-key facilities in Turkey and abroad. He says that the company also plays role in capacity increase projects, roller manufacturing, factory maintenance, spare part supply and automation applications. As a result, they made their way to the German market as one of the most preferred brands. Karaküçük stressed that they continue to develop high quality and cost effective machinery and equipment for millers in order to accompany them during their taste journey for flour and bakery products. Rıdvan Karaküçük also highlighted the importance of their new products; The Mill Truck and Vario Mill-S. According to Karaküçük, those products which were de- signed by Intermilling and Kastenmülller jointly, will give great impetus to the industry. Here are questions of our editors and Karaküçük’s responses: Mr. Karaküçük, kindly please give us brief information about Hitit Makine and Inter- milling. First of all, I would like to thank you for this interview. Hitit Makine started its operations in 1995 with plansifter manufacturing. This machine is the vital equipment for production of wheat flour which is among the main stap- les of humankind. We concentrated on domestic market between 1995 and 2001. But our goal has been penet- rating into the world markets since the very first day. We followed latest technology and know-how in the world and achieved higher standards of production. Our first export operation was realized in 2001 from Hitit Maki- na. In early years, we were manufacturing plansifters. Now we realize capacity increase projects in Turkey and abroad and we are also active in roller manufacturing, factory maintenance, spare part supply and automation applications. Our most challenging target was the European market which is hard to penetrate but it helped us much to grow our business. The European market’s competition is not so harsh but is demanding in terms product quality and standards.On the other hand, these years were difficult for Turkish companies to export their products. And Tur- kish firms were like closed books in the eyes of foreign investors. They were no-name companies. Despite this, we achieved successful exports until 2011. But a Turkish name and brand has a disadvantage to be remembered easily in the European market. We created Intermilling brand with Germany based Kastenmüller company. We had a years’ long partnership with this company. Kas- tenmüller does not have a manufacturing unit. Therefore our production center is in Turkey while management of- fices and R&D center are in Germany. We introduced Intermilling in the international arena in 4 or 5 years via events and innovations. We realized university-industry partnership in Germany with German Milling School (Deutsche Müllerschule Braunschweig) with Kastenmüller’s contribution. In Turkey, this kind of partnership is also on the agenda but remains unfulfilled. But in Germany, it gave its fruits as Mill Truck which is a successful example of university-industry partnership in Europe. Would you please tell us the story behind the Mill Truck? All started with a brainstorming session. Humankind always carried the wheat into the place where he will grind it. To stone mills, mortars, water mils etc. Then industrial mills came up and wheat were carried there. That’s to say carried element has always been the wheat. We speculated about the possibility of just the opposite and this brainstorming session brought us this innovati- on. We had electronic drawings of the project made va- rious programs. But when we presented these drawings, everybody asked to see the product itself. So we decided to realize the project as soon as possible. We started to manufacture the prototype in 2018 August. It should be a product with a size and a weight that can be carried by a standard truck on roads that do not require special permissions or escorts. We requested offers from trailer companies but unfortunately we could not get a satisf- ying offer from Turkish firms. As a result we were forced to turn to Germany. We made the debut for The Mill Truck at IDMA fair. We made the launching here because IDMA is not only a Turkish fair but it also has established itself as an in- ternational marketplace. We are much satisfied with the