'During Covid 19, the whole world went to restrictions. We turned this into an opportunity and went down to the field. In the first 10 months since the beginning of the pandemic, we have made 77 foreign trips in a short period of time and difficulty. As of now, with the lifting of restrictions, the number of countries I have traveled to has exceeded 100. In this period, we made new dealership agreements in 35 more countries and increased the total number of countries we export to 87. Currently, 88% of our export turnover consists of new dealers. We closed 2020 both higher than the previous year and above our growth-oriented budget despite the pandemic. 2021 will be better when we look at the current figures,' Sigma Electricity Export Director Genco UYSAL said in the face of the pandemic period and evaluated his work in our journal.
Could you give brief information about your company?
SİGMA ELEKTRİK serves both Turkey and the world markets with its domestic production.With the power and solution partners given by its expert staff; In the low voltage switchgear sector with distributors in 87 countries in Europe, America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia; circuit breakers, automatic fuses, current transformers, power contactors, residual current protection switches, fused load separators and NH fuses, especially with various low voltage protection, control and measuring devices.
At the end of March 2020, flights were banned after arriving from a trip to Vietnam. Almost all of the countries have closed, as we all know, we have experienced serious uncertainty and chaos. The markets were closed, curfews were said and we still tried to be on the ground.
During this period, we had guests and friends from many countries who had come to Turkey before, especially from the Middle East and the Balkans region, but could not return to their country due to the closure of flights. Here we helped with your needs such as accommodation, health, food, communication and shopping. Among them were our partners and people with whom we did not yet have trade, but whom we met on one occasion. Again, one day, in such a hurry, a friend of ours asked us to help him by saying that an Egyptian businessman could not return to his country. This period of solidarity strengthened our friendship and then opened the door to commercial cooperation. We had an important dealer in Egypt and it became one of our dealers that we sell well.
In the same period, European countries were completely closed. We have been in contact with our customer in Europe through intensive zoom calls over the internet. England is very important for us, I can say that it is our locomotive in that region. In addition to Spain, which is a good market in Europe, we have sales to almost all of the Portuguese and Balkan countries. Our new dealer in Macedonia was one of our guests we took care of in our country during this pandemic process.
When we look at it, we have had nearly 20 new dealers during the Covid period. I can easily say that human relations also lead to commercial cooperation.
Communication to Africa, the Middle East, the Turkic Republics and South America is not very easy due to the time difference and the weakness of the internet. Obviously, we had difficulty in this process in these geographies. However, with years of experience, I can say that there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings.Especially in exports, we believe that both the progress of existing collaborations and new collaborations pass through face-to-face contact. In other words, the sine qua non of our business is travel. But we all know how difficult it is in this period.
Since July 2020, countries have allowed flights for short periods of time. Our team followed which countries the flights were opened day by day. We immediately made a program to the countries where flights were opened and when we looked at it, we made 77 foreign trips in the 10-month period until June 01, 2021.
Apart from this, we made our meetings by using Dubai, which is the only open center in the Middle East, as a meeting center for our customers such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Yemen, Malaysia and Bahrain that have not been opened.
How did you communicate with your partners in the African region during this period?
As I mentioned before, this region is very weak in terms of communication. We have never lost contact with our existing partners by phone. With the support of our Board of Directors, we delivered necessities such as masks and disinfectants to these regions. As soon as the flights opened, we organized a trip, albeit with a transfer. Again, thanks to our field visits to Eritrea and Djibouti, we have had very strong partners.
In order to create an alternative to China, countries have started to look for suppliers. How did you manage this process as Sigma?
Recently, we see that there is a positive approach towards our country, especially in African countries. In order to evaluate this, we organized trips to many countries and introduced our company and products. Of course, in such a period, when they see you in an environment where no foreigner travels, they are a little surprised at first, but then when we see our company, our product samples and our references in many countries, we take a big step for cooperation. After that, there is complete follow-up and communication, and we believe that these seeds we have sown will bear fruit even more after the pandemic.
What do you tell in a company you go to for the first time?
First of all, I tell you about Turkey. We explain the quality of the material in Turkey, our service, our institutionalism, the quality process of the products, the difference from China, the countries in which we are strong and our market share, our market rates in Turkey, that we did not close our factory even during the Covid period, that we will move to a larger factory and that our business is quite good. I express that we are a company that quickly adapts to the technological developments in the sector in the field of Low Voltage Protection Products and is preferred by domestic and foreign business partners.
What is the first impression you have made of the Covid 19 process in the countries you have visited?
The world was completely closed. I saw everyone in a bad and pessimistic situation. For example, in Georgia, taxis, let alone public transport, have not been working for 13 months. They have made a complete closure, including businesses. The easiest thing to buy the ticket and go is the most challenging process that starts after that. They make you wait for 4 hours for testing at the airport of the country you are going to. They take everyone who gets off the plane into a room and test it.In African conditions, you wait for results with everyone in a room for 4 hours. I've been through this in every country, and that's where I'm most difficult. Imagine that countries with 5 days a week have reduced their flights to 2 days, and you cannot return if you go. It's a very challenging environment.
I have never met a country that pays as much attention to masks as Turkey. Not even in the US. There are no masks in Africa anyway. I was tested 3 times on the same day in the USA. They couldn't find my first two tests, they lost it.
Can you tell us about your export policy?Do you have any special works to support exports?
We aimed to increase our turnover in the countries where we work and to introduce Sigma to the countries where we are not.Sigma is an alternative to global brands by offering products at international standards. Sigma products have all known international quality standards and certificates. Our customers, after being convinced of our quality and certificates, expect reasonable prices. With our sample products, we break down prejudices and start our commercial relations by revealing our quality and references.
Turkey's image, especially in African and Balkan countries, is very good, there is an interest in Turkish products. I cannot say the same thing about the countries of the Far East. I think they don't know us because of the distance. Our new dealer in the Sri Lankan market in the Far East, where India has serious dominance, has been an important step for us in this region.
Leadership and organizational ability is a quality that all managers should have. You need to interpret your experiences and predictions accurately and consistently. Since our business is sales-oriented, your communication and dialogue channels should be open 24/7, considering the time differences between countries.
Customers care about the sustainability of quality, we have serious investments in terms of quality. They also expect short deadlines and a service where they can get a quick response to their requests. As the Sigma family, we are working to meet these expectations with all our units.
Which country and countries have come to the fore in terms of market in your studies in this period?
Despite being at war with the effect of Covid, Yemen came to the forefront. We had a very successful partner in Yemen. This partner is a well-known strong supplier to the market. He left another global brand he was a supplier of and chose Sigma.
After the restriction, where is the country that is in the 2021 target on a country basis?
The country of South Africa should be an important market for us. South Africa is a country with high potential, but British brands dominate the market. We have a good dealer here, but we will not be satisfied with a single dealer, the commercial culture of the country also allows this. It is possible to work with several different dealers for the same market. Again, there are Libya and Algeria, which I attach great importance to and make good plans for the future.
Very good business is done in Algeria, but I think you should have an established company. Provided that you find a 51% Algerian partner, you as a company are saved from 30% additional customs duties and some difficulties.
When You Evaluate the Year 2020, Did You Achieve Your Goals?
In the low voltage protection devices market, we are a preferred brand that attaches importance to innovative and unconditional customer satisfaction by developing a safe and quality product structure that is constantly supported by technological investments and with its products that comply with international standards in the world market. When I took office, Sigma had exports to 52 countries. In as little as two years, we added 35 new countries and increased this number to 87. Currently, 88% of our export turnover consists of new dealers. I can say that the Covid process has been effective in increasing our trade. We could have done more, but there have been setbacks brought about by the deadline process in the supply of raw materials. We closed 2020 both higher than the previous year and above our growth-oriented budget despite the pandemic. 2021 will also be better when we look at the current figures. In fact, I can say that we have already achieved our goals.
In the meantime, the countries we visited
Macedonia-Serbia-Lebanon-Ukraine-Kosovo-Hungary-Poland-Albania-Egypt-Ivory-Mali-Liberia-Gambia-Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan-Bulgaria-Morocco-Iran-Senegal-Mauritania-Brazil-Djibouti-Eritrea-Mozambique-S.Africa-Ghana-Togo-Benin-Guinea-Pakistan-America-Peru-Uganda-Kenya-Afghanistan-Algeria-Dominican Republic-Jordan-Ethiopia-Georgia-Gabon-Iraq-, Slovenia, Romania, Suriname, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tajikistan