26.05.2014 Istanbul
Upp Awards Torah
Franklin Fueling Systems awarded Tora a “Distinguished Distributor”. We talked about the “Distinguished Distributor” award with Tora Board Member Özgün Mutlu, Franklin Fueling Systems Vice President Bill Nelson and Franklin Fueling Systems Middle East and West Asia Sales Director Fevzi Apaydın.
What is the significance of this award from Franklin Fueling Systems to the Torah?
Özgün Mutlu: We have been working with Franklin Fueling Systems since 2000. We are the distributor of many station equipment in Turkey. UPP also meets the piping systems, which are one of the most basic station needs, and we have been selling and assembling UPP for years with its quality. As a result of our successful work starting from 2005, we won a good award, In terms of equipment suppliers like us, there was a better market in 2013 than in 2012. Due to the transfer window, we think that the same process will increase in 2014 and 2015.
“Torah increased sales by 90 percent”
How has your cooperation with the Torah developed, and what is the meaning of this award?
Fevzi Apaydın: Tora has been one of our most important business partners since the days I took over. We are seriously partnering with the Torah. We develop ideas and solutions. This is much more than a commodity buying and selling relationship. We are very proud to have a partner like Tora. UPP is one of the most basic needs of stations. We at Franklin Fueling Systems took over the UPP systems in 2010 and have since developed them further. The success of the Torah in this important product is very significant. As I mentioned, they increased their sales by 90 percent compared to a year ago. They have increased it by 90 percent, that is, almost doubled. This award is actually small compared to the success shown. We are proud to have Torah as our business partner. We know that together we can go much further. Tora also has a very serious infrastructure in after-sales and pre-sales. This is very important in terms of increasing customer satisfaction at the stations where our products are used.
Özgün Mutlu: We have always had it under our name, but we added the concept of station engineering under our logo to reinforce and highlight engineering a little more. When we say station engineering, the most important thing of all is to program the needs of the stations and the requirements of the standards and to serve accordingly. When we look at it this way, we need to trust the products we distribute and sell and offer it to the customers, and Franklin is a brand that is of great importance for all the products we sell. We believe that we represent this brand correctly in Turkey, that we support it enough and that we can bring it to a much higher level. I think Franklin and I have successfully implemented the win-win idea so far. They understand Turkey’s needs in the right way and give us all the support they can. Of course, such nice awards increase the belief of us and the teams on the field in what we are doing. That’s why we think that every award we receive is deserved primarily by our personnel and business partners working in the field, and that we have earned it thanks to them.
None of the products we sell go in the form of buying and selling, you know. In order to be permanent in the sector and to ensure continuous customer satisfaction, you need to manage the assembly and after-sales services of the product you sell correctly. This award is göstergesi.Biz of how well our sales and after-sales services are carried out, and we aim to further develop this success in the coming years.
All companies have accelerated their work for 2015, the transfer year. What activities does the Torah carry out in this context?
Özgün Mutlu: As you know, our customers have become retail customers in the process that started in 2010. Instead of working with 5-6 current accounts, we now have to work with 12 thousand current accounts. Instead of winning a tender and then implementing the results of that tender for a whole year, we can constantly contact those stations one-on-one, understand and monitor the projects in advance and get the works on site. For the year 2014-2015, Tora is strengthening our regional sales network with the aim of achieving retail sales success.
“All central operations are concentrated in a single point”
Torah moved to its new building. How did this building contribute to you?
Özgün Mutlu: Our goal in moving to the new building was to have a large storage area. In order to keep a sufficient amount of product in stock and to direct it to the field correctly, we wanted to gather our layout, which is in many parts, at a single point. We moved to our new location, which we believe is the right location, both to expand our storage network and management building, and to add our revision workshop, which we have now served in another area in our old building. In our new location, first of all, all center operations were gathered at a single point. We have the chance to see possible problems in advance and take precautions. Due to our location, we are very close to the airport, which makes it easier for our guests to transfer. As you know, we are the distributor of about 18 brands in Turkey and we have constant guests. We moved to such a building for the convenience of them and to provide a comfortable working environment when they come, and we are happy to move here. We have also made new arrangements in the building in line with our own needs, and we are currently serving in a place with a closed area of approximately 3 thousand square meters within approximately 5 acres of land.
Can you tell us about your goals for 2014?
Although we started 2014 stagnantly with the recent currency jumps, we anticipate that new contract renewals and the transfer period will start early after the second half of 2014, and we think that things will accelerate in the sixth month and that we will be living in 2015 after the ninth month. This is how we carry out all our plans and works. We aim to increase our sales figures from last year even more this year.
“We are proud of Tora’s UPP achievement”
When do you make your international visits and what is the place of this award within the company?
Bill Nelson: I travel internationally a couple of times a year. This usually happens for sales meetings. Because here I listen to the feedback of the sales team from the field and inform my own team about product development, or get information about how the developed products work. Apart from that, if a new product is developed, I travel for the application of that product. The reason why we are in Turkey today is that we have developed a very new product. We are starting to try this product with Tora, one of our trusted partners. Since it is a very important project, I wanted to come and start it myself. This product is being assembled in Turkey for the first time outside the USA. This is a clear indication of the importance we attach to this market and the trust we have in the Torah. Tora
He is a very important business partner of ours and we are very proud of the Torah. In particular, we find it difficult to express in words the success it has achieved in UPP. None of our other partners has been able to grow the amount of business so much in one year. Therefore, we are delighted to give this award to the Torah.