A WINDOW ON SUCCESS Established by the Şişecam group in 1978, Trakya Cam ranks among the top six flat glass companies in the world and is in the top four in Europe in terms of its production capacity. It currently produces a variety of glass products for use in the building, automotive, solar energy and home appliances sectors. Trakya Cam’s chairman, Teoman Yenigun, talked to Industry Europe about the company’s current positioning and its operations.
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he Şişecam Group, whose own establishment dates back to 1935, is known to have pioneered the production of flat glass, tempered glass, automotive glass, mirror and insulation glass from 1967 to 1976 in Turkey. When Şişecam set up Trakya Cam, it became the first company to deploy float technology among any east European, Balkan, Middle Eastern and North African countries and had its first fully operational float glass line in 1981. Today it operates seven float glass lines and is among the top glass suppliers in the world. Mainly the automotive glass and home appliance glass products are designed
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for the specific needs of clients. This means that the company must establish very close relationships with clients from the inception of projects to the start of serial production. In addition to the domestic market, Trakya’s major markets are the Balkans and central Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
New investments in progress The company is headquartered in Istanbul and currently has plants in three cities in Turkey. It is in the process of constructing a new flat glass plant in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, in order to meet the rapidly increasing demands of the
Turkish market. It also has production facilities abroad, one of which is located in the city of Targovishte in Bulgaria. Additionally, as a result of a joint venture established with Saint-Gobain in 2009, it has a production facility in Ain El Sukhna, Egypt. Mr Yenigun states that further investments in flat glass, mirror, coated glass and automotive glass will also be realised in Russia in partnership with Saint-Gobain. He continues by explaining that Trakya Cam is also investing in another production complex in Bulgaria. He highlights the successful collaboration with Saint-Gobain and says, “We believe that our
