Kocaeli-based Petroyag Lubricants is one of the largest industrial oil suppliers in Turkey. Holding 11 percent market share, Petroyag Lubricants customer portfolio includes more than 700 companies. It is committed to grow in this niche market.
Petroyağ Chairman of the Board Ünal Soysal says, “Our turnover was 155 million TL last year, and we aim to increase it by 25 percent with the contribution of exports this year.” Petroyag lubricants, having been active in the industrial oils sector for 23 years now, has opened the 333rd R&D center of Turkey with the support of the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology.
This facility is also the first R&D center established with 100 percent domestic capital in the field of industrial oils. The company made an investment of 1.7 million TL for this R&D center, and it is planning to focu on exporting innovative products to be developed by its 22-member R&D team.
As one of the largest industrial oil suppliers in Turkey, Petroyag provides services to over 700 companies, including giant companies such as P&G, Eczacıbaşı, Novartis, Zorlu and Evyap, offers products for 14 different sectors, and has seven local dealers across Turkey. The company dominates 11 percent of the market, and every year it takes its place in the ‘Anadolu 500’ survey conducted by the Ekonomist Magazine. It ranked 373rd in the last year’s list with 145 million TL turnover for 2015, and now it aims for a higher place in this year’s list.
Chairman of the Board Ünal Soysal states that they reached 155 million TL turnover in 2016. Soysal also notes that they aim to realize 25 percent growth in their turnover by protecting their position in the internal market and focusing on exports with the projects they have been working on for a long time.
FOUNDATIONS LAID IN 1993
Petroyag Lubricants foundations were laid by Ünal Soysal in Kocaeli in 1993. With the experience he gained in the industrial oils sector by holding various positions in different companies, Soysal decided to establish his own company in this field.
He started selling industrial oils in a 25 square meter office. Three years later, he rented a warehouse and moved to a bigger area. Soysal achieved significant growth within a short period of time. As he notes, they owe this success to their strategy of service to Turkish industrialists in niche markets.
The company launched its first facility investment on a 5 decare field in Kocaeli-Aslanbey in 2003. This facility had 26 thousand tons of production capacity per year, but three years later it started to fall behind the high demand as the company focused on exports as well.
Therefore, the company moved to its 12 thousand square meter new facility in Gebze Organized Industrial Zone in 2012. A large R&D center and laboratory were also established within this new facility, which has an annual production capacity of 50 thousand tons.
Ünal Soysal indicates that they have achieved great success with their investments and exports since 2013. Soysal says, “The value of our investments in the last five years is 15 million dollars in total. Our export performance is constantly improving in recent years.
The volume of our exports was 2 thousand 800 tons last year. We aim to increase this volume to 3 thousand 500 tons this year. We started this journey with a team of two, and today our company continues its activities with its 74 personnel.” Petroyağ’s portfolio includes dough cutting lubricants used in the food industry. The company’s production capacity is 40 thousand tons, storage capacity is 10 thousand tons, and it dominates 11 percent of the industrial oils market.
Ünal Soysal notes that they have managed to gain this market share because they attach great importance to the needs of industrialists since day one, and produce special lubricants for industrial applications.
Soysal says they offer products and services to various segments of the lubricants sector, but they are not active in the motor oils segment, where competition is intense. “We have achieved great success by focusing on niche areas in the industrial market. Our equipment and infrastructure is sufficient to raise our capacity to 70 thousand tons without making any additional investment in the facility. Our drum filling capacity is 8 thousand per month,” says Soysal.
PETROYAG LUBRICANTS TO FOCUS ON INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS
Petroyag has attached primary importance to production and R&D. The company obtained TURKAK Accreditation Certificate in 2005 for its laboratory, and constantly made investments in research and development. The company is currently carrying out the TEYDEP project with TÜBİTAK, the ARDEP project with universities, and the TAGEM project with the Ministry of Agriculture.
In this regard, Ünal Soysal says, “We want to produce innovative products with the state support. We believe such products will not only meet the needs of industrialists in the domestic market, but also take us to an advantageous position in exports. There is a product that Turkey imports for approximately 20 million Euros, but we will produce this product for about 2 million TL in our R&D center. In this way, we will create added value and prevent the increase of current account deficit. We are planning to develop at least eight products every year. We allocated 2 million TL budget for R&D works.”
Kaynak; Ekonomist 
