Uğurlu Oto Cam attracts investment from Polish fund

Turkish glass manufacturer Uğurlu Oto Cam, which is known for selling bulletproof glass for Hummer cars, has attracted investment from Poland. Syntaxis Capital, a Polish investment fund, invested TL 40 million ($16.6 million) in Uğurlu. The international fund's interest in Turkish companies eliminates competition. Polish companies direct their investments in many fields, including the automotive industry. Thomas Spring, a partner and co-founder at Syntaxis Capital, said: "We completed our first investment in Turkey. We hope to continue our investments." Uğurlu Oto Cam is well-known as "glass supplier to Hummer." Avoiding bankruptcy in 2009 due to the economic crisis in the U.S., Uğurlu Oto Cam managed to survive the crisis and return to its previous profitability. The company, which has 500 employees and could not pay the salaries of its employees in the past, now has a turnover of more than TL 60 million. The company, which produces glass for various sectors, including automotive, industrial, architectural, furniture, kitchen, heating and cooling, also supplies glass for tractors, heavy construction vehicles and trucks. Directly suppling glass to Germany's MAN and Turkey's BMC and Karsan and other tractor factories, it also produces glass for Germany's Mercedes, BMW and Audi and the U.S.'s Hummer. Uğurlu Oto Cam started in the auto-glass business in a small workshop in 1971 and now exports bulletproof glass to nearly 20 countries. Selling its products in Germany, the U.S., Azerbaijan, Turkic countries, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, France, Tunisia, Morocco and Romania, Uğurlu Cam Oto decreased the price of bulletproof glass to TL 4,000, which Turkey imported at 12,000 euros. The company's main facility is in Denizli, and it has 110,000 square meters of installed production capacity on a monthly basis.