A pioneer in welding consumables, Gedik Holding has recently accelerated overseas investments to expand its export revenues. With its latest factory investment in Azerbaijan, the company plans to expand to Russia via Azerbaijan.

Gedik Holding Chair Hülya Gedik said they would produce 6,000 tons of welding electrodes in their production facility scheduled to start operating in Azerbaijan in December. The Gedik Holding Chair stressed that the biggest deficiency in the Turkish industry is technology and technology investments must be laid down as a condition for industrialists. She suggested that to be a global brand requires making global investments; thus, the utility of programs such as Turquality should be increased for industrialists so new formations can be developed. Turquality is the first and only state-funded branding program in the world - formed in 2004 - to ensure that Turkish companies exporting goods around the world gain a competitive advantage by boosting branding potential.

Gedik Holding currently exports to 80 different countries, said Gedik, and added that the company has turned stagnation in the domestic market into an opportunity in foreign markets. "Our employees are currently working to sell our products in various countries, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Kenya and Libya. After raising our overseas focus, we expanded our sales volume and started exporting to regions where we had not sold before, such as Africa." Gedik said that the firm has been working on welding technology since the 1960s and they started to operate with a license from German-origin Böhler. Today, the company sells products with its own technology and brand, exporting the technologies they used to import and producing their own machines. "We not only sell our products but also the machines that use those products," she added. Meanwhile, the production facility established by Gedik Holding in Azerbaijan will produce and sell welding electrodes under the GeKa brand.