Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year in Turkey, LUKOIL Lubricants is proud to have achieved great success in this short period of time. Vladimir Davidovich, General Manager of LUKOIL Lubricants Middle East, says they have come a long way in 10 years and have set even greater goals for the next period.
Can you please give us some information about LUKOIL and LLK-International?
LUKOIL is Russia’s biggest oil company with a 27- year history of continuous growth, as well as one of the biggest private oil companies in the world. It is also one of the world’s biggest base oil manufacturers. As a great example of vertically integrated oil companies, LUKOIL sells its products across Russia, exports to 70 countries, and has more than 5.000 stations in 21 countries. LUKOIL is proud to be Russia’s first oil company to initiate renewable energy production projects.
LUKOIL Lubricants company, LLK-International, as a complete part of LUKOIL, was founded in 2005, and annually it produces more than 1 million tons of lubricants. LUKOIL is the largest manufacturer of lubricants in Russia. LUKOIL lubricants can be found in 5 continents, more than 100 countries. It is a growing company with new plants and new markets. LLK International is the number one brand in Russia in the fuel station and engine oil categories. LUKOIL Lubricants is distributed from the production plants in Austria, Romania, Finland, Volgograd, Perm, Tyumen, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. A Group company, LLK-Marine, distributes the products to more than 5000 ships and 900 ports throughout the world.
A LLK-International Group company, LUKOIL Lubricants Middle East, having been established in 2008 in Istanbul focuses on lubricants production and distribution. The products manufactured in the company’s high capacity lubricant plant in Aliağa-Izmir are sold in LUKOIL stations as well as in a wide network of sales channels around Turkey. Its products are also exported to many other countries.
Congratulations on your 10th anniversary in Turkey. As the General Manager of LUKOIL Lubricants Middle East, what can you say about the past decade?
This year, we are happy to celebrate our 10th anniversary in Turkey. It is a great honor for us to see our achievements in ten years of time.
In such a short period, we have gained a very strong presence in the Turkish market. We established a very strong team in Turkey, consisting of high level professionals. Thanks to that, we managed to gain some good market share with our work. Our plant in Aliağa-İzmir has an adequate annual production capacity for the demand. It is one of the most cost-efficient plants within the group of LUKOIL. We export our products from Aliağa to more than 10 countries. So, we can say the past decade has been a very successful one for us with having strong position in Turkey and its border and neighboring countries.
What is the key to this success? How did you manage to grow so fast?
Actually, besides the global approvals, systematic approach, customized with flexibility to local market, team is the most important thing for success. Without our great team, we would never have been this successful. Investing in people, continuous development of our sales staff is highly important. We have established a very good distribution channel and good partnerships. Our direct sales and retail channel have reached a very good level with continuous improvements. I hope we will continue to grow in proved excellent service for our customers by providing not only high quality products and services but also effective solutions and additional benefits to ensure profitability for them both. Also I hope to sustain good business for our partners as well.
We want to ensure a long-term sustainable growth in our sector, and see LUKOIL as a key player in the Turkish market. We are a reliable supplier of our products in the Turkish sector. LUKOIL Lubricants Middle East will continue to make maximum effort to decrease the costs, increase efficiency, improve the quality of products and services, use the latest technologies, and take every step to achieve its goals. We are well aware of the fact that a management system, which sets goals, periodically measures the level of achieving these goals, and constantly works on improvement, will raise productivity and increase the quality of our business. This is actually the key to this success and to fast growth.
We also concentrate on the export market, and we have founded a sustainable distribution channel in the countries, which are close to the borders of Turkey. Nevertheless, despite the current political and economic situation, we hope for better future for Turkey and the entire region.
Does Turkey have a strategic importance for the lubricant business?
For the lubricant business, Turkey is one of the biggest markets in the region. It is a bridge between Europe in terms of standards, which is important according to our product portfolio, and Middle East according to payment and commercial conditions. Long term payments and conditions here may make it complicated for the understanding of European or Russian people. However when you are living here and start learning the language and understand the people, it is much easier to assess and catch the dynamics of this market. From my personal experience, Turkey is a developing market with a really high potential. People are hardworking and business oriented. There is a high level of middle business class. Turkey is growing and very strong, so LUKOIL will continue to invest in the country. We have a petrol station chain and lubricant production here.
What are your goals and plans for the future?
Nowadays, our major excitement is the launch of our new product line “LUKOIL GENESIS Line” to the market. This product group is categorized as the Premium Tier product and approved by the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers. Our decision to move to a new Genesis portfolio played a major role in shaping our 2018 marketing plan. Our priorities have been centered on introducing the new product portfolio to the market in the most accurate and effective way in order to increase the sales of our PVL products. As you all know the market demands in lubricants are technologically enhanced in high quality products. This series, when considered by the international engine oil classifiers and original equipment manufacturers, is superior in a lot of aspects.
Besides, to improve GENESIS line, we will expand our product range in Turkey with the products from our new grease plant INTESMO. It is located in Volgograd. It is a unique industrial complex with the best experts, state-of-the-art equipment and high level automation. It is the biggest factory in Eastern Europe for grease production.
Due to the best Russian and foreign specialists, the most advanced technological equipment, the high level of automatization and the presence of its own raw material base, the working and operation features of the products are at much higher levels.
The development of production process is realized in its engineering center which involves the R&D laboratory, test laboratory and technical departments. INTESMO LLC provides a whole service in order to provide maximum efficiency. It offers a range of expandable grease products. The greases are chosen by INTESMO LLC specialists according to the technical conditions of the customers. We can supervise the output quality of the product regularly and provide laboratory test services. In addition to providing technical consultancy services for the products, we carry out the technical supervisions of our customers’ equipment.
We also have a new project for digitalization, which will improve our eco-system, and make the organization more efficient. Digitalization is a great chance to improve our services and to create difference for our customers.
We are continuously investing in our blending plant in Aliağa. For example, we are in the process of acquiring TS 17025 and plan to install a new filling line this year, which will improve the quality of our production and processes associated to it and alongside with mentioned investments we are in process of implementing and applying new investments in our processes.
This year our investments exceeded investments of past 3 years and we have quite ambitious plans for upcoming years too.
With these developments and investments, we will continue to get stronger and further to increase our presence in the market.
