Mobil Oil Türk AŞ General Manager Münci Bilgiç: “We will continue to grow both domestically and internationally in 2023”
Mobil, one of the most established and preferred brands in the lubricant industry worldwide, continues to invest relentlessly in Türkiye. The company, which undertook new responsibilities in wider geography following the Russo-Ukrainian War, aims to increase the production capacity of its factory in Türkiye, expand the product range, and increase the number of Mobil 1 Centers to 120.
Mobil Oil Türk AŞ General Manager Münci Bilgiç, who hosted the media organs’ editors in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, evaluated the year 2022 and discussed the company’s objectives for 2023. At the press conference held in TRNC to which Lubricant World was also invited, General Manager M. Bilgiç stated that they will continue to grow in both the domestic market and exports, as well as increase production capacity by switching to a double shift system.
Noting that they value Mobil 1 Centers as brand ambassadors in close contact with the public, Bilgiç stated that they want to expand these centers across the country by improving the service quality. Bilgiç stated that they provide internal service training for the Mobil 1 Centers to improve service quality while adhering to various standards and ensuring customer satisfaction. He also shared that in order to detect deficiencies in the Mobil 1 Centers and develop solution suggestions they use mystery shopping method.
Growth objectives
Noting that the lubricant industry continued to grow in 2022 as in 2021, General Manager M. Bilgiç, also stated that the company has increased their sales by 10%, in proportion to this general growth. Bilgiç stated that the growth was primarily in the out-of-warranty vehicle market and the automotive industry and that the growth in the industrial field prompted action in the lubricant sector.
According to Bilgiç, supply chain issues left their mark in 2022 and stated that: “Especially the inability to meet the increased demand after the pandemic, and several unfortunate incidents (hurricane, fire in the factories, etc.) caused the suppliers producing additives to suffer, and the impacts continued in the lubricant sector in 2022. Like all lubricant producers, we considerably had significant difficulty managing the demands due to these problems. However, because Mobil has a fully integrated global structure, an international supply chain, and rapid activation of its Management System tailored to these situations, we successfully managed this difficult period and did not aggrieve our customers. Actually, I may say that we even had the opportunity to gain new customers. As Mobil, we believe that our supply chain is strong, so we have been increasing our sales for the past 3 years, including the pandemic period. I believe that we will maintain this growth in 2023.”
New responsibilities
Bilgiç emphasized the impact of the Russo-Ukrainian War and said: “The war environment and its impact were deeply felt in Türkiye as well. On the other hand, this situation created trade and production opportunities for many industries in Türkiye. The demands from Central Asia, in particular, increased significantly, as did Türkiye’s geopolitical importance. As the Mobil Türkiye team, we took on new responsibilities at this point. Central Asian countries were previously managed by Mobil Russia. The responsibility for the management of Central Asian countries was transferred to Türkiye in June 2022. As Mobil Türkiye, we are in charge of oil sales and supply management in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Georgia. In some Central Asian countries, we also have successful distributors. We rolled up our sleeves to establish a distributorship network in other countries that do not have a distributorship network in a few years and increase our sales.”
The factory will work a double-shift
General Manager M. Bilgiç stated that with the addition of new countries to Mobil Türkiye’s management, the export potential has increased significantly, and added: “Within this scope, we would like to expand our factory’s capacity and meet the export demand better. With an overview, we will increase our capacity by 20% and thanks to this increase, there will be a new increase in employment as well. We aim to increase our daily shipment volume through new equipment investments, improvements in the usage of blending and filling machines, increasing our raw material and finished product storage capacity and switching to the second shift.”
Bilgiç stated that Mobil is present in 160 countries, but there are lubricant production facilities in only 30 of them and added: “Türkiye is one of the 30 countries. There are many countries in the world, but only 30 have lubricant factories, one of which is Türkiye, and this makes us very proud. We aim to improve and expand it more.”
The number of Mobil 1 Centers will increase
Bilgiç stated that they want to continue to grow in 2023, and one of their high-priority goals is to increase the number of Mobil 1 Centers to 120. Regarding Mobil 1 Centers, Bilgiç shared that:
“Mobil 1 Centers are brand ambassadors of Mobil Türkiye. The Mobil 1 Centers are of great value to us. They are the valuable extents of our organization. Actually, we have been investing in this for years. Mobil 1 Centers’ contribution to our growth is significant. We have 76 Mobil 1 Center services in 41 provinces of Türkiye. We also have 23 Mobil Delvac Express Centers. Furthermore, we continue to provide services in TRNC through two service points. Our high-priority goal is to achieve 120 service points in 3 years and include all of our cities. In other words, we want at least one center in each major automotive industry hub.”
Mobil is ready for EVs
Bilgiç stated that they closely follow electric vehicle developments and that they have prepared a new product line called “Mobil EV Fluid”. Bilgiç noted: “One of the important issues for electric vehicles is that the battery system rapidly overheats, and that temperature should be kept under control. This is required for both charging and operating the vehicle. The products developed are high-tech fluids with different contents than conventional lubricants. Mobil EV Fluid was created to meet this demand and is now available to customers. It was given to some electric vehicle producers for the first fill, and as the demand increased, we have started to provide it to the end users.”
