Page 29 from: January / February 2014

29January/February 2014

expanded their businesses by making acquisi-

tions of small and mid-size scrap companies

for their regional operations,’ he explains. ‘The

profit margins were good – but the market has

since become tight, with competition causing

smaller profit margins. The large companies

started facing difficulties running a wide range

of operations efficiently with high manpower

costs and low scrap prices.’

A family business
Tekeli Group is one of the biggest scrap collectors

in Turkey. Headquartered in Bursa, south of Istan-

bul, the firm runs operations in four countries –

Turkey, Germany, Romania and Cyprus – and

boasts a total of 14 trading offices and locations.

Founded in 2004, Tekeli Group may be a rela-

tively young company but it has quite some his-

tory. The Tekeli family has been in the scrap

recycling business for more than four decades,

with the third generation now in the driving seat.

Bulent Tekeli, aged 40, heads up the company

while Mehmet Cetin is his right-hand man.

Tekeli mainly collects industrial scrap. ‘We buy

ferrous and non-ferrous metals from manufac-

turing companies, metal dealers, auto wreckers,

demolition firms and others who generate

scrap,’ Cetin points out.

Major exporter
Among its diverse operations, the company

exports stainless steel scrap to Europe and plas-

tics to the Far East while it works together with

‘quite a number’ of foreign companies that run

manufacturing facilities in Turkey. Cetin notes:

‘We manage their day-to-day scrap and waste

handling operations as a solution partner.’

The company processes ferrous and non-fer-

rous metal scrap using a range of approaches,

including sorting, shredding, cutting, torching,

baling and breaking. The resulting commodi-

ties are then sold to end users such as electric

arc furnace operators, integrated steel mills,

foundries and brokers, as well as into Tekeli’s

own facilities.

Tekeli operates a fleet of trucks, material han-

dlers, shears, balers and a vast number of roll-

on/roll-off containers. Although the company

focuses mainly on the handling and trading of

steel and metal scrap, non-ferrous metals, stain-

less steel exports and automotive recycling, its

interests also extend to various other product

groups such as e-scrap, plastics, wood and

paper. In addition, the business offers waste

disposal and environmental services.

Tekeli Group also owns a factory for the pro-

duction of cast iron radiators and boilers and

is exporting to total of 39 countries.

Keeping in touch
Being a family-run business makes Tekeli

Group ‘flexible on decision-making and action-

taking’, Cetin believes. ‘We monitor our busi-

ness day to day, on the spot. And we are very

careful about cost control, buying, selling and

logistics.’

Big players cannot match such flexibility and

such an all-round view of the scrap business,

Cetin argues. ‘I believe the large corporate

groups controlled by head offices have lost

touch with their local branches, with their heavy

costs and with their low productivity,’ he ven-

tures. Where some of those companies may fail,

Tekeli manages to make the business profitable.

The main target for Tekeli is a combination of

increased productivity and high scrap quality.

This approach, it hopes, will guide its success

at the recently-acquired German scrap yard –

hence the company’s objective to add more

than half as much again to the facility’s capac-

ity by mid-year. According to Cetin, Tekeli will

put particular emphasis on the recycling of

river ships at the Bremen yard.

Meanwhile, the latest news from the home front

is that Tekeli is working towards the start-up

later this year of its first fridge recycling facility

while the opening of a second such operation

is ‘seriously considered’.

www.tekelimetal.com.tr

‘I don’t want your balers, I want you’
Mehmet Cetin was supposed to build a career in hospitality but instead ended up in the scrap trading
business. At the age of 17, the Turk decided to leave his country of birth to study hotel management in
London. After graduating, Cetin worked in international sales for several companies, one of which was
a major recycling machinery manufacturer.
Cetin proved to be a persistent salesman, which impressed the management team of one of his clients,
Tekeli Group. ‘One day, Mr Tekeli said ‘Listen Mehmet, I don’t want your balers, I want you’. And so
Tekeli hired me for their international sales.’
Although Cetin had to learn the scrap business from scratch, he was not a complete novice. ‘I have been
in the shipping business; I know the tricks. If an agent
says it takes 10 days to ship a load for this or that
price, I know when it is too much. This experience
does help me in saving money for the company.’
Now aged 43, Cetin says he has learned not to lose
touch with the scrap. ‘In this business, you simply
cannot sit behind a computer and think everything
will be okay. You have to touch the commodities;
you have to feel the scrap. Keep sorting, keep
separating even the smallest pieces of metal. If you
don’t separate, you lose quality and, in the end, you
lose money.’

Mehmet Cetin: ‘I have
been in the shipping

business,
I know the tricks.’

The company operates several facilities in home base Turkey.

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