NEWS

70 MILLION DOLLARS’ WORTH OF INVESTMENT FROM THE AMERICAN ENGINE GIANT IN IZMIR

Cummins opened its new plant in ESBAŞ for service

Cummins invested 70 million dollars in the facility established in ESBAŞ. The goal of the company is to increase its revenue to 30 billion dollars.

Cummins finished the construction of the facility in the record-breakingly short period of time of 14 months and will increase the number of its employees from 85 to 500 by 2015, turning the city into a manufacturing base.
The American engine giant Cummins opened its plant, the construction of which had started in Ege Free Trade Zone last May, in the short, record-breaking period of 14 months. Cummins, which operates in 190 countries and which has annual revenue of more than 18 billion dollars, invested 70 million dollars in this plant. The American company will turn the Izmir facility into the largest manufacturing plant in the region and will increase the number of its employees from 85 to 500 by 2015. Joseph Saoud, Cummins Filtration President, Anant Talaulicar, President of the Cummins Spare Part Department, Charles Masters, Cummins Europe, Middle East and Africa General Manager, Mary Tuncer, President of the Board of Directors of Ege Serbest Bölgesı Kurucu ve İşleticisi A.Ş, Halil Ibrahim Şenol, Mayor of Gaziemir, Ekrem Demirtaş, İTO President of Board of Directors, and Mehmet Tiryaki, EBSO Council President participated in the opening ceremony. 

"The Best City"

Saoud indicated that they announced their investment in Türkiye 18 months ago, and they worked for 2 years to select the best country and the best city, noting, "We observed the wonderful culture of Izmir and the team and its value. This provides great power for the existence of Cummins and the competitiveness of Izmir. Our goal is to become a very large manufacturing area. We believe that we have done the best thing by selecting Izmir for the plant. This is the 10^th country in which we manufacture. We will begin manufacturing fuel modules in the near future. I am looking forward to a long future together." Saoud, who expressed their disappointment in not having Kaya Tuncer among them, indicated that Tuncer has transformed ESBAŞ into a very successful region and said, "We will miss Tuncer a lot. His heritage will go on with Mrs. Tuncer."

Talaulicar mentioned that he admires Türkiye, Izmir, and its culture, and that they had implemented a wonderful operation, affixing their signature to a great success: "We have been working actively for 93 years. We initially began manufacturing in America. We have become a global company now. We operate in approximately 190 countries. We have been operating in India for 50 years, in Brazil for 40 years and in China for 35 years. We have more than 4000 employees. The value of our sales exceeded 18 billion dollars." Talaulicar said "We are aiming at 30 billion dollars in revenue within 3 to 5 years. Türkiye will become an inseparable part of this growth adventure. I hope that we can invest in various other works while settling in Türkiye. Our goal is to expand our factory in Türkiye from 12,000 square meters to 40,000 within 1 to 2 years. We aim at increasing the number of employees from 85 to 500 within 3 to 5 years. We became Turkish citizens last year. I promise that we will be good citizens. We will invest in our employees, technology and the region."


SHE SPOKE ABOUT HER DEPARTED HUSBAND

Mary Tuncer, ESBAŞ President of the Board of Directors, said "Cummins looked at Türkiye as an appropriate location for investment. My dearly departed husband, Kaya Tuncer's vision also influenced this. He spent 45 years of his life in this company. The fact that you are here shows that he has accomplished success." Tuncer, who mentioned that Kaya Tuncer was very interested in vehicles, indicated that her husband used to build three-wheeled vehicles when he was child and then he established a vehicle museum including 30 vehicles in ESBAŞ. Tuncer said, "It is also very interesting that the automobile sector has become very substantial in our region. Today, there are 17 automobile companies with 44,000 employees. This number of companies should not be underestimated at all. We have focused on the automobile sector. We are not aiming at attracting more companies, since we don't have any extra space left. Our goal is to support the existing companies in their customer-oriented activities."
"We deserve more"

Mehmet Tiryaki, EBSO Council President indicated that it is very gratifying that the largest engine giant in the world has invested in Izmir, and said: "The infrastructure, labor force and logistic advantage of our region is very attractive to automotive investors. We deserve more investment with this structure." Teryaki mentioned that it is expected that the automobile sector will take a share of 80–90 million dollars from the export goal of 500 billion dollars for 2023. 

- Tiryaki mentioned that the Istanbul-Izmir highway, Kemalpaşa Logistic Center, Adnan Menderes airport, and North Aegean Çandarlı Harbor projects will make Izmir attractive for investors and said, "We are here to provide our services to the investors."

IMAGE: (Left) Charles Masters, Joseph Saoud, Halil Ibrahim Şenol, Ekrem Demirtaş, Mary Tuncer, Mehmet Tiryaki, and Anant Talailicar opened the new plant in ESBAŞ together.