A brief digression into history
Wieberr chemistry is a product of a Turkish brand owned by KOCKAR MAKINA KİMYA SAN TIC AS, therefore the path of Wieberr products to Ukraine began from northwestern Turkey, where, not far from the city of Sakarya, in the silt of the same name (in Turkey, the word “silt” refers to our kind of province or province, which is controlled by an analogue of the governor), the town of Akyazi is spread. It is where the heart of the Wieberr brand is located – laboratory, office, production and warehouse.
One of the founders and current owner of KOCKAR MAKINA KİMYA SAN TIC A.S. Ali Koc graduated from Kahramanmaras University, Faculty of Chemistry. After studying, he decided to engage in the production of detergents, and in 2005 he joined the founding team of Gizem Machinery and Chemical Industry “Gizem Makina ve Kimya Sanayii”. And in 2014, Ali Koc bought shares from other founders, and the company received a strong impetus for development and a new name – KOCKAR MAKINA KİMYA SAN TIC A.S.
Today, KOCKAR MAKINA KİMYA SAN TIC A.S. is a company that employs more than 50 people in its production facilities in Turkey alone. The company’s products are sold in more than 65 countries around the world, for example, these are: France, the Netherlands, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Poland, Moldova, Belarus, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Mauritius, Cambodia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine, Morocco, USA, Macedonia, Austria, Hungary, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Algeria, Jordan, Qatar, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, Finland, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria.
Factories producing Wieberr products operate today in Turkey, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Why Turkish chemistry
Turkey has always been famous for the large number and variety of carpets. Carpets were and remain now not luxury items, but a normal and ubiquitous element of the interior. Carpets in Turkey are everywhere – in houses, public buildings, mosques, even in offices, and sometimes in the fields.
Химия Wieberr – ответ на вызовы истории
The 20th century was the century of rapid development of technologies, including technologies for the production of detergents and light engineering.
Having survived the severe upheavals of the First World War, the disintegrated Ottoman Empire was reborn into the Republic of Turkey, headed by Ataturk. In World War II, Turkey did not suffer much, thanks to which, by the middle of the 20th century, it was able to enter the path of sustainable economic prosperity.
The carpet industry also developed. Machine weaving and tufting began to be added to traditional hand weaving.
As is well known, long-term and sustainable economic development increases the demand for services in both the commercial and residential sectors.
With such a confluence of cultural and socio-economic factors, it is not surprising that carpet maintenance services in Turkey turned out to be quite diverse, and many of them are quite developed.
According to some reports, the carpet washing industry in Turkey employs up to 17,500 people. The level of automation is constantly growing, the equipment is being improved. There are fewer and fewer enterprises where washing is done by hand, and there are more and more highly equipped, highly automated carpet shops.
The carpet washing industry in Turkey required efficient and affordable detergents as well as equipment. And as you know, there is a demand, there will be an offer.
At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, such a proposal began to appear massively, which led to fierce competition already between manufacturers of chemicals and equipment. Turkish manufacturers quickly went through the stages of price, technological and service struggle, as a result, the market turned out to be saturated in all segments, and each manufacturer that managed to offer something special to the market occupied its own piece of the market. However, the competitive struggle of Turkish brands continues today, including outside of Turkey itself.
Turkish brands abroad
In the 20th century, competition quickly entered the markets of neighboring countries. First of all, these are the countries of Asia. Turkish brands began trying to sell their products here due to the peculiarities of the mentality. After Central Asia, the products spread to the markets of Europe. Today there are known cases of deliveries of Turkish equipment even to the United States.
Turkish equipment is also supplied to Ukraine for washing carpets, and Turkish chemistry. The first centrifuges for washing carpets began to be delivered to Ukraine from Turkey in the early 2000s. At the same time, the first samples of Turkish chemistry also entered the country, but Ukrainian carpet cleaners did not yet fully understand what they wanted, there was little information, and there was also not enough money in the emerging industry.
A sharp surge in the supply of chemicals and equipment from Turkey occurred only after 2010-2012, when the carpet washing industry in Ukraine experienced a period of rapid growth.
Approximately in 2014-2015. the first deliveries of Wieberr chemicals to Ukraine take place.
History of Wieberr in Ukraine
The path of Wieberr chemistry to Ukraine turned out to be thorny. It came to us through Kazakhstan and Russia, and was sold and offered by people who did not speak Russian well and did not speak Ukrainian at all.
The author of these lines was one of the first who tried this product when washing carpets, and, to be honest, he did not understand the features, pros and cons of this brand’s products. There are many reasons for the explanation, but the most important of them is the language barrier, a communication breakdown that made it impossible to figure out what and how to do with these drugs.
The second, and also quite important reason is the limited range of products that I received for testing back in 2014. Well, the difference in mentalities also played – the appearance of the package, the quality and the presence of a description on the label … In general, what was enough and satisfactory for the Turkish consumer, for me, the Ukrainian consumer, turned out to be little and not enough.
Some time passed, the products of other Turkish brands began to be sold in large quantities on the Ukrainian market, and Wieberr chemistry disappeared. Disappeared from the information space, became unavailable for purchase.
This continued until 2019, when the Ukrainian manufacturer of detergents NPP “ArtHim” dared to take up the production of chemicals for washing carpets – to make shampoos for carpet shops in Ukraine.
Chemistry Wieberr in Ukraine: rebirth
After weighing all the pros and cons, NPP ArtHim decided to take on an obviously more difficult, but also more promising task – to organize a joint production of Wieberr products in Ukraine with the support and technological assistance of KOCKAR MAKINA KİMYA SAN TIC A.S.
And it began: training technologists according to Turkish standards, studying recipes, obtaining methodological and organizational recommendations from Turkish partners, the whole process of searching and selecting raw materials, establishing a supply chain, translating instructions for use into Ukrainian, ordering labels, forming stocks and…
The logical continuation of the release of the first batch was the first sales, but the saturated market reacted in a very cold manner and cautiously to new products. Moreover, it immediately became clear that the Turkish approach to carpet washing is different from the approach of Ukrainian carpet cleaners, the market needs are also different.
At the same time, it became clear that getting clear feedback is very problematic. Most consumers (carpet cleaners) give an answer in the format “We like it”, or vice versa, but without the slightest detail, without explaining the reasons or any features of using the used products, Wieberr chemistry.
And a long way began to study the needs of the market, connect industry specialists to testing, adjust the assortment and recipes.
Wieberr products today
The road will be mastered by the walking one! Guided by this formula for success, the ArtHim team stoically followed the path of developing the assortment, releasing new Wieberr chemicals, and improving existing products.
As a result, today Wieberr is the most promising brand of detergents for cleaning upholstered furniture and washing carpets in Ukraine.
It relies on a strong industrial base, a distributed network of experts related to such areas as the production of chemicals and detergents, mobile dry cleaning, carpet washing, auto detailing, detergent expertise, textile materials testing.
Wieberr products born in the laboratory – cleaners, stain removers, shampoos – are sent to test sites. The first and main test platform is our Helpix Academy, where the author of these lines spends a significant part of his working time.
My approval for this or that product means the start of a series of additional tests, including tests for rinsability, and tests for aggressiveness, for interaction with other detergents.
Workshops and enterprises act as test sites, conducting tests on our own trial, test products, and if it satisfies the needs , then products go into production.
And if the tests revealed the need to make some parameters better or just different, then everything again goes to the laboratory for tests …
The result of such work is one of the most diverse ranges of detergents for textiles in Ukraine today. For example, an enzyme-containing pre-spray has recently appeared in the assortment of Wieberr products in Ukraine – a pre-wetting agent before cleaning both furniture upholstery and carpets. For Ukraine, this product is unique in many ways.
Either a stain remover based on citrus terpenes or a gel stain remover – for the first time in Ukraine, products of this type and these class are produced.
Wieberr products are more than detergents
The Wieberr team in Ukraine looks far ahead and sees the greatest potential for development not only in the sale of products, but also in the creation of a whole system of support for industry specialists – from one-time consultations to constant technological support at all stages of the work of a carpet washing shop or a mobile dry cleaning team.
We have already launched a training class called Helpix Academy, where we conduct training and training events for specialists and teach them how to work with our chemistry.
And there are many more plans to support professionals and organizations.
We are growing and developing rapidly. The community of users of Wieberr products is also developing, in particular our technical support chat.
Become part of a large and successful community – join Wieberr community!
