In this DVN exclusive interview, Farba owner Ahmet Bayraktarlar discusses his company’s purchase of Odelo.
DVN: Farba are now a world-class lighting player. Could introduce yourself and your company? How did you arrive at this level?
Ahmet Bayraktarlar: Some people spend all their lives following an obsessing dream about every single detail about what they do and try to excel in their field. Similarly I found myself at Farba right after my college graduation in 1979. Ever since that day, I pushed Farba ever forward.
Towards our journey to become a worldwide lighting player I had the opportunity to make good partners and customers; I always tried to keep good relations with them.
I also tried to follow the latest trends in automotive lighting and made the right investment decisions at the right times. Another key in our success is that I make all our employees believe that they can one day become part of a world class lighting manufacturer. In short: hard work and determination are the key to my success.
DVN: Could you present your Bayraktarlar Group and your strategy?
A.B.: Bayraktarlar Group is a family owned investment group. We primarily conduct business in four segments. They are automotive resale, automotive lighting, construction and hotel operations. We used to provide parts to OEMs’ global projects locally in Turkey. We then started to provide parts to the European OEMs in Europe and had the opportunity to realise ever growing customer expectations and harsher competition there. Our hard work and empathy towards the customers led OEMs to award us for our successes. The latest award we received was Toyota’s European Contribution Award given to Farba in Japan for Farba’s overall performance in 2010. All these awards and achievements supported our Vision of becoming a World class automotive lighting supplier. With Odelo joining our group, we set our vision to become a world class global automotive lighting supplier.