About vacuum cleaners and magical water
One of the best things about journalism is the fact that you can still be positively surprised by what you learn, no matter how old you are. Tuesday was such a day for me.
It was the first time that I had the opportunity of meeting the President of Fakir Hausgerate, Ali Zeki Saruhan. Saruhan Group bought the German brand 12 years ago and they are doing everything to make it a global brand. They are already fairly strong in Turkey, Germany, Russia and the Middle East, exporting products to more than 60 countries. They are present at 7000 sales points. 1000 people work in Turkey and around 400 works in Germany. Last year their revenue was around 1 billion Turkish Liras. That is of course the whole of Saruhan Group which produces chemicals for cleaning industry and develops real estate and recently entered the coffee chain business.
Fakir was established in Stuttgart, Germany by H. Wilhelm Kircherer in 1933. “Fakir” brand was born by the combination of the German word Familie which means family and surname of the entrepreneur, Kicherer. Mr. Saruhan told that they have interested a tradition of excellence and they are doing absolutely everything to keep this up with R&D investments. He told that once in a while people come up with broken appliances that were made in the 1960’s or 1980’s. He is very happy about it, as it shows the brand that they have bought and invested so much was true their customers for more than 80 years. They are producing many different household appliances but their admiral product is vacuum cleaner. They are the first brand in sales volume for vacuum cleaners in Turkey.
They will open up a technology and design development facility soon and they want to give a chance to university students to realize their dreams, turning their designs and new technologies to real products. Furthermore Mr. Saruhan is involved with the Turkish-German University (Türkisch-Deutsche Universität ) and he told me that they have begin construction of a techopark within the university which will heavily teach everything about engineering.
Mr. Saruhan strike me as someone who really enjoys thinking about the possibilities that new technologies can bring. He said that they were really very interested in health products. They had actually a few health-related products on the shelves like blood pressure monitors but later on, with a new legislation that banned those products anywhere but the pharmacies ended their adventure. Now he is into water.
His eyes were shining with excitement when he talked about how the scientist in CERN are very close to discover a new method to turn regular water into a super drink that will give you longevity and health.
I am always happy to see business people who are willing to invest in the future. I hope that Saruhan Group keeps on such investments.