Bantboru, the SME that promotes gender equality

Bantboru produces pipes for the automotive and white goods industry and it is one of the top five companies in the world in its field of operation. 

Sinan Gider, who is the second-generation executive at Bantboru, has said the appliances maker Arçelik encouraged them to produce “condenser pipes” and that later they stepped into the automotive sector in 1982 as carmaker Oyak Renault encouraged them to do so.

Today, Bantboru is the sole supplier of carmakers Oyak Renault and Ford Otosan.

The company generates 15 percent of its 40 million euros in revenues from the white goods sector and the remaining from the automotive industry.

Gider said he considers Bantboru, which employs 500 people, as an SME but he makes it no secret that he wants to turn the company into a global player.

They established a production facility in a town on the German-French border in 2013. The plant manufactures parts for different models of Peugeot, Mercedes and BMW’s electrical vehicles. Bantboru plans to open more facilities like this one.

Production facilities abroad 

Gider said Turquality lent support to his company in 2017 and they had launched work to establish production facilities in Spain, the U.K. and India.

This is a right decision for a company that wants to have presence both in Europe and Asia as a global player.

Another right decision the company has made was to sign the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP).

It is important that Borusan joined a group of signatories of WEP in Turkey, led by Koç Group companies.

Some 420 of Bantboru’s 500 employees are blue-collar workers, and among them only 30 are women.

Some 50 percent of white-collar employees at Bantboru are women.

Gider said the number of blue and white-collar women employees would reach 50 percent over the next five years.

As soon as it became a signatory of the WEP, Bantboru launched coding courses for female workers and their children.

Supporting Turkey’s sole off-road racing driver 

İlayda Hancı, Turkey’s only off-road racing driver, joined me and Gider for the dinner.

Hancı is from the Black Sea province of Sinop and she is following in his father’s footsteps.

In 2013, when she was just 18 years old, Hancı became the Black Sea Off-Road Champion and 2016 she won the Turkey Off-Road Champion title.

She raced in Greece in very tough conditions.

Hancı, who is now 23, is the only off-road racing driver with a license from the Turkish Automobile Sports Federation (TOSFED).

She could not take part in any race last year because she failed to find a sponsor.

Bantboru, which believed in gender equality and signed the WEP, helped her.

In 2018, Bantboru became her sponsor.

With a financial support of 250,000 liras, Hancı is now preparing for seven races as part of the Turkish Off-Road Championship.

Keep an eye on Hancı.

She is on track to become world off-road champion.