FROM AN IZMIR STARTUP TO A CORPORATE BRAND

In 1952, the same year Turkey developed closer relationships with the West, an Istanbul Technical University graduate formed the basis of what turned out to be a long-lasting business partnership currently known as TEKNiKEL Tic. ve San. A.Ş.. Originally founded in Izmir with a capital of 200K Turkish Liras and just a few employees, TEKNiKEL evolved from a modest Machinery startup into a respected multi-branch corporation over the last six decades. Today, headquartered in Ankara and Istanbul, TEKNiKEL’s three business branches; Medical, Machine Tools and Metrology, supply thousands of customers across a large variety of industries such as:

• Aerospace & Defense
• Automotive
• Aviation
• Energy
• Engineering
• Entertainment & Broadcast
• Gaming
• Healthcare, Hospital & Home Care
• Infrastructure & Construction
• Life Sciences
• Railroad

OUR ROOTS AND HISTORY

The ‘50s – ‘60s were a turbulent period for Turkey. This required the startup to deploy analytical thinking and develop long-term vision. Moving closer to the center of activity in Istanbul helped TEKNiKEL gradually gain momentum.

Until the late ‘50s TEKNiKEL’s activities were centered around the Machine Tool industry. With the arrival of a new partner in 1958, the Medicore X-ray, Metrimpex and Godart medical devices were added to the portfolio, now expanding TEKNiKEL’s core business into the Healthcare Industry.

In the '60s Istanbul was teeming with old American cars but that soon changed as Turkey embarked on the production of its own cars. Rapid urbanisation to the industrial cities fuelled the emerging automotive and household appliances industries. During the same period state and university hospitals developed an urgent need for diagnostic instruments. This triggered an opportunity for TEKNiKEL to establish itself as a sought-after brand name in the field of high-end technology provision.

Whilst the partnership is maturing TEKNiKEL continued to bring innovation to the Turkish market, such as the GOULD GODART Expirograph for measuring dynamic lung volumes in 1963.

Despite the challenges of political instability and economic stagnation, TEKNiKEL managed to successfully introduce new technology to the Turkish market; during the late '70s NC and later CNC-controlled machinery, and the use of Intel^© products in medical instruments with computerised real-time graphic displays.

Total Quality Management (TQM) and later ISO enjoyed widespread attention during the late '80s and early '90s. To gain competitive advantage a first generation of Turkish manufacturers started to implement QM processes which opened the market for measuring and calibrating instruments. Today, TEKNiKEL's third business branch still represents world leading brands in Metrology, such as Jenoptik, Schwenk and Tesa.

One year prior to the foundation of the Turkish Sleep Medicine Society (TSMS) TEKNiKEL contributed to the establishment of the first Center of Chest Diseases and Sleep Disorders at the Gazi university in Ankara in 1991, introducing another world-leading Sleep monitoring technology, the SensorMedics 4250 Somnotrac.

1992 the year of 6 Olympic medals for Turkey enabled Istanbul University’s rehab faculty making a great leap forward with the 1st quantitative digital bone densitometer (HOLOGIC USA) in Turkey.

During the '90s, TEKNiKEL further developed its skills in managing cash flows and foreign exchange risk in order to survive major political and economic turbulence which duly arrived, resulting in the collapse of the entire Turkish financial system in 2001. Despite these nerve-wracking times TEKNiKEL brought the first Epilepsy video monitoring system (Grass Telefactor) to the Hacettepe university in Ankara and the first hand-held spirometer (MIR Spirobank) to the Turkish market.

With the exclusive distributorship of Vicon Motion Capture systems, Academy and Emmy Award winning technology was added to the cutting-edge portfolio of TEKNiKEL. The successful installation at Hacettepe university's Faculty of Science in 2011, opened the doors to an adjacent market, the Entertainment and Broadcast industry.

TEKNiKEL's steady growth did not go unnoticed by foreign parties and led to a synergistic partnership, i.e. the foundation of VIVISOL TK in 2012. The subsidiary of the Italian SOL group focuses on the emerging homecare market in Turkey, making use of TEKNiKEL's well established service network.