“KAREL is Turkey’s Largest Company in the Communication Electronics Sector Without Any Foreign Partners”
Defence Turkey: KAREL was established in 1986 as a telecommunications equipment manufacturer and has been providing products and solutions in military communication systems for over 20 years. Could you inform us about KAREL’s organizational structure, staff, 2020 performance as well as targets and expectations for 2021?
Senih BAŞOL: With nearly 3,500 employees, we are a leading technology company that conducts all processes ranging from R&D to design and production. In addition to telecommunications, we are active in defense industry solutions, corporate projects, system integration and electronics production.
Regarding the telecommunications field, we have been developing, designing and manufacturing communication systems for various technologies such as PBX and software applications in integrated communication solutions, call center and video conference in cloud technologies and we offer them to domestic and international markets. 5G, IoT, Industry 4.0 and cloud applications are among KAREL’s fields of activity.
In 2020, we increased our turnover by 27.2% on a TRY basis and achieved a turnover of TRY 1.018 million. 2021 Q1 was quite positive as well. We expect growth in all our activity fields for the rest of the year. We project growth in our production activities due to the positive impact of the change in the global supply chain. We commenced investments that we had planned in to increase production capacity in the field in which we expect growth in exports, in addition to the domestic market achievements. As part of our growth strategy, we consider inorganic growth as an option in addition to organic growth and wish to use the opportunities to that end.
Defence Turkey: In its 35th year, as a Turkish company with 100% domestic capital, KAREL is among Europe’s top three and the world’s top 15 PBX manufacturers. In which areas has your company made progress? What would you like to say about the technological acquisitions you have achieved to date in this 35-year journey?
Senih BAŞOL: At this point, we are a leading technology company that makes critical R&D investments and is capable of high-technology and high-capacity production. We use our competencies to generate indigenous technological solutions and offer them to domestic and international markets. As we contribute to the development of our country’s technology sector, we also create added value for both Turkey and the global economy.
Defence Turkey: KAREL has four main fields of activity. In which business line does KAREL have indigenous design and manufacturing capabilities? What rate of domestic participation has your company’s product range achieved?
Senih BAŞOL: The main fields in which we have been developing indigenous design and production activities are defense industry solutions, telecommunication products and solutions and electronic systems manufacturing.
KAREL is Turkey’s largest company in the communication electronics sector without any foreign partners. We do not have any dependence on licensing or know-how. We place great importance on R&D activities, and as one of Turkey’s largest electronics production centers, our competence in this area gives us a critical advantage. Presently, the domestic participation rate of our product range is over 70%.
Defence Turkey: KAREL first started its export activities with the launch of the MS38 switchboard to the market in 1990. What would you like to say about KAREL’s position in the world, its critical export markets and share of Exports in turnover?
Senih BAŞOL: KAREL, which first entered foreign markets in 1990, is currently a Turkish brand with over 12 million users and exports products and technologies to over 30 countries.
We have been providing products and solutions to our country as a domestic and indigenous technology manufacturer. We have been the market leader for many years with years of experience and the technologies and the production quality we have been employing in our activities are at the global scale and at high standards. Therefore, we have appealed to global markets in addition to the domestic market for over 30 years.
In addition to our export activities in the telecommunications field, we have been working to fulfill the global demand for our products and solutions in the defense industry in recent years. We have been exporting our products and solutions that can be used by the armed forces of allied and friendly nations.
Defence Turkey: Could you evaluate KAREL’s competitive power in domestic and foreign markets? What are KAREL’s distinctive features and superiorities?
Senih BAŞOL: KAREL is a company established with one hundred percent domestic capital. Our company has been the market leader for years in Turkey and it is amongst the top 15 manufacturers of the world. We have 35-years of experience. Sustainability is of critical essence for us. We have always aimed to set a higher standard.
Our powerful R&D and our production capacity and the importance we place on quality assurance are among the most critical elements that bring our company a competitive advantage. This gives us the opportunity to develop and create high-quality products and solutions with high and state-of-the-art technologies without foreign dependency. We have the capacity to design and produce any product and solution in accordance with the requirements of the procurement authority. Another distinctive feature of KAREL is effectiveness in after-sales services. Currently, we are a company extending to 81 provinces that provides the most powerful after-sales services in communication technologies. Our corporate structure is one of our competitive advantages as well. KAREL is a publicly listed company. We have 3,500 employees. We have achieved international security and quality standards and have integrated them into all our processes.
Defence Turkey: KAREL has a production facility with an indoor area that spans 32,000 m² at the Ankara-Sincan Organized Industrial Site. Could you inform us about the existing infrastructure and production capacity of this production facility and the technologies used there?
Senih BAŞOL: KAREL is one of Turkey’s largest electronics production centers thanks to its competence in the production of electronics, its qualified workforce and the production technologies and capabilities that it uses. We invest in production technologies every year. In this way, we aim to increase production quality while we achieve production automation and a cost advantage in competition.
We have been conducting our production activities with 58 engineers and 1,500 technicians at our production facility with an indoor area of 32 thousand square meters. We own the annual production capacity of 15 million electronic cards. We feature a resilient IT infrastructure, quality management system, quality certifications and international accreditations to execute production in this field.
There are four production halls, each is the size of a factory, with distinctive production features for different business lines. We have the flexibility to work in various business models in accordance with different requirements. We are capable of executing solely production services and we can also provide turn-key services in design and production. At this point, we are also among the few companies that can propose design changes.
KAREL carries out EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) activities along with the communication and defense industry solutions under the KAREL brand. As part of our EMS activities, we mostly conduct the design and production of electronic circuit boards for consumer electronics and the defense industry. We have been collaborating with major brands such as ARÇELİK, BEKO, VESTEL, ASELSAN, HAVELSAN and ROKETSAN in Turkey, and with companies abroad such as REDRING, HACEB and with the world’s leading white goods manufacturer HAIER in this field.
Defence Turkey: Could you discuss KAREL’s R&D perspective, the number of engineers active in this field, the share allocated yearly from its turnover to R&D and about its major ongoing R&D investments/activities?
Senih BAŞOL: Sustainable competition in technology depends on the capacity to comprehend new technologies, integrating them to production systems and on the potential and competence of creating technologies. In these times where technology develops in an extremely rapid manner, developing new and rational technologies and offering them to market after transforming them into products bear critical importance. Therefore, owning resilient R&D capabilities has been KAREL’s priority since its establishment. We have been allocating nearly 5% of our consolidated sales turnover to R&D expenses for many years. In Turkey, such percentage has a rightful and authentic position in terms of R&D Centers, communication electronics, military electronics and industrial electronics fields. In our sector, we own one of Turkey’s most systematic and progressive R&D centers with the highest know-how. Activities for developing new systems and products are being carried out in our R&D facilities at Bilkent Cyberpark. We do not have any license or know-how dependency. Our R&D Center with 187 employees is active in communication electronics, military electronics and industrial electronics. We have been running product design activities for our customers active in the defense industry and in the field of white goods, along with our products.
Defence Turkey: KAREL has been developing products and solutions for the requirements of military communication systems and the defense industry for over 20 years. What would you like to say about KAREL’s product range and solutions in the defense industry and its most critical target in this field?
Senih BAŞOL: When we take into consideration KAREL’s product diversity in the defense industry, we witness that the company fulfills user requirements by maintaining its focus on information and communication technologies with a wide variety of products.
Within this scope, we provide switching systems as a critical component of military communication networks, intercommunication systems for ground vehicles, alarms and announcement systems in addition to the intercommunication and switching systems with a wide product range for naval platforms of all sizes. Thanks to our R&D competence in the field of defense, we have been delivering solutions in many areas including avionic products. We have been executing design and production activities for special electronic products or card levels based on user specification requirements.
As part of KAREL’s organic and inorganic growth strategy, we strive to increase our existing product diversity, use different opportunities in respect of industrialization dimension and to transform the opportunities we have been chasing particularly abroad into concrete accomplishments.
Defence Turkey: Could you talk about KAREL’s capabilities and activities in military communication systems and the deliveries accomplished in the recent period?
Senih BAŞOL: As a reputable industrial company, KAREL is an enterprise that transfers its know-how in the civilian area to defense industry solutions. In consequence of this, our main competence/capability in military systems is our capacity to provide producible and cost-effective solutions as we conduct design activities. Moreover, we have the capacity to manufacture the products we design in large quantities.
We offer IP PBX solutions, gateway solutions (ROIP-Radio over IP, VOIP-Voice over IP), switching systems and converters as well as wide area communication solutions that originate from the integrated utilization of the aforementioned products in the military communication field. Speaking of military communication, we also have solutions such as intercommunication systems, IP phones, portable tablets and headsets as well.
Regarding military communication systems, in addition to our direct sales abroad, we have been experiencing a hectic period in our B2B (Business to Business) deliveries to our country’s main contractor and platform manufacturer companies active in electronic systems. To that end, we can say there has been a notable increase in our sales to land platform manufacturing companies in the recent period.
Defence Turkey: Could you tell us about KAREL’s existing export targets?
Senih BAŞOL: Export is a common target for all defense industry companies of a certain scale. In addition to enhancing the relations we built with our electronics and platform manufacturing industry companies, we made our mark in the direct sales targets we achieved with our own products. By expanding our export market in the long run, we wish to extend our domain, composed of Southern Asia, the Middle East and Turkic Republics in the first place. Our Presidency of Defense Industries has been supporting us in our export activities. Maintaining the relations we have built so far for exports fruitfully and perpetuating our brand through the business models we will build is of critical importance for us.
Defence Turkey: What would you like to say about the DS200T Military Field Switchboard / Tactical IP Communication System preferred also by Azerbaijan and Bangladesh’s Armed Forces and on DS200A - its derivative developed for military vessels?
Senih BAŞOL: Our mobile military field PBX system, the DS200T is a competitive product that achieved its first overseas commercial success. The DS200A on the other hand is a product designed for battleships as a PBX built of main blocks that support different interface structures with its 19" rack. This product is used in MİLGEM vessels as well.
We can define these products as switching systems that contain interfaces enabling utilization with the stationary equipment of the armed forces. These switching systems are capable of converting “any to any”. Moreover, these products are systems that build networks in wireless communication via the radio links developed by various companies.
Recently, we accomplished the first direct sale of the DS200T for domestic utilization. Such products stand out with their overseas sales potential.
Defence Turkey: Can you touch on KAREL’s Radio/Intercommunication System solutions that enable intercommunication and radio communication in military vehicles and their users within the country?
Senih BAŞOL: The intercommunication/radio communication devices that we have developed for land platforms fully meet the needs of markets where basic and effective solution requirements are specified. This product group fulfills the internal and external communication requirements of the vehicle’s crew and they have been developed to meet all military environment and electromagnetic compatibility standards.
As a solution partner/stakeholder of our ground vehicle manufacturing companies, their local sales and their superior export accomplishments in the recent period have pleased us as well. I can note that we have had the opportunity to collaborate with all our land platform manufacturer companies.
Defence Turkey: What would you like to say about KAREL’s communication solutions for military vessels/boat platforms? In this context, could you inform us on the MAS Communication Switching System that was developed for the Turkish Naval Forces Command (TNFC), used in SAT Boats and which achieved export success in Qatar, also a bit about the Alarm Announcement System developed for the LHD Anadolu Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship?
Senih BAŞOL: KAREL has been providing the PBX and alarm announcement systems of almost all the vessels that were either newly built or modernized for the Turkish Naval Forces, in particular MİLGEM series corvettes since 2010. KAREL also fulfills the system requirements of several shipyards’ vessel projects that are being built abroad.
Regarding the military field, I can say that our broadest product group is for naval platforms. These include the INTMAR Boat Intercommunication System, the MAS200 Communication Switching System and the DS200A series Vessel PBX, the AD100 Series Alarm and Announcement Systems.
As part of our Vessel PBX and Alarm Announcement Systems, we have solutions that can be scaled for the utilization of naval platforms ranging from small boats and large amphibious vessels. Their easy configuration and management are among the critical features of these systems. In this way, we can rapidly provide solutions convenient for all types of vessels. Our Vessel PBX and Alarm Announcement Systems can operate in integration with each other. Besides, connection to other systems via IP is available. In this way, we can offer a solution package that can operate in integration with all vessel communication systems.
The MAS200 Communication Switching System for boats utilized in our country and in Qatar is a system that allows the communication of the vessel’s commander with high command centers, with his own crew and with the SAT teams on the coast or on another ship for operational purposes. The MAS200 System enables the crew to communicate via the radios as well. In addition to our sales to Qatar, this product will continue to be sold to foreign countries.
Surely the LHD ship has been a project where we offered a quite extensive solution that has a special place in this field. The LHD ship has been one of our projects where we developed a solution with an architectural structure consisting of over 700 speakers, dozens of alarm/announce stations and multiple units containing the announce zone and that can direct/update the software of all switchboards via a General Control Unit. As part of the LHD vessel, for the first time, we provided a solution where all alarm-announce systems and PBX systems can be switched on and off remotely. Moreover, other systems of the vessel are also capable of giving alarms-announcements over IP.
Defence Turkey: What would you like to say about the Backup Flight Instrument which was developed for HÜRKUŞ and displayed for the first time at the IDEF ‘19 Fair? Are the related test and qualification processes completed? Does the system contain an audible warning function? Can the system be used to prevent accidents and air vehicle incidents caused by pilot vertigo?
Senih BAŞOL: The Backup Flight Instrument is our avionic solution developed entirely by KAREL engineering for HÜRKUŞ as part of our Presidency of Defense Industries’ Technology Acquisition Projects.
The Backup Flight Instrument (BFI) is a system that calculates and displays critical flight data by using its sensor data in cases where the main flight indication system fails to function. This system at the same time shows the uncritical TACAN (Tactic Air Navigation System) and VOR/ILS (VHF Omnidirectional Range/Instrument Landing System) data over the ARINC-429 interface. The device performs its tasks with the support of many sensors such as the embedded accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer and magnetometer. In addition to being an avionic product, when we consider the main features of the developed system, the Backup Flight Instrument is a system that reveals KAREL R&D engineering’s competence outside the field of communications. We can say that the project is at the flight test stage at this time.
The device shows that it assumes a critical task in emergencies as an independent product that will save a platform where the indicators of an air vehicle fail to perform. Within this scope, its utilization purpose can be extended as a supporting component.
Defence Turkey: What are your comments on KAREL’s approach to and its expectations from the National Fighter Jet (TF-X), HÜRJET and TF-2000 Projects? In which areas can KAREL contribute to these projects?
Senih BAŞOL: As a product that our country has attained, versions of the Backup Flight Instrument can be duplicated in accordance with different platform requirements aside from HÜRKUŞ. After all, the product is ours and we can adapt it based on any type of requirements. Surely, we expect to see the utilization of this product in platforms and witness its transformation into an actual advantage.
Defence Turkey: For the next ten years, which targets will KAREL concentrate on and what are the main capabilities/activity fields it will focus on?
Senih BAŞOL: We will continue to focus and grow on our four main activity fields. Organic and inorganic growth and investments will be on our agenda to achieve this.
Defence Turkey: What are the future targets you have set for KAREL?
Senih BAŞOL: KAREL’s success is measured by building a global-scale company by competing with global giant manufacturers of countries with developed economies in a sector such as telecommunications that require massive R&D power and investments where developing countries do not even exist as users.
As a leading indigenous and national technology brand, we will continue to contribute to our country’s economy, employment and development and to grow this contribution with stability in the future.
Defence Turkey: Mr. BAŞOL, would you like convey any additional messages for our readers?
Senih BAŞOL: Turkey has demonstrated rapid progress in the defense industry. We are quite close to becoming a global power. Boosting foreign sales is naturally on top of the things to be done within this scope. I would like to underline that as KAREL, we have been carrying out our activities with the full awareness of our responsibility in our country’s export-focused growth.
Defence Turkey: Mr. BAŞOL, thank you for sparing your time to our readers
