Kale Group acquires Fincuoghi

As of 2 October the Turkish Kale Group will acquire complete control of the former Fincuoghi, now Kale Italia. Once it has finalised the acquisition of the facilities in Sassuolo, Fiorano and Borgotaro formerly owned by Fincuoghi, Kale Group plans to make investments of 25 million euro over the next five years with a view to reaching an estimated turnover of 70 million euro. It also plans to transfer the logistic centre currently in Holland to Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region and to establish synergies between the Turkish facilities’ products and technologies and those of Italy.

The announcement was made during a press conference given at the recent Cersaie by Zeynep Bodur Oykay, chairman of Kale Group and Kale Italia, together with Burak Guven Orhun, general manager of Kale Italia, and Tarik Ozcelik, chairman of the building materials group. This opens up a more certain future for the former Fincuoghi employees, particularly as the Turkish group, the leader in Turkey and the third largest producer in Europe, has a farsighted vision for the facility and is planning major investments in technology to relaunch production over the next fifteen years. New machinery is due to arrive shortly after Cersaie.

Zeynep Bodur Oykay has always been enjoyed friendly relations with Italy and has a firm belief in cooperation between the two countries, considering Italy crucial for products and services. “We want to unite our points of excellence with those of Italy and use them as levers to establish an even stronger presence in the global markets,” she said.

Kale is looking both at Europe, which accounts for 50% of the Group’s exports, and at Turkey’s neighbouring regions of Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa. Along with products manufactured in Turkey, Italian branded products will also be sold in these regions.

Kale Group also operates in the building materials, chemicals, defence and aviation sectors and has a workforce of 14,000 people, including 5,350 direct employees. The Group reported a total turnover of USD 700 million in 2010 and is forecasting annual growth of 15% in 2011-2012.