Our aim for the future periods is to maintain the sustainable success we have achieved in the first 50 years by creating value for its customers and having employees and business partners that are proud to be a part of the company.

The year 2018 was a year in which the global economic recovery continued. Besides, there were strong fluctuations in emerging markets. When we evaluate our country in particular, the volatility in exchange rates and the upward trend in inflation affected the automotive sector negatively. Turkey's automotive sector manufacturing fell by 8.9% while sales in car market fell by 33%. In spite of all these negative developments in the sector, Tofaş continued to be the sector leader with 91% domestic manufacturing share in 2018, when we celebrated our 50th year. We represent the manufacturing of 19% of the automotive industry, and 18% of its exportation. Our manufacturing volume reached 302,000 while our export volume reached 3 million.

By supporting our economic growth with our corporate sustainability performance, we strive to reach a stronger position in all aspects of the sector in which we operate. Our work in corporate governance was evaluated and our rating is raised to 9.20 in 2018. With our performance in sustainability, we continue to be included in the Borsa İstanbul (BIST) Sustainability Index.

We continued to be the company that invested the most in R & D in 2018 with R & D expenditure of TL 244 million. Tofaş R & D Center played an important role in increasing its exports by providing manufacturing to four different brands. Developed in the responsibility of Tofaş R & D, Egea family was updated with new versions and up-to-date technological equipment in 2018, and the connectivity technology for Egea, Doblo and Fiorino. These developments carried our R & D bar further.

With our environmental sustainability efforts, we continue to fulfill our responsibility in combating climate change. In 2018, we continued to increase the number of our efficiency studies in order to reduce our energy consumption and thus the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released. As part of WCM Energy Management Methodology, we have implemented 60 new energy efficiency projects in 2018. Thanks to the projects, we achieved conservation of 79,935 GJ of energy and 5.383 tons of CO2 emissions.

We adopt the principle of maintaining our activities with minimum environmental impact with our understanding of responsible environmental management. In this context, we allocated TL 1.34 million for environmental management and investment expenditures in 2018. In addition, we organized 6.664 person * hour environmental training to promote environmental awareness.

We continue to implement exemplary practices within the FCA by continuously improving our performance in the field of occupational health and safety. In the MESS Occupational Health and Safety Competitions this year we won the first place in Golden Glove award and won a prize in the Gold Suggestion category. We've improved the Lost Time Accident (LTA) frequency by 95% since we started World Class Safety. We continued to increase our employees 'and contractors' awareness of occupational health and safety with our good practices and training activities. We organized 91,556 person * hour occupational health and safety training during the period.

We continued our training and development activities full-speed at Tofaş Academy, which undertook the role of Tofaş's “information factory”. Among the top 45 corporate academies in the world, Tofaş has been awarded the Best Awards 2018 by the Association for Talent Development (ATD) Best, which is recognized as the world's most prestigious award in education and development.

We are investing in the future of the society in which we live with our social responsibility projects, which have been carried out for a long time from sport to culture and art, from education to health. In 2018, we allocated TL 6.7 million to social responsibility projects that create value for the society.

Our aim for the future periods is to maintain the sustainable success we have achieved in the first 50 years by creating value for its customers and having employees and business partners that are proud to be a part of the company. I would like to thank all of our stakeholders for their support and contribution in this long-running journey.

Cengiz Eroldu
CEO