Gelecek dönemler için amacımız, ilk 50 yılda yakaladığımız sürdürülebilir başarıyı müşterileri için değer üreten, çalışanlarının ve iş ortaklarının parçası olmaktan gurur duydukları küresel bir şirket olmaya devam etmektir.

As Tofaş, with the strength of our half-century of knowledge and experience, we continued to create value for all our stakeholders in 2019, despite the challenging economic developments witnessed both in the world and in our country.

We work with the goal of sustainable growth in line with the values of our main shareholders Koç Holding and FCA. In addition to our economic advancement, we have been further improving our sustainability performance every year. This year we continued to be included in the Borsa İstanbul (BIST) Sustainability Index for the sixth time. With our performance in the corporate management field, our Corporate Governance rating was announced by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey as 9.26 in 2019.

Tofaş created, based on the export revenues in 2019, a foreign trade surplus of $919 million and continued to be among the leading industrial organizations of our country with the production of 264 thousand vehicles and the export of 194 thousand vehicles. We maintained our leading position in the industry and achieved 93% domestic production share in domestic market sales. Our share in the automobile and light commercial vehicle market in Turkey, where we represent Fiat, Fiat Professional, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Ferrari and Maserati, reached 16.4 percent with an increase of 5.7 percentage points.

Having celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019 and being an important power of our sustainability performance, our R&D Center is one of the most important R&D centers of both Turkey and FCA, with its experience, competence and high-tech laboratories. Within the scope of our R&D activities in 2019, we mostly focused on the improvement and development of Fiorino, Doblò, Egea models and also supported various FCA projects. We carried out R&D activities for developing the new Egea model (MCA). Until 2019, we have invested 58 million Euros in our R&D Center for the design and testing infrastructure. Furthermore, we also invested 9 million Euros in equipment to improve our competencies in 2019.

We closely follow the new technologies and applications and carry out studies for digital transformation in line with our needs in order to improve the customer satisfaction we achieved for our products and services and to improve our operational efficiency. We focus on developing digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, Data Science and Robotic Process Automations, under the responsibility of our “technology leaders”; and in cooperation with the external ecosystem, we implement these technologies on opportunities that will create value in our business processes. We are continuing to develop systematically our competencies throughout the company, as required by digital transformation, through the transformation programs we have created by leveraging the power of our academy and technology partners.

As part of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) journey that began in 2006, we had managed to rank among one of the top three factories within FCA, reaching the “Golden Level” in 2013. We have continued to improve our production standards since then, and we increased our score to 81 as a result of the audit that took place in 2019 and achieved to be the company with the highest score among all automobile factories where WCM is applied.

The number of our projects, including those within the scope of WCM Energy Management Methodology, reached 116 in 2019, and we managed to achieve 48,975 GJ of energy savings and a reduction of 3,959 tons of CO2 emissions thanks to these projects. Tofaş was included in the B band in the Climate Change program, and its rating score in the CDP Water program was B. We evaluate climate change risks within our risk-based management model and carry out studies to support the transition to a low carbon economy.

We do not limit our sphere of influence with the production, but rather adopt with a holistic approach, the sustainability perspective in our entire value chain as a corporate culture. We invest in development together with our stakeholders in our value chain. In 2019, we carried out studies with our suppliers in such areas as quality, delivery, efficiency, environment, occupational health and safety, and employee development. We aim to ensure that the decisions we take by evaluating all our activities with a focus on our social and environmental responsibilities are compatible with our sustainability culture. With organizations such as Tofaş Environment and Energy Day and Go Tech, we aimed to support our suppliers in the field of sustainability. We supported the development of our dealers’ employees with programs such as Sales and Service School carried out under Tofaş Academy, as well as with organizations such as Proudly Fiat, Discovery Days.

Tofaş continues to implement its long-term social responsibility projects in the axes of sports, education, and culture and arts, with a view to contributing to the national economy and social development. We create value for the society with many projects, including Tofaş Sports Club, Fiat “İyiye İşaret”, Tofaş Science High School, Fiat Laboratories, Tofaş Museum of Cars and Anatolian Carriages, and studies supporting archaeological excavations.

Although the scope of this report covers our activities and results for 2019, I would like to give information also on our support to the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, to minimize its effects on our stakeholders and the society. Since the beginning of the process, we have implemented all necessary precautions by placing the health of our employees as our priority. In addition, with the sense of responsibility we felt -as one of the leading industry and R&D companies in Turkey- we quickly took action to provide the necessary support for the fight against the outbreak. We made a needs assessment for health institutions and determined the equipment we can produce, including face shields. We verified, in the studies we conducted with doctors, the designs of biological sampling and intubation cabins for the protection of healthcare workers and started production. We produced 50,000 face shields and 1,300 biological sampling and intubation cabins and delivered them to health institutions in 70 provinces of Turkey. We also presented the designs of the equipment as open source. By supporting different companies in their efforts to start production, we contributed to the endeavors aimed at ensuring wider mobilization against the outbreak. We will transparently share the effects of the pandemic on our operations and goals in the report of next year. Now, we are continuing our efforts to maintain the welfare of the society and our employees through remote working methods and updated annual plans for the continuity of our business in this process.

Our goal is to maintain the sustainable success of our company as a global company that creates value for its customers and that is a source of pride for its employees and business partners. I extend my sincere thanks to all of our stakeholders, including our shareholders, customers, employees, dealers and suppliers, for their belief, support and contribution to Tofaş.

Cengiz Eroldu
Board Member & CEO