We have just completed a successful year in which investments, trade and industry production have increased at global scale despite the challenges in world economy. While the recovery in global economy had positive impacts on automotive sector, automotive production in Turkey has increased by 13% in 2017 compared to the previous year. At Tofaş, we sustained leadership position in production in 2017 following the year 2016 when we made history through records. We realized 23% of industry production through 384,000 vehicles we produced and reached the highest production level in Turkish automotive history.

We continue to carry corporate sustainability performance further in addition to our economic performance. In regard to the corporate governance studies conducted in 2017, our corporate governance score in Capital Market Board (CMB) regulations reached 9.15. We continued to be listed in BIST Sustainability Index thanks to our sustainability governance approach according to the comprehensive evaluations conducted by EIRIS, the international association, under Borsa Istanbul.

We continue to move our company forward in technology and product development through R&D investments. We succeeded in ranking on top for the third time from Turkey in 2017 in R&D Investments Score List of European Commission’s Joint Research Center; and we covered 12 steps all at once in this list.

We realize practices which set an example in FCA system and constantly improving our performance in occupational health and safety which is the top priority of WCM management model. Since we started World-Class Occupational Safety activities, we have reduced Lost Time Accident frequency by 90% to the level of 0.08. We ceaselessly maintain trainings in occupational health and safety which we regard as our joint responsibility to all employees. In 2017, we conducted a total of 73,016 person*hour occupational health and safety trainings.

We continue to support the knowledge and talents of our employees who have an important role in sustainable business success. In the reporting period, office employees received an average of 60 hours training through Tofaş Academy platform while field employees received 12 hours of training.

We act with an awareness in the potential risks of climate change which are among the leading global issues today; and we adopt a responsible approach in energy efficiency and emission management in order to mitigate these risks. Besides, we aim to realize production processes with the least environmental impact. We saved 72,633 GJ energy, and thus reduced CO2 by 5,918 tones thanks to efficiency studies conducted in 2017. While reducing energy consumption per vehicle and emission amounts, we recycled 63 million m3 water through waste water recycling studies.

We continue to track the performances of our suppliers which is one of the most fundamental elements of our business success, and we continue to support the improvements they achieve. We monitored our suppliers through comprehensive audit studies which included commercial efficiency, quality, delivery, environment, occupational health and safety, and employee development in 2017 as well. We contributed to enhance suppliers’ competitive powers through supplier development studies.

Based on the corporate citizenship approach which is one of the most significant factors of our company culture and policy, we continue to contribute to local economy and carry out long-term social responsibility projects. In 2017, we allocated 7 million TL resource to projects we realized in training, sports, culture & art and environment.

Leaving our 50th year in operation behind, as Tofaş, we aim to continue to enhance our performance in the next years ahead. We believe that we can achieve this target only with the collaboration of stakeholders. We would like to thank all our stakeholders including our employees, shareholders, suppliers and business partners who empower us in our sustainability journey.

Cengiz Eroldu
CEO