“Bayındır Kırtasiye is a company that has taken its success to an international level through its work with the world’s most prominent museums, institutions, and publishing houses. Mustafa Bol, the owner of Bayındır Stationery, with whom we spoke about the techniques and craftsmanship that have evolved over the years and the innovations they have brought to the stationery sector, stated that they combine aesthetics, technical expertise, and meticulous attention to detail in the field of bookbinding. Noting that visual arts form the foundation of their work, Bol said, “Printing is a very delicate art… You must understand paper, film, graphics, machinery, and ink.”
Could you briefly introduce your company?
I founded Bayındır in 1979 and Bayındır Kırtasiye in 1985. Our sales point was in Tahtakale, and in 1984 we moved everything to our current location in the Bağcılar Printing Industrial Site. Initially, we started by having accounting-related documents and ledgers manufactured externally. However, when the market could not meet our needs, we established our own facility and began production. During this process, we purchased our current location and gradually expanded our machine park. Today, we provide services with approximately 400 different products. We operate with highly advanced and sufficient machinery. As a result, we receive many offers from companies in the market for bookbinding services. We have essentially divided our work into two areas. First, due to the quality and capacity of our machinery, we provide binding support to exporting companies. Second, we carry out our own production. We do not have offset printing in-house; we outsource this service. At the same time, we also support the companies we collaborate with by handling their binding processes. We work in mutual cooperation. We currently work with eight major printing houses and handle their binding work. For our own production, we collaborate with two printing houses. We do not have the capacity to increase the number of printing houses we serve beyond eight or nine; we are currently operating at full capacity. Most of these clients are export-oriented companies, so the products must meet very high-quality standards. They handle printing but do not have binding facilities. For example, we bound a book that was printed in six colors and sent to England. We also handled the binding of a fashion book prepared for one of the largest museums in the United States. We have completed the binding of many such products. In this way, we support exporting printing companies by completing their production processes. We provide binding services to companies that aim to export high-quality products but do not have their own binding facilities.
How has the pandemic affected export activities?
Exports are shipped from Turkey to every corner of the world. Of course, the pandemic had a significant negative impact on the export sector. The printing houses we work with were forced to operate at 50% capacity during the pandemic. If orders were coming in, they could work around the clock. Europe, in particular, was hit hard by the pandemic. When orders stopped coming from there, business at these large export-oriented printing houses dropped significantly, and they were unable to secure many orders. Meanwhile, companies working with Turkic states and Russia also couldn’t secure many orders. This slump is still ongoing. Let me give an example: Two major printing houses in Turkey were handling large volumes of work for Turkic states and Russia. However, since the pandemic began, these printing houses have unfortunately been unable to operate.
Have you participated in any online trade shows or sales events during the pandemic? How would you compare their impact to that of in-person trade shows?
We did not attend any physical or digital trade shows during the pandemic.
Do you keep up with developments in your field abroad? What differences have you noticed?
We visit many international trade shows. There’s a place called Silicon Valley in Guangzhou, China. I went there with a friend. There are very large printing plants there. We scheduled a visit to one of them. They gave us a tour of the facility. Eighty graphic designers were working there at the same time. They do business with every country in the world. We have an Erof cover-making machine. Even though there were four cover-making machines at the place I mentioned, they couldn’t produce as much work as our machine. They also had 20 printing presses in operation. A Müller Martini printing press produces 4,800 prints per hour. These 20 presses can print a maximum of 5,000 copies per day. So, the single press I mentioned is worth all of them combined. Similarly, the 7–8 printing presses at this factory in Guanzo can’t match the output of a single Japanese or German printing press. I didn’t see any box-making machines here either; they do box production by hand. However, as I mentioned, they produce for markets all over the world. They also showed us their paper warehouses. I’m not sure if it’s a paper warehouse or a factory’s stock center. I’m talking about such a massive area. They’ve stacked the pallets five high; it’s a huge hangar filled with paper.
What advice would you give to companies that have been operating in the industry for many years and want to take their brands to the next level?
First and foremost, we need to produce a high-quality product. We must never compromise on quality. Price should always come second. When my brother Ahmet, our former partner and accounting expert Timuçin Erdal, and I decided to launch our first production run, we said, “Let’s create a product where the user doesn’t look at the price first. Let them prioritize quality.” We wanted to make something truly exceptional and be recognized for it. We spent days researching and analyzing, and eventually decided to focus on producing accounting ledgers and related products. The products you present to an accountant must be exactly the kind of high-quality items I’m describing. Because an accountant looks for quality; they want a product that will last a long time. Price is secondary for them. When we were new to the market, wholesalers and others, not knowing us or our products, naturally turned their noses up a bit. During that same period, we produced notepads and ran ads in newspapers. We placed a lot of ads.
So where are these products? At stationery stores… Stationery stores are pressuring wholesalers, but the wholesalers don’t have the products. Meanwhile, we’ve sent some of our products to Hürriyet newspaper distribution points. Our products are selling incredibly well at these locations. Since I’m a former Hürriyet employee, I also arranged for our products to be sold at these newspaper distribution points. They provided this opportunity to support me. In the first shipment, we sent three truckloads of printed materials. That’s a huge amount, of course. Keep in mind, the year I’m talking about is 1979…
2020 was a challenging year for the entire world. What kind of work policy did your company adopt during this period?
Almost all of our employees continued working from our office. Our operations involve several stages. Our managers and graphic designers cannot work remotely. Our marketing team, however, can work both in the field and from home. Our technicians must also be at their machines. Think of it this way: graphic designers create the designs, and after receiving guidance and approval from us and the sales team, the process moves on to the printing stage. We have to be meticulous throughout the entire process. If everything goes smoothly, one machine can produce 3,000 books per hour. If there’s a minor glitch and the operator doesn’t notice it, we could end up losing the entire print run. That’s why extreme care is required.
What are your goals and predictions for 2021?
Unfortunately, since we don’t know how the pandemic will unfold, we can’t set any specific goals. Of course, we have goals, but we’ll only be able to achieve them if the pandemic allows it. Right now, like the rest of the world, we’re in a state of uncertainty. None of us knows what tomorrow will bring. Stationery stores should focus their investments during this period not on school-related products, but on items that children can use, learn from, and enjoy at home.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Anything else you’d like to add? Our work is entirely focused on the visual arts. Without aesthetics, success is impossible. Printing is a very delicate art—you have to understand the paper, the film, the graphics, the machinery, and the ink. Our large machine arrived in five parts. We opened the crates and assembled the machine piece by piece until the day the technician arrived from Germany. When the technician saw the machine, he was very surprised and said, “I’m from India; it took me a week just to assemble the machines there.” He congratulated us in astonishment. We started in the morning and began printing by afternoon. The work we do requires such skill and precision.
OWNER OF BAYINDIR KIRTASİYE – MUSTAFA BOL