Nefamak has been manufacturing cream and chocolate cooling tunnels and offering smart solutions in feeding and packaging systems for the bakery industry for almost 30 years at Karaman Organized Industrial Zone. Necmettin Duman, Chairman of the Executive Board of Nefamak , pointed out that the biscuits and wafers market is growing in Turkey and around the world in parallel to the population growth, and said his company exports to 40 countries, including Russia and Turkic countries, North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Central Asian countries, including India and Bangladesh.
We interviewed Necmettin Duman on the product groups of Nefamak , the position of the company in the market, and an overview of wafer production. We get the details from Duman.
First of all, can you give us information about about Nefamak? Would you share with us the foundation and growing process of your company?
Our company, founded in Karaman by Mehmet Duman, started manufacturing in 1974 in order to meet the machinery needs of the wafer industry. We have been operating in the Karaman Organized Industrial Zone since 1989. We have a total area of 20.000 m2 with 14.000 m2 closed area. We have a total of 113 personnel among which 14 of them are engineers, 26 are technicians. All the parts that formed our products are produced sensitively in CNC 5-axis horizontal and vertical machining stands, CNC 3-axis vertical machining stands, CNC lathe, CNC profile grinding and laser cutting machines.
You are a well-known company in Turkey for the production of wafer lines, flour-dough automation, wafer baking ovens, wafer cutting machines. Besides these, do you offer special solutions for the customers? What can you say about the solutions you offering? What are the features that distinguish you machines from competitors’ products?
In addition to the wafer production lines, we manufacture especially the dough, cream and chocolate culinary groups. We produce cream and chocolate cooling tunnels which are needed in the sector. We offer smart solutions for product feeding and packaging systems, which are indispensable for the bakery industry. Since our factory is located in Karaman, we are able to provide our customers with direct problem-solving-focused machines, as it allows us to examine our customers and their demands.
Do you have a new technology or machine that you will put into the market innovatively as Nefamak? If so, would you give me information about your new technology or machine?
As Nefamak we are presenting our continuous development of cream, chocolate cooling tunnels and automatic feeding horizontal packaging machines as well as new generation wafer lines with high R&D capacity and high capacity of our R&D team. In the extent of a Tübitak project, we produce the highest quality cooked oven (350x700 mm size, 112 mold) in Turkey as domestic production wafer baking oven. We are able to produce this oven by our experience, our production technology and our ability to produce all the machines that the wafer plant contains.
How do you find biscuit and wafer market in the world and in Turkey? What are the new trends in the market of waffles and biscuits?
Biscuits and wafer market in the world and Turkey are growing in parallel with population growth. While markets like Europe prefer specialty products, markets like Asia and Africa are recently introduced to biscuits and wafers. On one hand, we continue our traditional projects and on the other hand we are developing machine R&D which will be used in the production of special products.
What are the indispensable systems and machines of wafer fabrication plants?
The indispensable equipment of wafer fabrication plants; the kitchen group that prepares the wafer dough, the kitchen group that prepares the cream in the wafer, and the chocolate kitchen groups for the chocolate-covered products. These are very important systems that have a direct effect on the quality of the product. Besides, industrial furnaces baking wafers and chocolate coating machines with advanced technology are considered as the heart of the production facility. Of course, the right selection of feeding and packaging machines that ensure that the final product meets the consumer with minimal waste is also a very important system.
Could you give some information about the units that make up a wafer production line and the operations in this unit?
If we list the uncoated and covered wafer production stages are:
• Dough preparation
• Cooking and cooling the waffle sheet
• Preparing the cream in the waffle
• Preparing a folded wafer block
• Cooling and slicing multi-layered wafer block
• Uncoated wafer packaging
• Preparing chocolate for coating purposes
• Coating of waffle slices with chocolate
• Chocolate coated wafer slice cooling
• Passing and packaging the feeding systems to pack the coated wafers at high capacities.
In bakery products such as waffles, biscuits and cakes, what are the expectations of producers regarding technology? What are the critical factors in the production of these products?
In bakery products such as waffle, cake, biscuits, if we list the expectation of producers, these will be
1. Long lasting and easy maintenance machines
2. Easy operable machines
3. High capacity and efficient machines
4. Machines and systems minimizing production losses
5. Hygienic machines suitable for food industry
6. Work and worker safety
7. Machines with low-amortization
What the Investors preparing to establish a wafer fabrication plant should consider and what they should take into account while planning their machine and equipment needs?
For an investor who has a specific market demand, it would be a good investment to choose a wafer facility that will meet the target production capacity. Sustainability of the product to be produced during the amortization period should be well analyzed. However, since customer demands are very variable in today’s conditions, the sustainability period of any product can not be determined clearly. It is important that the wafer line to be invested in this mission has the flexibility to produce low cost products. For example, instead of making a line investment that can make a single-packed product we call classical wafers, investing in a wafer plant with equipment that can fill two colors and use granular materials such as hazelnuts in the cream will give you flexibility to respond to different market demands.
Which countries do you export your machines and production lines? What are your future goals?
We export to 40 different countries, including Russia and Turkic Republics, Morocco, Algeria, India and Bangladesh. Our targets with regard to exports are to increase our export volume in markets we have established currently. We also would like to enter the markets of Central Africa and South America.