Dear investors, employees, stakeholders, partners and friends,
as the product of 20 years of effort today, we live in Turkey's largest manufacturer of steel door in the pride of being a public company. Formet Steel Door Inc. is one of the devoted employees who develop the stitches of our products. I embrace them all here. Now we are working with our first day's energy to share this 20 years of experience with our people and to achieve new successes together.
As Formet, we closed 2018 with the targets we have set. In terms of both turnover and exports, we have reached the targets we planned for the end of 2018. Despite the downward trend in the investments experienced due to foreign exchange shock in the second half of 2018, we are proud to be reaching our targets and continuing to create value for our country.
Perhaps the most important issue for our company in 2018 is the fact that FORMET is offered to the public and listed on the stock exchange. In order to share our values and achievements with our people, our shares started to be traded on Borsa İstanbul (BIST) as of May 22, 2018. Your confidence is the most important strength of our success.
In 2019, we aim to increase our turnover size and export rate. We will continue our growth strategy especially in the European and African markets by producing high value added products. In 2018 - we sent X-RAY gates to Africa with airplane cargo - a first in our industry. We started to export more qualified products in door sector. All doors of the hospital chain in five different cities in Ghana were manufactured by FORMET. We all know that we need to work more while creating a justified pride. This is our duty to both our country and our investors.
We will continue to grow in European market in 2019 with our door, metal furniture and heater-cooker products. Soon we will be working on the Eastern European market. As FORMET Group, we work day and night to sustain our success in the steel door sector by spreading it to other sub-sectors of the metal sector.
I wish that 2019 will bring health, success and profit for all of us yıl
Mustafa SEZEN
Chairman of the Board