Defense industry medicine passes through domestic and national team benches
Necmettin Erbakan became a name that gained 36 facilities to Turkey with the heavy industry mobilization he initiated in 1975. One of them was the Taksan Machine Tools Factory in Kayseri. The factory, which was privatized in 2003, was inoperable due to mismanagement in 2006. The factory, which looks like an abandoned city in the following years, was almost looted. Its steel columns were cut; its cranes on the production lines and even doors and windows were dismantled, leaving it in ruins.

I'm talking about 1 million 380 thousand square meters outdoor and 155 thousand square meters of indoor area. It's not wrong to say that such a huge investment was destroyed by incompetent management.

Taksan, which was auctioned from the bankruptcy table in 2016, is owned and auctioned by Kayseri's senior industrialist Mustafa Dener and his son Cemal Dener.

He is bidding at a tender on July 14. A day later there is a treacherous coup attempt. While no one knew what to do in a great chaos, Mustafa Dener decides to enter the bidding, which is repeated 20 days later.

Especially during such periods, there are many who invest their money in interest and stop their investments. While everyone's waiting for things to settle down, the Dener family re-enters the bidding and wins.

Dener Group CEO Cemal Dener describes those days as follows: “Our boss Mustafa Dener was sick of his grief. He said let’s not be opportunistic. Don't keep our money in the bank and invest and get Taksan back on its own feet. I have my big dreams. Let’s make this facility the largest machine plant in Turkey and a center where people are educated on this subject from the kindergarten to the university education. Let's respond to those who want to separate Turkey by investing in it.”

3 years were spent only for maintenance and repair. At the end of the 3 years, production started stage by stage. Machine tool production is very important for Turkey. Without this, you can't lay a foundation in the industry; you can't grow your manufacturing industry. In order to open new factories and produce them, machines are needed to produce them. Taksan is a facility where these are produced.

Machine tools are a strategic production. You can't produce quickly like consumer goods and get results. You need serious investment and capital. So much patience as well. The government has introduced a program on this issue to support the manufacturing industry. If investments increase, there will be a significant reduction in the current account deficit. That's because the money Turkey pays every year to import machine tools is $ 5.7 billion.

What is critical is that when we import machinery from abroad, European and American companies receive commitments from us.

We can't use these machines in the defense industry. We can't work in the space industry with the machines we buy.”

Cemal Dener says that if we surrender at this point and if we do not produce our own machines, we cannot be independent in production. Cemal Dener, who emphasizes that they want to be a company that serves for the defense industry in the field of machinery, says that Dener Group, a company with one hundred percent domestic and national capital, will continue investments and production. Dener Group, a company that combines sheet and metal. Dener Makine produces sheet processing machines. So the sheet is formed. In Teksan Makine, metal is formed. There is no production in the industry without these two machines. Machinery without mold cannot be produced and production cannot be done.

Mustafa Dener is a 70-year-old industrialist in love with his work. Every day he walks around the factory, he enjoys a righteous pride. As he speaks, he conveys his experience. Our job is machinery and how can we take it further with technology. How to train experienced people for this, he says, and prepares projects.

Today, 600 people work in Dener Group and exports to 86 countries on five continents, currently produces nearly 800 machines annually. In 2023, group targets 3 thousand machines production and 400 million dollars in turnover. Laser cutting machines are also produced at Dener Makine, which operates in Kayseri Free Zone. The company is growing 40 percent each year.

Finally, Dener Group acquired Tezsan, which was liquidated in 2001 and located in Gebze, from Şişecam group in 2018. The Dener family says they will now stand up for Tezsan as well. The next goal is to employ over 3 thousand people. Providing them with food and jobs.

If our industrialists in Turkey worked with this understanding, without forgetting that the wealth they have is a trust, and continued to produce patiently, Turkey would become a fully independent country in production. Of course, provided that the state supports the industrialist with this awareness. Otherwise, the factories become inoperable and the investments will be made abroad.