Ravini Discovered Shadow

For the past years, Ravini has been supplying beige marble and travertine from its own quarries to big projects all around the world.  In 2008, they entered their most important venture by selling the gray marble they found in the second stone quarry that they had purchased to the American market.

Ravini USA General Manager Cengiz Ermişler says, “We have been looking for different color to offer to our customers. As soon as we found our new product, the gray marble, we immediately started production. Gray marble is very fashionable at the moment.” Gray marble is used mostly both in interiors and exterior, in living areas, bathrooms, kitchen, pools, patios and driveways.

Ravini's new products have been attracting a lot of interest at the trade shows the company has been attending and Ravini has developed a corresponding sales strategy. Their new products have contributed greatly to Ravini’s sales during this time of economic crisis.

Ravini Turkey exports 60 percent of their manufactured goods to the American market, and via their Miami office they are able to reach their customers directly. In addition to their sales to the American market, Ravini sells to Europe, middle east, Asia, South America, mpre then 30 countries around the world.
As Ravini changed its sales strategy by focusing more on new products, it also took many precautionary measures when preparing for the economic crisis. One of these measures was to decrease the production of mosaics. When Ermişler traveled to China to see mosaic production in its place, he says “When I saw how little it cost to produce mosaics during my trips to China, I saw that it was not possible to sell in this market unless we have better quality and service. After supplying mosaics to Home Depot for three years, we decreased the mosaic production and focusing for the special design for our special clients.”

THE MARKET WILL PULL ITSELF TOGETHER IN THE SECOND HALF OF 2009
Ravini, which had 400 workers in their facilities in Balıkesir and Bilecik, had to drop that number down to 250 due to the current economic crisis. However, Ermişler is hopeful for the upcoming year. He says that he believes the American market will pull it together in the second half of 2009.

“The construction sector will not always stay this way; it will pull itself together. We believe that America will revive faster than Europe. This is why the American market is so important to us, and in this new period we will continue with a new strategy. At this time we are continuing to work with the companies in the market that we trust,“ he says.

Ermişler says that lately they have been concentrating on special projects in America and adds that they will continue to focus on this strategy in the upcoming months. Among the projects in which Ravini products are being used this year a 400,000 sq ft multiple story building in Europe, all of the bathroom furnishings of a 41-story, 489-unit project called the Wind Miami Project, the luxury residential project Marina Tower Of Turnberry in the city of Aventura in Florida, an apartment building in Fisher Island, one of the world’s most famous residential spaces, and the Parc Place South Beach project in Miami Beach.

Ermişler says, “We are participating in important projects in Miami. We have also made important contributions to our sales with the important projects that we have taken on in the Far East. We will also enter the other states in in addition to New York, Illinois, Florida, Texas and California, with different products.” For Ravini, Latin America tops the list of targeted markets outside of the United States.