Zer Central Services and Trade - Company of the Year - Business or Professional Services

Company: Zer Central Services and Trade A.Ş., İstanbul, Turkey
Entry Submitted By: Business Awards Consulting
Company Description: We aimed to create satisfaction and commitment for all our stakeholders by embodying our principle of "Excellence in purchasing", in all of our processes, one by one. Zer started its activities as a Koç Group company in 2003 under the name of Beko Ticaret A.Ş. Our company carries out its work with a vision of ‘’being Turkey’s best, and the World’s leader in strategic procurement and efficiency.’
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year - Business or Professional Services - Medium-size

Nomination Title: ZER

Operating with its expert staff, innovative solutions and wide supply network as Turkey's first and largest purchasing company, Zer offers its business partners end-to-end purchasing solutions where they can turn purchasing difficulties into opportunities and save costs.

Zer offers an efficient, sustainable and competitive purchasing experience to its corporate customers, whose number exceeds 700, through more than 20 thousand suppliers in more than 130 categories.

Offering a unique business model in the world in terms of providing both consultancy and practice in the field of procurement and supply chain management, Zer continues its activities with vision of being the best strategic purchasing and productivity center in Turkey and the world's leading .

With its purchasing expertise, Zer makes bulk purchases and provides services on behalf of its customers in a wide range from purchasing solutions for logistics, materials, media, as well as special services for outsourcing personnel, equipment, transportation, facility management to the sale of second-hand commodities, industrial waste and scrap.

Being a pioneer in digitalization in purchasing processes with its strategic purchasing platform Promena in particular, and its brands Arabaiste, Zervis, ZerOnline and Loji-Portal, Zer also facilitates the lives of its customers with fast, practical and reliable technological solutions.

With the pandemic in 2020 and the lockdowns that followed, the supply chain has experienced serious obstacles. Due to the closure of border gates, the introduction of different controls and procedures for some products, and the disruptions in production, especially due to lockdown practices in different countries, institutions either experienced disruptions in their supply chains or had to settle for high prices due to reduced production.

In this sense, the pandemic process has moved the purchasing industry to a strategic position for companies. Purchasing has become an area of expertise that needs to be managed with a strategic perspective at every stage, from process analysis to reporting, from supplier performance management to catalog management.

In 2020, Zer has worked to provide solutions that will carry the purchasing industry forward and ensure the continuity of the wide ecosystem of business partners and suppliers against the challenges posed by the pandemic. For this purpose, it aimed to develop its existing digital activities in order to stand out in the digitalized world, especially with the effect of the pandemic.

B2B e-commerce and order management platform ZerOnline, which combines technology with category expertise in material purchases, has been offered to companies with user-friendly features to save cost, time and labor. More than 400 corporate customers carry out their purchases in a self-service manner with ZerOnline.

Strategic purchasing platformPromenahas developed its existing services by focusing on customer experience, and offered solutions to companies with both the use of self-service platforms and professional support.

Zer managed a purchasing budget of 5 billion TL in 2019, this budget was realized as approximately 6 billion TL in 2020.

The total cost advantage provided to its customers by purchasing in bulk - according to the measurable savings measurement - was 60 million TL.

-In the 2021 ranking of Fortune Turkey 500, it rose from 107th to 93rd.
-It was ranked 136th in the Capital 500 2020 ranking. Zer is the first purchasing and supply chain management company to be included in the Fortune 500 and Capital 500 lists. In addition, Zer ranks 16th in 2020 in the ranking of 50 companies that manage the largest purchasing volume in Turkey.
-Increased the number of customers from 1,010 to 1,114 in 2019 and 2020, increasing by 13%.
-The rate of revenue generated from non-Koç Group customers increased from 18.5 percent to 25.4 percent in 2020. In the first half of 2021, this rate reached 30 percent. This increase shows that more companies benefit from Zer's advantageous business model.
-In 2019 and 2020, it increased its turnover from 3.2 million TL to 4 million TL and achieved a 25% increase.
-While the Company's Gross Profit was 202.9 million TL in 2019, it was 251.7 million TL in 2020, resulting in a 24% increase in profitability.
-While operating profit was 113.3 million TL in 2019, it reached 143.1 million TL in 2020 with an increase of 26%.

Due to the word limits in the application form, all details of Zer's unique business model, wide catalog and advantages could not be included in this form.

Additional documents have been prepared in order to present a more holistic view to dear jury members; each listed below:

Apx1-Presentation-Zer Introduction Presentation
Presentation of Zer's company profile and all its solutions

Apx2-Business Case-Zer Cast Iron Sale
The cast iron sales project, one of Zer's outstanding achievements in 2020, is described in detail as a business case.

Apx3-Document-Zer 2020 Year-End Results and Customer Satisfaction
It is the document detailing Zer's achievements at the end of 2020 and customer satisfaction results.

Apx4-Website-Zer Web Site
https://www.koczer.com/en