Named as Golden Brand of the Year once again by the Consumer Protection Association (TTKD), EAS gave a gala dinner at the Hilton Izmir to celebrate its fiftieth birthday together with its dealers. Activities marking half a century for EAS began earlier with technical training held at the İnci Akü facilities at Manisa Industrial Park. A global branding project conducted in 2012 and intense focus on raising brand awareness have further strengthened the position of EAS in the market. Known as the King of Batteries, EAS has three main categories in the aftermarket segment defined as the starter group. EAS is active in passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, heavy vehicles, and commercial vehicles such as taxis and buses. Having completed its new dealer structuring nationwide in Turkey, EAS now takes firm steps in the foreign aftermarket segment thanks to its powerful distributors.

The gala dinner’s theme was Guiding Light for Fifty Years. Noting the contribution EAS makes to the Holding, President of İnci Holding Perihan İnci said, ‘At İnci Holding, we ‘ve always believed in our people. During our transition from a family company to a corporate structure, we managed to move ahead, once again, by becoming a big family together with our employees and business partners. Our principle of creating a value together with all our stakeholders and the importance that we attach to love, tolerance, and respect underline our success. The countdown starts now towards our 2023 targets. We shall approach our objectives step by step in the next decade. In 2023, İnci Holding will take its place amongst the world’s top 1,000 companies, and the King of Batteries EAS will celebrate its 60th birthday as an enterprise of a holding amongst the top 1,000 companies in the world.’

Referring to the İnci Akü vision, the steps that took İnci Akü to a leading position in technology and exports, and the EAS global branding project, Chairman of İnci Akü Board of Directors and CEO Göksel Paker said, ‘Since the day it was founded, İnci Akü has embraced the principle of continuous change and development in order to understand the needs of our business partners and thus provide the best solutions. We are proud of the achievements of the EAS brand to date; the brand joined the corporate structure in 2000. As a company with strong brands, we have revised our targets higher and in 2012 initiated a global branding project to include our EAS brand. We created an EAS Brand Guide to enable us to further strengthen in global and local competition and increase our productivity. The results of a brand satisfaction survey conducted at the beginning of 2013 by an independent research company, indicate that the brand awareness of EAS increased in 2012 by over six times in comparison to 2010. EAS has also increased its share amongst the brands bought in battery sector. I would like to emphasise, in particular, that we are now seeing the fruits of our efforts. We are the leading exporter of our industry as an organisation that supplies superior quality batteries to 72 countries in four continents. Nearly 60 % of our total sales revenue comes from foreign sales made to 72 countries.’

Noting that market research suggests only one per cent of the brands in the world is 50 or over, and that the average age of the world’s most venerable companies is 68, Chairman of İncitaş Board of Directors Selim Baybaş explained, ‘EAS is in the top four in answers to “Name a brand of battery that comes to mind” – out of 50 active battery brands in Turkey. Our objective is to lead the economy segment (where EAS is the top in brand recognition) with EAS; this segment has a volume of nearly one million units per year. Our target in this segment is to double our present sales of 300,000 in the next three years.’

The oldest and newest EAS Battery dealers received their plaques before the star turn took the stage: the expert and charming Zeliha Sunal, who created a memorable image with her splendid glasses, costumes, and accessories. At the end of her performance, she directed a choir of İnci Group executives and EAS Battery dealers on stage.