hnh International Trade
Haluk Alemdar and Huseyin Sahlan know exactly how they want HNH International Trade to evolve; now they hope others can share that vision as clearly as they do.
Both Alemdar and Sahlan immigrated to Nova Scotia from Turkey. They set up HNH International two years ago to operate as an import and export business between Canada’s east coast and their homeland.
Having lived and worked in the construction industry in Nova Scotia for 37 years, Alemdar has built up a large network of contacts here. And as president of the Turkish Society of Nova Scotia, he has strong ties with other Turkish immigrants as well.
Sahlan, who emigrated from Turkey to Nova Scotia just four years ago, concentrates more on the Turkish end of the business. It makes for a strong business partnership with a global network of connections to draw upon, he says. “Our connections in Turkey and other countries in Europe are a big advantage for our company. I am from an industrial family in Turkey so we have a big network of people there.”
The plan for their business venture? There are two projects currently in the works and other ideas brewing as well.
Their first initiative is to develop a local market for a relatively new product they would like to import. Sinterflex is a new flexible ceramic tile produced by Kale, an established tile manufacturer in Istanbul. Available in a range of colours, Sinterflex has a wider range of applications than normally associated with ceramic tile and can be used in either exteriors or interiors, even for things such as bathroom and kitchen cabinets, says Alemdar.
“It is very thin and can be used for either flat or curved surfaces. It is a completely new product to the construction industry. Turkey is the only place in the world that produces it, and we have an agreement with the manufacturer to represent them in Canada. That is very exciting for us,” Alemdar says.
The second initiative is more of a technology transfer concept project than an actual product to take to the regional market. It’s based on a project currently underway in Austria: investigating the use of renewable energy sources to recycle recovered carbon emissions or carbon dioxide captured from the air, and make methanol. A clean-burning fuel, methanol may work as a substitute for petroleum-based fuels.
“Our aim is to coordinate and build another pilot project in Nova Scotia, together with a local process engineering company and an electric utility company (Nova Scotia Power) using the know-how and the technology developed in Europe,” says Sahlan.
“This will open the way for transferring this technology to Nova Scotia and make Nova Scotia and Canada leaders in this field, in the very near future, worldwide.”
While the Austrian project has focused primarily on using solar energy to produce fuel from recovered carbon emissions, other renewable energies are also viable, Sahlan says.
“These methods are used with all of the clean renewable energies such as wind, solar, geothermal and tidal energies. The results are totally identical.
“It is a large-scale plan and we realize it may take a long time to get it going – especially given the economic crisis of the past year – but it has huge potential,” Alemdar says.
Although they have only been in the entrepreneurial sector for a short time in Nova Scotia, both Alemdar and Sahlan are well aware of a key component to doing business in the province: meeting people face to face. While it’s seen as part of the traditional Nova Scotian friendliness here, they say it’s much the same in their home country too.
“We have set up many meetings and talk about these ideas at every opportunity. That is how business works here. It’s not that different in Turkey…meeting someone in person always works better,” Sahlan says.
As the economy begins to recover, Alemdar and Sahlan anticipate their business ideas will begin to become reality in the coming months.
“There has been a lot of turmoil over the past year, that is changing now,” Alemdar says. “We look forward to bringing these new ideas to the people of Nova Scotia.”
