As one of the leading brands in Türkiye’s furniture industry, Bellona was founded in Kayseri in 1995. Operating as a group company within the organization of Anadolu Güçbirliği Holding and maintaining its leadership position in the industry with exports to 57 countries, Bellona ranks 251st in the ISO 500 list and 234th in the Fortune 500 Türkiye list. With a firm commitment to ensuring the highest standards of life and property safety across its facilities, Bellona places its trust in EEC’s engineering expertise in this critical field.
As Multiple Bellona Production Centers, including Membranes, Seating Groups, Panels, Mattresses, Chairs and Bed Bases, our operations span a total area of 292,654 m2, including 105,191 m² of open space and 187,463 m² enclosed space. While our facilities providing service with approximately 2,500 employees are designed as single-storey structures, the administrative buildings consist of three-storey structures composed of ground, first and second floors. Our production units operate independently, and our facilities are protected with different fire detection systems from various brands.
When the company that had originally installed our fire detection systems informed us that they could no longer support the series (XLS1000) that we use, we began searching for a new solution. During the visits by EEC’s Kayseri team within this course, we had the opportunity to be informed about the fire detection systems they provide service. For us, not only the capability of a company to provide service to our systems, but also the quality and sustainability of that service were important.
We were already somewhat familiar with EEC through a short visit by their Ankara team in 2016 and their maintenance works carried out at İstikbal Plant. Positive feedback from the maintenance managers and technical team at İstikbal Plant further strengthened our confidence in working with EEC.
We initially planned to launch a pilot project for the detection system at one of our facilities. However, our priorities changed due to a legislative amendment. Fire protection for our roof-top solar power plants (SPPs), transformer rooms and central distribution panels became a top priority on our agenda. We began exploring globally integrated systems.
During our exploration process, our path crossed with EEC as the official representative of FirePro, one of the three major brands, in Türkiye. From that point on, site surveys and engineering calculations were carried out quickly. The presence of EEC’s Kayseri team that provided us with prompt feedback throughout the process, as well as their support and reliable responses given to our technical questions during the proposal and contracting phases, all reinforced our trust in them. We clarified the details depending on our needs and started with the fire suppression project for the transformer rooms and central distribution panels before proceeding with the fire detection systems.
When making investment decisions, we prioritize solutions that are proper, require minimal intervention, provide easily accessible service and are reliable in the long run. As we want to make sure that the system would be reliable and sustainable once the investment is made, we usually prefer working directly with manufacturing companies or official representatives in Türkiye. For us, it was an essential reason for preference that EEC has both sales and technical teams in Kayseri in order to ensure sustainability.
Following the fire suppression project for the transformer rooms and central distribution panels, we also entered into the maintenance agreement with EEC for our fire detection systems. Within the year following such agreement, during a period when our facility was not operational, the FirePro Aerosol suppression system installed in the compensation panel detected excessive heat occurring in the panel and triggered an alarm on the display of the central fire detection system. Upon receiving the alarm, our security team promptly arrived at the scene, confirmed the activation of the fire suppression system, and successfully took the situation under control through the final intervention.
Fire safety is something we never compromise on in our production facilities. Building a business requires significant time, effort and investment; we operate with the awareness that even a single spark could destroy it all.
At this point, the contribution EEC provided to us lay in their support in selecting the right products and the added value they brought in terms of engineering expertise.
We require full compliance with the EN54 standard. We adopt an approach aiming at ensuring sustainability across our site in the most efficient and safe manner.
When revisions were required in the fire suppression systems installed in the central distribution panels and transformer rooms across six facilities, EEC’s team carried out the necessary modifications and revisions promptly and without charging additional cost. Being aware that the system is continuously monitored for improvement gives us confidence.
We also experienced another benefit of the maintenance services when we detected hidden risks. We found out that certain revisions were required due to the structural modifications over time despite our system being operational.
We are currently conducting a comprehensive review for the compliance of our facilities with the recent regulations. Our site was re-explored in collaboration with EEC’s engineering and sales teams.
Our Edwards fire detection system is a system that has been in operation since its installation in 1999 and is continuously updated. We took its greatest advantage with its quick detection performance during night time or holidays when the facility was not operational. We experienced numerous cases where early detection triggered suppression systems, buying us valuable response time. Likewise, our Siemens fire detection system has proven highly reliable in terms of detection performance.
The most critical function of the detection systems is enabling quick and precise intervention. Knowing that an alarm triggered at site is real and exactly from which location it is triggered provides considerable operational convenience. This is because if it is a fire, immediate response is critical; if it is a malfunction, it must be resolved quickly to keep the system up and running.
In the case of any doubt about the reliability of an alarm triggered by your system, you not only put your team at risk but also incur significant financial losses. A few hours of production downtime caused by a false alarm is already a major setback; however, ignoring an actual fire alarm could mean losing the entire business. It is therefore critical for the system to operate properly, in an integrated manner, and with full stability. You simply cannot control a system you cannot monitor. The capability of EEC’s FirePro solutions to be integrated seamlessly with our existing monitoring systems was one of the key factors behind our preference.
The quality of the products used, along with their proven compliance with the international standards, was also a key factor in our preference. Eventually, what truly defines a company is the attitude of its sales and support teams that stay in constant communication with you.
The sales and technical service teams responsible for our facility are available at any time, and we can work in close coordination and seamless alignment with our on-site teams.
We confidently recommend our solution partner EEC to other companies operating in the industry: "If you are looking for the right engineering service for a truly reliable detection and suppression system, expect strong after-sales support and need to trust the expert, EEC is the right choice." We recommend all companies adopting the vision of an efficient and safe working environment compliant with the standards at site to work with EEC. Given the diversity of raw materials used at our facilities, the fire load we are exposed to is very high. As Bellona, our top priority is protecting human health and life safety. Without proper precautions, a minor fire may erase years of effort and the work of thousands of people.
We thank EEC for being an accessible solution partner that is capable of providing high-quality engineering service for our systems and compliant with the standards.
