On the Threshold of 30+ Years — Alkur's Manufacturing Journey from 1993 to Today

Alkur’s story began in 1993 and grew from distribution into manufacturing and several product families. The 2023 anniversary gathering provides an occasion to revisit these steps through the company timeline and document archive.

The distributor era — 1993-2004

Alkur Kapı Sistemleri was founded in Istanbul by our founder Reha Kurtuluş in 1993; at that time, the industrial door market in Turkey relied almost entirely on imported products. In the early years the work was this: to be a distributor for world brands, bring the products to the field, and connect quality with dealers and end users.

Our first distributorships came one after another:

• 1994 — Raynor (garage door) + LiftMaster (motor)
• 1997 — CLOPAY (first distributor of sectional garage doors in Turkey)
• 2001 — NICE (first Italian door automation distributor in Turkey)

It was the preliminary period during which we acclimatised our dealers to the international standards of the sector. But eventually we realised: staying a distributor means quality control is not in your own hands. We started planning the transition to manufacturing.

Transition to domestic manufacturing — 1999-2010

The first manufacturing step came in 1999. By importing THYSSEN panels and combining them with FLEXI FORCE mechanisms, we began our own assembly. This was still not fully domestic; but on the engineering side, the first touch came from us.

In 2004, we established our first 1,500 m² factory in Tuzla OSB. In those same years, our export map also began to move. In 2005 we decided to develop domestic panel production and introduced NORMTOR as the brand for that direction. The archived 2023–2024 domestic-goods certificate uses the product name “SEKSİYONEL KAPI-PANEL (ENDÜSTRİYEL-GARAJ)” and records 64.57% local content for that entry; it does not establish the origin of every current product.

The 2008-2009 period was a year in which multiple milestones overlapped:

• 2008 — According to our company chronology, we moved into the production of high-speed PVC (HPVC) doors
• 29 October 2009 — Opening of the new 5,000 m² factory in Hendek/Sakarya
• 2009 — We participated in R+T Stuttgart for the first time (the sector’s international showcase)
• 2010 — TÜV NORD issued a 13-page technical report for a Type ECO roll-up door with an Mtec drive; only the first page of that report is published on the site

The Hendek facility was not just an expansion in space; it was also a leap in our production discipline and technical-file infrastructure.

The formation of brand architecture — 2011-2015

After NORMTOR, two sister brands followed:

• 2011 — NORMDOCK (dock leveler, shelter)
• 2012 — r-tec (automation and control range)

The positioning of r-tec was an important decision: in those years, both foreign brand distributorships (NICE etc.) and the products we developed ourselves were being sold under the same umbrella. In 2015 we ended the foreign distributorships and focused on the r-tec automation portfolio. That date does not prove the origin or local-content percentage of every current model.

This decision had two outcomes — first, engineering experience and brand control passed entirely into our hands; second, the product development cycle accelerated significantly.

Documentation and international expansion — 2006-2018

The certification side is the quiet but determining piece of the business. In 2006 we launched the export programme and participated in the Dubai fair. Our map expanded over the years:

• 2006 — Dubai
• 2007 — Syria + Georgia
• 2010 — Paris Equipbaie + Qatar
• 2009–2024 — R+T Stuttgart, regular participation

In 2014, we added the G-24 multi-purpose control unit to our product range.

The r-tec product development period — 2017-2024

After brand control passed into our own hands, the product range accelerated. Year-by-year expansion:

• 2017 — Launch of r-tec DinamixBAR + Dinamix barrier production
• 2018 — r-tec sliding gate motor
• 2019 — DinamixBAR WM wall barrier, A-FLA flasher, MF-A safety photocell
• 2020 — KING series sliding motors (524F, 1224F, 1000-2000)
• 2022 — FU inverter control board, King 3000 FU
• 2023 — DinamixBar L 9000 + Alkur 30th anniversary celebration
• 2024 — r-tec EV charger (WCU-22 Wallbox + WCU-11 Portable)

The addition of the EV charger was a step that carried 30 years of door + automation experience into the infrastructure for electric vehicles; the same dealer network, the same authorized technicians, a new category.

Today and beyond

Under the coordination of the 5,000 m² production facility in Hendek/Sakarya and the head office in Ataşehir/Istanbul, we connect five product families with five commercial brands under a single engineering discipline: ALKUR (HPVC), r-tec (automation), NORMPANEL (panel), NORMTOR (sectional), NORMDOCK (loading).

Read production and export history separately from document scope. The new NORMTOR manufacturer declaration has no printed date or document number. The EAC archive record expired on 12 April 2020, and the domestic-goods document on 7 September 2024. These are different record types; confirm the required file for model and destination at quotation.

Still the same slogan: “Doors that Open to the Future”. The line our founder spoke when setting out thirty years ago today still stands at the foundation of our brand values.

For a detailed year-by-year chronology and photo archive, you can visit the About Us > Chronology and Fairs > Fair Photo Archive pages.