MAN A.Ş.
MAN Türkiye A.Ş., abbreviated to MANAŞ, is a joint company formerly known as MAN Kamyon ve Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş., founded in early 1966 in Turkey as a result of cooperation between a German company, MAN AG, and a Turkish company, Ercanlar A.Ş., to jointly manufacture heavy motor vehicles for Turkey. Initially, motor vehicles manufactured in Germany were sold by Ercanlar A.Ş. (a private Turkish company) in Turkey. This arrangement gained MAN an overall market share of 20 per cent as early as in the fifties. But in 1962 Turkish import regulations changed. First, Ercanlar A.Ş. obtained special import permits, which enabled the continued import of MAN trucks to Turkey. However, this special regulation was granted only for a limited period of time. The only avenue left open for MAN was to supply the Turkish commercial vehicle market by delivering parts from Germany for assembly in Turkey - in the form of complete knock down (CKD) kits.
Consequently, MAN and Ercanlar founded the joint company MAN Kamyon ve Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş. (abbreviated MANAŞ) in early 1966, MAN holding a third of the shares in this new company. A modern truck production plant was built outside the gates of Istanbul. This was a first in MAN AG history to have a plant outside of Germany. Completed after barely a year, it was opened and commenced production on 25 May 1967. Assembly work started on the opening day, and only four days later, on 29 May, the first MAN vehicle, a 520 H unit, rolled off the assembly line. The Turkish company is constantly increasing share of local components in construction of trucks and even presented own original models. In 1969, a ban for import of cabins for trucks was enacted. Manufacturing of cabins was established at the plant in Turkey.
Volume of sales was increasing, and in 1980 was decided to start export of trucks. Thus, agreements about export were signed with Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. In view of the stable situation in 1981 building of an engine plant in Ankara was began in cooperation with the German MAN company. After 1985 production was concentrated on buses. However, in August 1988, production had to stop because of the financial crisis. In 1990, production was resumed, but the situation remained unstable. In 1997 the output was increased to four buses per day but because of financial troubles MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG increased its share in MANAŞ to 81 per cent. After the share increase MANAŞ was renamed to MAN Türkiye A.Ş. Today, MAN Türkiye, which started with a capital of 265.000.000.-TL, and 300 employees, has become the design, development and production centre for standard coaches and city buses of the NEOMAN Group, with its capital of 65.000.000.000.000.-TL, and 2600 employees.
