Discover how Assan Panel’s groundbreaking products are helping to build a more sustainable future
Assan Panel, operating under Kibar Holding, is a leading company in manufacturing insulation and building envelope solutions. The company started operations in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1990, and today, exports products and technologies developed with sustainable methods to 85 countries. With an annual production capacity of 22 million square meters at its production facilities in Istanbul, Iskenderun and Balikesir, as well as in Jordan and Azerbaijan, Assan Panel offers a wide range of sandwich panel solutions. In 2023, the company launched sales and marketing subsidiaries in the UK and in Hungary and will be investing in a further factory in the UK.
Alongside sandwich panels, the company provides trapezoidal and polycarbonate sheets, PIR-filled insulation boards and steel accessories. This product offering is compounded by a consultative and long-term technical partnership approach, dedication to regulations, and strict adherence to declared product specifications.
“Our approach,” begins Ihsan 
Tolga Akar (Tolga), Managing Director, “enables the delivery of fast, practical, innovative, reliable and environmentally friendly solutions, tailored to the different demands and needs of our customers. This is why our vision statement is “To Build Right”. We use high quality materials and the latest production technologies, which guarantees the durability and longevity of our products.
“The construction industry still needs transforming in terms of digitalization, automation and increased modularity. With our design and engineering capabilities, we aim to be part of this paradigm shift and work together with the construction community. The use of biological or recyclable materials with end-to-end product life cycle management is becoming more and more crucial. As such, one of Assan Panel’s subsidiaries is a polyurethane systems house with state-of-the-art laboratory and production facilities in Istanbul and Balikesir. We also focus on high quality core materials with increasingly lower carbon footprints.
“Thanks to our expertise, knowledge and experience, we can offer the most suitable innovative and sustainable solutions to our customers. We stay ahead of the curve and invest heavily in R&D activities, maintaining sustainable momentum in terms of developing new products and technologies. A key differentiator for us is that customer satisfaction is always our top priority and one of the reasons why we are the preferred supplier in our sector.
Thermal efficiency
“In our facilities, we produce sandwich panels with metal surfaces in different thicknesses and properties, with different forms and colour options, using fire-resistant internal filling materials, such as SmartCore, PIR Elite, PIR, and mineral wool. While the products we produce offer energy-efficient building solutions with easy and fast installation, we help achieve better performance in green building systems with the new generation insulation technology, SmartCore, developed in our R&D laboratories. We are also investing into polyurethane production capacity as well as R&D capabilities to grow our AssanChem business, and to do so sustainably,” he elaborates. 
“We continually strive to improve the products and services we offer to our industry. The new version of our SmartCore technology offers one of the highest performances in this market segment, globally. In our SmartCore technology fillers, which provide higher thermal performance in roof and wall panels, we have optimised the use of chemicals within the scope of compliance with the European Union’s sustainability regulations. Our SmartCore panels offer higher thermal performance at lower thicknesses. The technology has the lowest thermal conductivity coefficient that any closed cell insulation filling can offer, providing up to 110 per cent more thermal efficiency than mineral wool and up to 22 per cent more than PIR filling.
“Furthermore, SmartCore panels reduce CO₂ emissions by using less raw materials in production and less steel in the supporting structure. In addition to protecting natural resources, our production facilities generate their own energy, and we are proud to be a reliable partner for solar energy system solutions. With our solar capped and S5 panel products, we aim to help future generations in reducing the effects of climate change by offering easy, fast, and energy-efficient building solutions. Our groundbreaking solar-adaptable roof panels negate the need for additional metal platforms which can jeopardise water insulation efficiency. The proprietary clamp system is tested for resistance to environmental conditions and solar panels can be mounted directly to our sandwich panels without drilling the surface,” Tolga explains.
Indeed, Assan Panel’s products extend the life of the structure by protecting structural integrity and eliminating corrosion and waterproofing risks caused by screw holes. Likewise, labour and assembly times are reduced. The company has recently added a superior fire-resistant mineral wool solar capped panel to its product range, which is also compatible with photovoltaic modules of all sizes thanks to its special rolling system. Assan Panel continues to support the expansion of renewable energy by maintaining its reputation as the brand with the widest solar capped product range in the sector.
Expanding operations
“We recently accelerated our globalisation journey,” Tolga continues. “We made our first overseas investment in Jordan in 2012 and our second strategic overseas move in Azerbaijan in 2021. Now, to further strengthen our presence in Europe, we have started our work to establish a new production facility in the Freeport East, Gateway 14, free trade zone in Suffolk, UK with an investment of £45 million. This facility is scheduled for completion in autumn 2025 and will enable faster and easier production and delivery of our high-tech products to the European market. With this new investment, we will transfer our 34 years of experience to the UK and other European countries. We aim to make a difference in the European market with our innovative, pioneering, sustainable and energy efficient products.
“Following industry recovery in the last quarter of 2023, the construction sector entered 2024 with hope. With our strong production capacity and expansive product range, Assan Panel is well positioned to leverage this revival. In addition to the regions to which we already export, our plan to expand into new markets is always on the table. We are one of the top ten global players in the international market with our high quality, innovative and sustainably driven products.
“Service industries tend to take the major share of economic output in developed countries; however, manufacturing is always crucial in the long term as was proven during the pandemic in terms of supply chain breakages and trade wars. Assan Panel always strategically focuses on manufacturing in the most efficient way with high quality and innovative methods. As such,” Tolga concludes, “we are proud to become part of the manufacturing industry in the UK and look forward to making a long-term contribution to its successful and efficient growth while championing environmental conservation to ensure we contribute to leaving a sustainable world to the next generations.”