Founded in 1951, Yildirim Makina of Izmir were then known as the Fulmine (thunderbolt) Company. They changed it to the founder's surname Yildirim (lightning) in 1982 and won an award for this ingenious trade name. Yildirim's fibre glass and stainless steel mixing drums, tipping paddles, centrifuge machines, milling and drying machines were prominent on the local market. However, like others who anticipated an upsurge in leather business, this firm are also at odds with shrinking leather markets and have decided to focus, instead, on CNC plasma and oxy-fuel cutting machines. Always an expansive showman, Ahmet Yildirim, with his trademark cigar, once graced International Leather Days in a floor-length white leather 'matrix' coat and, on another occasion, lost his way to the fair.
