The tower of Anatolia

The dream of Kulekon goes back years before Arnikon was founded. In the early 2000s, while Arnikon’s founders were still students, they became excited about building a crane that rises like a tower.

At the time they were too young and inexperienced for such a venture; funding was scarce, R&D was not widespread and every study was truly costly. Developing a tower crane required technical equipment as well as engineering knowledge. While continuing their careers, they took their first official step with a project application to the Technology Development Foundation of Türkiye, but as the project was not written in the right methodology, it was not approved.

Arnikon was founded in 2014. Working day and night, the founders grew the company and made its name known across Türkiye. That same year Arnikon Mühendislik received a young entrepreneurship award, presented to Arnikon General Manager Bayram Ayçiçek by the then Minister of Industry Fikri Işık and KOSGEB President Recep Biçer.

Within five years Arnikon increased its brand value; while expanding its technical capacity it obtained new patents through R&D and launched one value-adding model after another. In 2020 it became the 4th largest exporting brand in its sector.

It was the right time to bring the tower crane to life. KOSGEB gave the project full marks and in 2019 R&D started with government support. With the support of Konya Inno Park and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Tınkır, the first tower crane was built in 2021; an international patent was obtained for Kulekon and the brand was registered with the Turkish Patent Office.

A concrete example of government–academia–industry cooperation, Kulekon — “the crane that rises in the lift shaft” — came to life despite the hardships of the pandemic. Arnikon continues to produce and develop new products to give Türkiye a strong place in the sector and in world markets.