The Business Year

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M. Mesut Toprak

Chairman, Taypa

The textile market has transformed itself significantly, and we have evolved along with it. We are a large company and currently produce around 850,000 pairs of pants a month; however, what has really boosted our success is our design. We have a brilliant R&D department, and through its efforts we not only satisfy the needs of our customers, but also respond to their expectations. We see our customers as our strategic partners. We have some customers with whom we have been working for decades. I call them our strategic partners because they know our strengths and we know theirs. We have a strategy called “five Fs“ that sets us apart from our competitors: fast, fashionable, flexible, focused, and friendly. We have been cooperating with the world’s leading brands for many years. For this reason, we have a deep knowledge about their ways of doing business. We really know what they expect from their partners, which gives us a huge opportunity to respond their needs. And we have adopted the principle of sharing this know-how with universities, as well as with all our business partners and employees. There are some old subcontractor factories in eastern Turkey that are not well operated. We have a team of our own in those regions that is working to set these factories in motion by training people there and teaching them how to do things right.

Sevda Aydın

General Manager, AytÄ°m Group

Germany is our most important export country. We have been exporting there for about 40 years as a family and 25 years as Aytim. Apart from Germany, we are also exporting to Spain. In 2019, we sent our first invoice to the US. Aytim always aims to be a premium producer, and we focus on developing our relationships with European clients. We aim to produce products with higher added value by designing and developing them ourselves. We have thought of ways to increase our added value rather than simply expanding to new locations. As a result, we invested in creating a new premium streetwear brand 10 years ago, which is now among the top 10 in the world. Aytim has not been affected directly by the volatility of the lira and the economy. If we carry on with our innovations, concentrate on adding value, and make ourself indispensable to our customers, a company such as ours will have no problem. In fact, 95% of our revenue comes from exports. That means domestic foreign exchange fluctuations do not affect demand for our products. However, that volatility does affect our suppliers, because they have many hard currency inputs, which requires us to be more sensitive to their situations. We have challenges procuring the right kinds of fabric, because our clients require us to be innovative. What differentiates Aytim from other garment manufacturers is the manufacturing of added-value products, along with its innovation.

Giray Öcalgiray

CEO, Giray Öcalgiray

Our operations have recently become more complicated and sophisticated. Both from a production standpoint and a logistics standpoint—due to the increased number of products, customers, and shipments—everything is becoming more complex and detailed. Around 60% of our revenue comes from global retailers under a private label and 40% from Nako, our primary yarn brand. We see growth coming from both areas, as we consider the private label business as one of our “own“ brands. Most of our customers do not have factories. That is why we consider ourselves as the factory for their brands. We believe in these long-term partnerships; they will be a great source of revenue in the future. We do expect our export revenues to grow. There will a global recession sometime in the coming years. Usually, as more people stay home, they tend to knit more. Western markets are more important and significant to us, as the businesses there tend to be toward “hobby“ users. Therefore, we can sell at higher prices. Eastern markets are more need-based markets, which means they are more price competitive. We wanted to have an additional production center in Europe. Serbia has offered us the best deal. Opening another production center is a long-term goal. If it ever happens, it could be in the US. We have been making significant investments in terms of capacity and machine renewal in the last few years. As for the next 12 months, we will focus more on optimizing operations to cut costs and become more competitive.

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