Global purchasing groups and e-commerce sites operating in Turkey came together with domestic manufacturers within the scope of the 17th Istanbul Apparel Conference organized by the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association (TGSD). Approximately 1,500 meetings were held in the ‘B2B Speed Network Meetings’ attended by over 50 purchasing groups, e-commerce sites and manufacturing companies. TGSD President Ramazan Kaya said, ‘’We discussed about the importance of strategic cooperations at our conference this year with our sector representatives whom coming to Istanbul from around the globe. We hope that B2B meetings will form the basis of these partnerships as well.’’
The 17th Istanbul Apparel Conference, the biggest meeting of the ready made clothing industry, was held on October 16-17. While sessions were held on the first day with the participation of sector representatives both from Turkey and around the globe, the second day witnessed bilateral business meetings as every year. The ‘B2B Speed Network Meetings’, which brought together representatives of global purchasing groups and e-commerce sites operating in Turkey with domestic manufacturers, attracted great attention this year as well. Ramazan Kaya, the Chairman of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association (TGSD), which organized the conference, announced that approximately 1,500 meetings were held in the ‘B2B Speed Network Meetings’ attended by over 50 purchasing groups, e-commerce sites and manufacturing companies.
‘’Our Expectation from Business Meetings at our Conference to Transform Into Long-Term Partnerships’’
While mentioning about their message of unity to the industry with the theme of Redefine, Realign, Refashion at the conference this year, Kaya, “Our sector has been going through troubled times within the last two years as a consequence of geopolitical and economic outlook worldwide. Our belief to overcome these obstacles is through the uniformity of the industry and via establishing strategic partnerships. We conveyed this message to the global ready made clothing industry from Istanbul on the first day of our conference. The interest shown by both global purchasing groups and e-commerce sites and our domestic manufacturers in the bilateral business meetings we organized on the second day demonstrates the readiness of our industry for this cooperation and proves the possibility to overcome the negative trend in exports in the past two years and other situations which we experienced. We hope that the business meetings held at our conference will turn into solid and long-term partnerships. We would like to thank the purchasing groups, e-commerce sites, domestic manufacturers, sector professionals and sponsors whom participated in the 17th Istanbul Apparel Conference.”
About TGSD
Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association (TGSD), one of Turkey's most established sectoral associations, was founded in 1976 and gained the status of an association for the public benefit with the decision of the Council of Ministers dated 2003. TGSD, which represents the entire value chain of the sector with more than 500 members who realize most of Turkey's ready-made clothing exports, is the most inclusive NGO’s in the sector. The Association, which leads the ready-made clothing industry to institutionalize, to become a world brand with its product and service quality by showing determination in innovation and sustainability, to renewing all its processes with a focus on digital and green transformation and to making large-scale investments, aims to increase the competitiveness of the sector with the TGSD Development Academy. TGSD also keeps its finger on the pulse of the industry with the Istanbul Ready-to-Wear Conference, which it has organized every year since 2008 uninterruptedly and which is also included in international calendars.
