Leading the way among the Turkish nonwoven manufacturer leaders, Mogul expands its activity area with new investments. While participating in EDANA Nonwoven Eurasia Symposium held on 10-11 May, Mogul also continues its activities with EDANA. As TextoWear Magazine, we made an interview with Marketing Director of Mogul Tekstil, Serkan Göğüş. Gögüş provided us with important infomation concerning both the new investments of the firm and the expanding market areas.
Expressing that they gained successful results with Spunlace investment launched in 2010, Serkan Göğüş said that: “We closed 2011 with really good figures owing to the driving force of our new investment.”. Emphasizing that they manufactured with this technology for the first time, Göğüş continued his remarks by saying: “We activated this investment in 2011. A leap was recorded in our sales figures resulting from this investment. A firm’s operating full-capacity and yielding profits is a time-consuming process. One needs to be patient in such investments. We also behave in this manner at our investments and then the success is inevitable. This was also the case in the last spunlace enterprise. The process starting in 2010 resulted in an increase in the sales last year.”.
60 % of production is exported
“Manufacturing is the halfway but market areas should also be expanded with successful activities to complete the way” says Göğüş. Reminding that they generally export to North America and Europe, he explained that they export 60 % of the annual production on average. Stating the rest of their production is consumed in the internal market, Göğüş continued his remarks by saying: “We did not experience a demand change but we are continously trying to diversify our market areas. Basically, we want to exceed our sales regions. Thus, we expanded slightly in terms of organisation last year. We also increased employment in this respect. We are trying to expand in such markets as Middle East, Russia, Latin America and Far East in which we operate but not strong enough.”.
Beside their target of reaching new markets, Göğüş impled that they also saw a sales increase in their existing export regions, they caught a rising acceleration in Balkan countries and the Middle East. Concerning the machine parks, Göğüş emphasized that they usually prefer Europe-origin machines. They mainly purchase machines from Italian companies. “However, in our last spunlace investment, we are using German and French machines.” said Mr. Göğüş.
Interest of Turkish Firms is Too Low
Making important explanations concerning EDANA symposium, Göğüş pointed out: “While I was working in the Board of Directors of EDANA between 2008 and 2001, viewpoint on Turkey slightly changed, too. Two years ago, the meeting of board of directors was held in Turkey. All these developments prove the interest shown to the Turkish market. Pierre Wiertz, General Director of EDANA, paid visits to the Turkish nonwoven firms after the meeting. Such activities and events are of great importance for our country but only a few Turkish firms participated in the event due to some problems. When the participant profile was examined, about 70-80 % of all participants was constituted by the foreign companies.”
Sharing his opinions concerning low participation rate of the Turkish companies, Göğüş emphasized that lack of promotion and high participation fees might have affected the firms’ preferences. Underlining that participation should have been at least half and half, he added: “Foreign companies come to meet with Turkish companies. They Turkish companies do not attend the events, they do not also want to participate in the next organisation. Therefore, such events desired to be traditionalised are also put under risk. I find this scenario frightening. Foreign companies taking place in these organisation in exchange for really high costs can also give up attending such events. I believe this problem should be overcome.”.
Hightex is Falling Back Each Year
Reminding that Mogul Textile takes place actively at Hightex fair, Göğüş also explained his opinions about the Hightex fair held on 21-24 April. Emphasizing that Hightex was a really successful event when it was first held, Göğüş added that: “In recent years, it is falling back. Largely, machine manufacturers and raw material suppliers participate. They should draw the attention of nonwoven manufacturers and manufacturers buying end products.”.
Being an EDANA Member is Important in Terms of Prestige
Stating that there are important and successful institutions in the global market to support nonwoven sector, he also added that working with EDANA which takes place among these institutions provides great prestige to the firms. Göğüş underlined that EDANA supports its members both technically and commerically, and continued by saying: “Therefore, such organisations are of great importance. I think technical textile, nonwoven and dependent manufacturers should come together and form similar organisations in Turkey, too. This is an obligation for development of the industry. One of the biggest problems in Turkey is that we can not compete and work together simultaneously. However, this is done in a more modern way in foreign countries. For instance, there are sub-committees in EDANA, four-five companies operating in the same sector convene and discuss the problems of the industry. They make evaluations for these problems. Competition does not necessarily mean conflicting with the opposite party, it may sometimes require the parties to come together. I believe that if Turkish manufacturers and the sector can succeed this, more acquisitions will be obtained.”.
Customer Demands Include Environment and Sustainability
Finally, informing us about the changes in the customer demands and targets of Mogul for 2012, Göğüş stated: “Our priority is to render our previous investments more active. In addition, we will continue expanding our market areas at each period. We want to head towards the other countries as well as Europe and North America which are our main markets”.
Expressing that customer demands are more related to the final manufacturers, Göğüş completed his remarks by saying: “We work with firms in line with our business concept. We do not establish direct contacts with customers. Recently, sustainability and environment have begun to gain serious importance. These themes also started to play a key role in such organisations as EDANA. In Turkey, such issues did not draw the necessary attention. There is not full awareness. However, a full awareness has already been raised in the world. Increasing costs in the use of natural products prevent the firms from supporting these issues. They could not gain wide acceptance yet. But there are some advancements in this respect. They seem a bit niche markets and niche practices but, in my opinion, they will become more serious in the developed countries of America and Europe in the course of time.”
Mogul: A Close Shot
Mogul Tekstil operating in the field of technical textile and nonwovens was established in 1995 in Gaziantep and started production in 1997. Founded only with domestic capital, Mogul has a leading position in textile industry as a nonwoven and composite fabric manufacturer. Mogul has 2 manufacturing plants in 2nd and 3rd organized industrial zones in Gaziantep which is known as nonwoven production center of Turkey. With its domestic sales office opened in 2002 in Bayrampaşa, Istanbul, Mogul has expanded its market network. Focusing on industrial applications and technical textiles in particular, Mogul seems to exports 70% of its products to more than 50 countries. Mogul is known as the first Turkish company that joined EDANA in 1998.
Mogul is the first company that produces Spunbond, Meltblown and SMS products in Turkey. Together with a wide range of nonwoven products, Mogul manufactures its main product PP spunbond surface. The usage aread of PP spunbond TELA are home textile, furniture, mattress, quilter, hygiene products, agriculture, medical textiles, construction, shoes and bag linings, automotive, filtration, car coverings, CD containers, protective cloths and wet wipes. In the field of meltblown surfaces, Mogul also dominates the adsorbent fabric market. Moreover, Mogul has Polyester Spunbond fabrics in its product range. As a result of investments made in recent years, the product range became more diverse through lamination and extrusion coating of the existing fabrics. Usage areas of PP Meltblown and Composite (SM-SMS) products are oil adsorbent wipes, construction, medical textiles, protective cloths and filtration. Polyester Spunbond nonwovens production is also included in the production range of Mogul. The company has become specialized in the production of Peva film for protection from water and dust, agricultural cloths and apparel adsorbent products.
Standing Out With Its Quality Standards
Mogul implements its quality control procedures in line with international standards and has EN ISO 9001 quality management certificate of British Standards Institute which is prestigious in the industry. The company was also awarded with IDEA 2001 Achievement Award which is known as INDA’s Entrepreneurship award in 2001. Mogul received this award out of 40 candidates owing to the powerful growth displayed by it in three-years’ time from 1998 to 2001.
