Textile is one of the core business areas of Çalık Holding, which is one of Turkey’s most important groups. In the denim sector, the first enterprise of Çalık family, whose activities date back to 1930’s in the sector, was led by Ahmet Çalık in 1981. Securing its situation in the sector, Ahmet Çalık established Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil in 1987. Expanding in time, the textile factory in Malatya, the foundation of which was laid in 1988, became a fully integrated denim manufacturing facility. This company, which sales denim and gabardine mainly to the garment exporters in the country, performs sales to several countries and brands directly or through agents. Önder Öksüz, General Manager of Çalık Denim, told Textil Dünyası about the works of Çalık Denim and Çalık Holding in the field of textile.
Öksüz stated that Çalık Holding, started to make investments in 1981 in the country and continued them abroad. Öksüz added that in 1993, a denim, home textiles and a knitting factory, in 2001 garment factories and in 2003 a gabardine fabric manufacturing facility was established in Turkmenistan and a garment factory was opened in 2007 in Egypt. Öksüz remarked that as the group turned to sectors other than textile, the textile sector’s sharewithin the group declined to 10 percent. Öksüz also gave information about the denim production facility in Malatya. “Our production facility in Malatya is established on an area of 364.803 sqm, 125,600 sqm of which is closed. With its 284 looms, the facility has an annual production capacity of 31 million meters of denim and gabardine fabric. This capacity equals to 2,5 times the length of the equator. The facility also has a yarn spinning capacity of 3,200,000 kg of OE yarn, 2,100,000 kg of spun yarn and 6,700,000 kg ring yarn.”
Öksüz stated that 720 thousand pieces of denim products are manufactured in the facilities and that they are used by the brands around the world. Öksüz emphasized that Italy, USA, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Netherlands stand out as the export markets of Çalık Denim.
2011 was a Positive Period for Çalık Denim
Önder Öksüz stated that compared to the previous year, 10 percent increase was observed in denim fabric exports in 2010 and that the unexpected increase that took place in the cotton prices in 2010, affected the whole denim sector. Reminding that fluctuations were experienced in the number of customers, quantity and prices throughout 2010, Öksüz evaluated 2011 in terms of Çalık Denim. “Thanks to its experience in know-how and its location, Turkey’s importance in textile sector increases day by day. Compared to the previous year, 2011 was a more positive year for Çalık Denim. However the developments and price fluctiations across the world affected us, though slightly. Thanks to the right marketing strategies, we didn’t loose our shares in the brands and markets we were strong in and we achieved a growth in the U.S. and Far East market. In this context, 2011 was a year throughout which we achieved a healthy and a balanced growth,” said Öksüz.
Öksüz stated that they’ve determined on their strategy for the year 2012 and added that they will be cautious about the financial problems and maintain their a hundred percent order and customer focused business. Öksüz emphasized that Çalık Denim is a brand that has a production ability in different countries and added; “Among the Premium denim manufacturers, we are one of the world’s top 10 companies and one of the first 5 companies that can manufacture high amounts of qualified products.”
Öksüz stated that their company adopt a high adaptation, customer and solution oriented approach based on, product quality. Öksüz added that they regard their customers as solution partners and act on a vision of establishing long-term business relations. Öksüz underlined that their environment friendly and recycable products and infrastructure are the main elements that differentiate them.
22 Million Dollars worth of Investment will have been made by 2013
Önder Öksüz reminded that they focus on environmental awareness and therefore they closely follow the technological developments and adapt them to the production process. Stating that they will have made approximately $ 22 Million worth of investments by 2013, Öksüz stated that they are open to innovations and are quick to make decisions.
Öksüz stated that Green Event, which they organized in November 2011, is an indication of their sensitivity to the environment, and continued by saying; “In order to create an awareness at Green Event we organized an activity called “Follow Your Own Carbon Footprint”. As a denim fabric manufacturer, we are an inter-stage in the sector. We believe that it will be a great contribution if we will be able to create an awareness about the issue. At this point we’re aiming to create a message. As Çalık Denim, we follow our own carbon footprint at each output of the production process beginning from the individuals. We are diligently protecting our respect to human and environment and the heritage that we will pass on to the future generations.”
Stating that the concept of sustainability should be focused on at each point of the production process, Öksüz remarked that the production in this context has a more intense and expensive procedure compared to the classical production processes. “In terms of sales, most brands use the sustainability concept within their own body and the sales rates remain around 7 percent,” said Öksüz and added that they’re struggling to raise the awareness of the customers. “As long as the consumer usage habits do not change, I think that the nature will be affected by us in the same way for a long time,” said Öksüz.
Öksüz stated that Çalık Denim has been using natural raw materials and trying and developing different types of natural dyeing for years. Öksüz added that they make use of waste water and create projects for energy recovery. Öksüz finished by saying; “The energy recovery projects, based on transferring the energy used in one process to another process, have been supported by Tubitak. As Çalık Denim, we minimize the energy consumption by using processes other than the well known systems in the textile sector, and try to provide maximum support to the environmentally friendly production.”
R&D Award to Çalık Denim
With the R&D Center it established and the importance it attaches to innovation, Çalık Denim was awarded the “R&D” and “R&D Leaders” at the International Research and Development Project Market Summit, which has been held by the Uludağ Textile Exporters Union (UTİB) since 2009
The company also continues to introduce the new and special fabrics it manufactures in its facilities in Malatya to the denim world. In addition to manufacturing traditional denim fabric, Çalık Denim has also developed new recycleorganic manufacturing techniques through the RETİNA method which was developed through R&D studies conducted to find ways to advance manufacturing in an environmentally-friendly manner, including using pomegranate shells in addition to several other natural materials to dye denim.
Blue&White, the latest innovation produced using recycled papers in an environmentally sensitive business approach, reflects the combination of denim and paper. Using papers that can be adjusted to the desired fabric thickness in the production, have provided a flexibility in the fabric designs and became a new source of inspiration for the designers.
Immediately after having been introduced to the market, Çalık Denim’s new product was started to be applied on the new models in the designing studios of many famous denim brands. Blue&White, which offers successful results even in different and difficult washing processes, is superior to the other denim fabrics in strength.
