One of Turkish denim sector’s leading brands, Çalık Denim introduced the 2014 Spring-Summer Collection prepared with the slogan ‘See Yourself’ under the supervision of the designer Ümit Ünal. Shaping the trends of the upcoming trends, the brand presented a successful work with denim and nondenim products. At the head of Çalık Denim within Çalık Holding, and the General Manager of Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil, Önder Öksüz made special comments to Tekstil Dunyasi.
Remarking that they achieved a budget meeting the expectations in general terms in the first half of 2012, Önder Öksüz reminded that the markets and perceived parameters changed dramatically after the 2008 crisis. Öksüz said: “Cotton increase in 2010 seriously affected companies like us that perform cotton production. However, we successfully overcame this process started in 2008, and even turned it into an opportunity. At this point, that we were within the Çalık Group and the financial strength of the company were effective. In this context, 2011 in which a booming was experienced with the impact of delayed demand was very successful for us. In this process, the capacity utilization rate was at the highest rate.
Öksüz explained that when first half of 2011 was compared with the same period of this year, there was a volume similar to last year. Stating that demand for gabardine was more powerful; he added that they were in a pretty good condition compared to previous years. Reiterating that 2011 was a boom year, Öksüz said that 2012 was a year of returning to the real market values. Expecting that they were to perform successful domestic sales and level of export, Öksüz expressed that cost conditions were not so much effective in this process, but withdrawal of cotton prices and therefore relaxation in prices with financial position in European countries were determining factors.
Delivery Accelerates, Orders Head for Us
Öksüz stated that key customers of European markets not to hold stock since the 2008 crisis, made deadlines shorter and he continued as follows: “When we look at the past 10-15 years, we see shorter deadlines. That is to say, they do not demand products to receive at the end of 4-5 months; they want the products to be in their stores after one month. We have demonstrated the success of adapting this process quickly. In general, Turkish textiles passed the test at this point. Thanks to high production and quick supply, Turkish textiles started to be preferred by European brands. As long as this industrial and financial structure remain the same, foreigners especially Europeans will come to Turkey to purchase goods. Those brands do not demand products from China, India or Pakistan to be delivered after 4-5 months; they find choose to purchase from Turkey after 38-40 days by paying 1 Euro more.”
Önder Öksüz expressed that in terms of fast and high-quality production, Turkish denim products were considered as ‘premier’ and used by world-famous fashion brands and designers; and he added: “5-6 years ago Japanese and Italian manufacturers were ahead in this area, however, due to the economic realities, we went forward. Those who demand high quality denim products in terms of cost and quality prefer to work with Turkey. Recently Turkish denim manufacturers have made huge investments on the image. Thus, Turkish denim has created a perception of high-quality.”
Our Share in the Group Falls, Turnover Increases
Explaining that textile began to receive less share in the total volume of business of Çalık Group growing rapidly from past to present, Öksüz added that in spite of the reduction of textile in terms of share, it grew in terms of sales and turnover. Öksüz reminded that the company headed for alternative markets before the period of the financial crisis; and he noted that they had entered new areas other than traditional overseas markets for 4 years; apart from their offices in Hong Kong and Korea, they were in an intense relationship with markets such as India and Bangladesh; they formed a new agency in Columbia and they set out with a new agency in Los Angeles.
The Capacity is to Increase by 13% with Investment
Stating that they declared 2012 – 2013 as the investment years, Önder Öksüz announced that the total production capacity was to increase by 5 million meters. Öksüz mentioned that this meant an increase of 12-13% in production and he added that their main goal in investment was not to increase the capacity, but to perform high value-added production in each product segment with different details instead of the standard product. Öksüz said: “We do not perform standard and basic production. We invest for a system in which there is no bottleneck and the value added is higher. Now customers do not demand the same amount and variety of products. For us, the deadline should be maximum 4 weeks. We keep pace with the changing deadlines and calendars. If there is a little more of need, we should be able to provide any range of products at any time with the technical capacity.
Close-Up: Çalık Denim
Established by Çalık Holding Chairman Ahmet Çalık in Malatya in 1987 with an investment of 111 million Dollars, Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil is a fully integrated denim manufacturer producing especially denim fabric, gabardine and yarns and recognized worldwide for product quality and service concept. Owning Çalık Denim brand, the company achieved a turnover of 193 573 million Dollars in 2011.
An international player in a wide geographical area reaching Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA, China, Singapore, Israel, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, Çalık Denim has an annual production of 36 million meters. Significant fashion brands such as Diesel, Benetton, Mexx, H & M, Calvin Klein, G-Star, Tommy Hilfiger, GAP, Marks & Spencer, Jack & Jones and Zara are among the customers of Çalık Denim which performs production with 284 looms in Malatya in an area of total 375 000 square meters, 130 000 m² of which is closed.
