Sailfish mentality helps growth for Yavuz Tekstil

One textile firm has not let the global economic crisis twist its arm.

Against all odds, Yavuz Tekstil, which was founded in 1993 as a supplier to France’s LC Waikiki retail clothing company, decided to invest $10 billion to establish a factory in Egypt and has turned the country into its new production center.

Yavuz Tekstil, which won business daily Referans’ "Sailfish Award" last year, has been implementing a big part of its production and sales abroad. The awards are given to corporations that have succeeded in adapting to fast-changing dynamics.

Increasing exports

The main reason behind the establishing the factory in Egypt was to increase Yavuz Tekstil exports to Britain. The company has been keeping a close eye on opportunities that could help increase the markets it could export to. The company has mainly been interested in spanning out into northern markets, such as Denmark and Norway. The company has been opening showcases in these countries and holding talks with its customer candidates.

"We have adopted the 'Sailfish' principles. We are making our moves accordingly. We have reacted fast to the developing events and have taken appropriate measures. Therefore, we have been less affected by the crisis," said Alaaddin Torunoğlu, the general manager of Yavuz Tekstil.

Although Yavuz Tekstil, was founded as a supplier company to France’s LC Waikiki, later on in 1997, the Taha Group acquired the company’s global royalties, turning it into a Turkish brand. The Taha Group put Yavuz Tekstil in charge of weaving production. Hit by the 2001 economic crisis in Turkey, Alaaddin Torunoğlu, who was the general manager of Taha Textile at the time, took the helm of Yavuz Tekstil and accelerated the company’s investment speed. Since then, the company has established two new apparel factories, one in Safranbolu, Karabük, the other in the southeastern city of Malatya. Yavuz Tekstil also doubled the capacity of its Istanbul factory.

The global economic crisis dealt a heavy blow to Turkey’s textile industry, Torunoğlu said. LC Waikiki ended the first half of last year with profit and had increased activity, he said. "However, there has been a major contraction in both domestic and international markets during the second half of the year. Thanks to the measures we had adopted early on, we managed to survive the crisis with minimal impact," he added.

Fighting the crisis

Explaining the company measures against the crisis; "We arranged a gathering with our customers as soon as we felt the crisis was approaching. We prepared ourselves by painting a detailed picture of what could happen, what kind of distress we might feel etc., when hit by the crisis. We have studied the scenarios we prepared and took precautions accordingly."

"We have tried to be as productive as possible. We made plans to lower our production costs without causing any losses to both our customer or to ourselves. We also revised our budget. We signed deals with all of our suppliers. We have talked to our owner as well as rented offices. Instead of letting people go we have gathered with them, evaluated our situation, figured out the things we all can do. All parts self-sacrificed a little and we managed to continue our operations without hitting major bumps," Torunoğlu said.

The company, which posted a turnover worth $60 million last year, plans new investments in 2010.