Retail Next

Çayyolu’ndan BMW satışında dünyada bir ilk

BMW’nin geliştirdiği yeni nesil satış konsepti ‘Retail Next’e göre tasarlanan Borusan Oto Çayyolu, Ankara’da düzenlenen törenle açıldı.

Alp Alkaş vefat etti

Londra’da çalışan 27 yaşındaki Alp Alkaş önceki geceyarısı evinde fenalaşarak hayatını kaybetti.

Atıl Kutoğlu - Fashion designer extraordinaire Keeping residents of city chic

ISTANBUL - Atıl Kutoğlu went to Vienna to study business administration and has found himself atop the world of fashion design. Blending art, culture and a range of textiles, Kutoğlu has made a name for himself and his flagship Istanbul store.

Istanbul to get a long weekend as design hub

ISTANBUL - The Design Weekend, organized for the first time in Istanbul, kicks off today. Although the promotion and advertising for the event have been weak, participants are excited to display their pieces. The festival includes architecture and design offices, restaurants, shops and markets.

New index displays malls as rising force

ISTANBUL - The Association of Shopping Center Investors and Akademetre Research introduce Turkey’s first ’Shopping Centers Index.’ The index encompasses 35 shopping centers in Istanbul and Anatolian cities, shedding light on monthly visitor figures, revenues and employment

Sabancı eyes increase in sales

ISTANBUL - The global financial downturn is increasing ambiguity toward the future, according to the chairwoman of Turkey’s Sabancı Holding.

Krea opens Neomarin

ISTANBUL - Neomarin Pendik, consisting of 140 stores, opens in Istanbul today. Maxence Liagre, executive vice president at Krea Real Estate, the developer of the shopping center, says the company aims to reach all consumer classes with its huge investments.

Veteran music acts rise at big box stores

NEW YORK - With music stores closing and the industry struggling, older groups like the Eagles and AC/DC are finding success by teaming up with chain stores for exclusive releases. Garth Brooks kicked off the trend in in 2005 with an exclusive Wal-Mart deal.

Turkey's BİM reveals global growth plan

ISTANBUL - BİM Birleşik Mağazalar, a Turkish discount supermarket chain, is planning to continue its investments at full speed, not only in Turkey but also abroad. In particular, to Morocco.

Turkish firm to acquire Adams

ISTANBUL - Wenice Kids, a Turkish childrenswear brand that has expanded rapidly within the last two years, agrees to buy 40 percent of Adams Kids, a British brand that is in trouble due to the global crisis. Wenice will pay $6 million to acquire 40 percent of Adams Kids

Big plans on the way for restaurant group

ISTANBUL - Oğuz Şenol, the owner of the Global Restaurant Group, which operates Harvard Cafe, Cafe Italiano, Bursa Kebap House and Neuhaus Chocolate, says he is planning to turn the current ecnomic crisis into an opportunity and grow his business in 2009

U.S. unemployment hits 7.6 pct, 598,000 jobs lost

U.S. unemployment surged in January to 7.6 percent, the highest since 1992, as 598,000 jobes were cut, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Web site aims to unite all retailers

With its focus on Turkey’s retail sector, www.perakende.org will present a platform for sector players to interact with one another and receive up-to-date information. The Web site, founded in 2005, aims to be a reference point

Sabancı group on a roll with new investments

ISTANBUL - Undeterred by the economic crisis, Sabancı Holding is not changing its plans for expansion and will open more stores and create more jobs. Sabancı Holding, the second largest industrial and financial conglomerate in Turkey, announced it would remain faithful to its previous plans for growth.

River Island pulls out of the Turkish market

ISTANBUL - The British men's and women's clothing retailer River Island has announced its decision to pull out of the Turkish market.

Turmoil turns into crisis of confidence in Turkey

ISTANBUL - The global turmoil has evolved into something bigger than just a liquidity or credit crunch. It has turned into a major case of confidence crisis, a top executive in Turkey said in Istanbul yesterday.

Akbank to set up a new operations center

ISTANBUL - Akbank, the country's biggest bank in market value, is getting ready to invest $125 million to open a new operations center in Gebze, an industrial district located east of Istanbul.

Marks & Spencer to axe jobs, close stores

LONDON - British clothing-to-food retailer Marks & Spencer said yesterday it would cut as many as 1,230 jobs and shut 27 stores as the group struggled with falling sales and a looming recession.

Japanese industrial production has biggest monthly fall in November

Japan's contracting economy got a slew of bad news Friday with November figures showing industrial production plunged by its biggest margin since records were started in 1953, the jobless rate jumped and household spending fell.

Wish you a spendy Christmas

ISTANBUL - It is Christmas time again, a time that leaves some of us merry but many others depressed. Icons of commercialism present us a part pagan and a part religious, but a mostly pastiche holiday. Happy St. Nicks smile down from street corners, carols ring throughout shopping centers, wreathes of holly bedeck many a Turkish door.

Foreign direct investment declines

ANKARA - Net foreign direct investment in Turkey totaled $1.7 billion in October, official figures have revealed. The figure for between January and October reached $15.29 billion, despite a 15.9 percent decline compared to the corresponding period last year, according to Treasury data, when the figure stood at $18.19 billion.

Mergers to pick up in 2010

ISTANBUL - Mergers and acquisitions activity in Turkey, which has slowed down notably due to the global financial crisis, is likely to pick up again in 12 months’ time, Memduh Özargun, senior partner and head of advisory at KPMG, said yesterday.

Trouble hits Turkey

ISTANBUL - Russia’s economic woes, resulting from the global financial crisis, have started to affect Turkey’s construction industry. An estimated 20,000 Turkish workers have returned to Turkey after layoffs due to the slowing construction industry in Russia.

Megavizyon’s end just short-sighted

Behind the shutters of Megavizyon, first big retail shop for music CDs, books, films and electronics, a sign says, 'closed for alterations.' Although there is no renovation, head of the security department says, 'It will open again’.

Carrefour plans expansion

ISTANBUL - CarrefourSA, Turkish operation of the world’s second largest retailer, is looking for new acquisitions in Turkey. The chain has 146 supermarkets in the country.

Crisis bears the bitter fruit of unemployment

ISTANBUL - Companies that said no staff would be laid off if they were hit by the global economic turmoil have broken their promises. Some 8,000 people in banking and 3,000 in retail have lost their jobs in the last month, says the chairman of Data Expert, a headhunter for big companies in Turkey.

Crisis bears the bitter fruit of unemployment

ISTANBUL - Companies that said no staff would be laid off if they were hit by the global economic turmoil have broken their promises. Some 8,000 people in banking and 3,000 in retail have lost their jobs in the last month, says the chairman of Data Expert, a headhunter for big companies in Turkey.

Companies send mixed signals in third quarter

ISTANBUL - As the third quarter results of companies begin to roll in, it still is quite hard to determine exactly to what extent the Turkish economy has been affected by the global economic crisis. While some firms post high quarterly profits, some others, such as Arçelik, report extreme declines in revenues