Turquality

Rising completion from China, Egypt and other countries required radical re-thinking of the usual modus operandi. The Under secretariat for Foreign Trade led the process of reflection and introspection which resulted in a drastic shift from “producing for others” industry to “design driven own brands” industry. UFT and ITKIB set about creating infrastructure needed and leveraging international PR.

Thus the Under secretariat for Foreign Trade launched “Turquality” an innovative project for turning Turkish products into global brands. It was greatly beneficial to a host of Turkish brands that entered the global market. Among them Desa, Tween Damat, Sarar, Ipekyol, Koton and others.

Turquality is a concept made up of ‘Turk’ and ‘quality’ and is defined as an accreditation system encompassing all processes from production to marketing, and from sales to after-sales services, of products having a competitive advantage and branding potential.

Turquality has four principal mission statements:

 to support the branding expenditures of the selected Turkish brands

 to provide coaching and consulting services to Turkey’s best companies in order to allow them to compete globally

 to act as a catalyst and incubator for the selected Turkish brands

to provide PR and communications activities in order to create and promote a positive

Turkish image.

The Turquality concept is to construct a platform that selects the companies and provides support for the enhancement of the production skills, infrastructure and strategic capability of, in the first place, Turkish ready-to-wear textile companies. In other words, the concept is shaped so as to enable companies to compete successfully in today’s highly globalised world at the local level with new and high quality products, concepts and brands.

There was also a mood change among local brands. Boyner, of the Boyner Holding, a midmarket chain, was one of the first to start employing Turkish designers to produce name collections for their stores. Others followed suit. Among notable collaborations we can cite Hakan Yildirim collection for Koton, Ece Ege/Dice Kayek ongoing collaboration with Macka, of the Ayaydin-Miroglio group, Arzu Kaprol for Network, Elaidi and Simay Bulbul for Boyner.