Decor Mart Nisan 2021

al boycott going on. There are statements on social
media that the authorities do not want to purchase
Turkish products. As those residing in Saudi Arabia
take Turkish goods as more classy than those of their
own, they show great interest in Turkish products. As
a matter of fact, the boycott was useless in the eyes of
the public; the pressure exerted by their government
adversely affected producers and exporters who sent
products there.
You have just said that people purchase products on
the top of their priority list. People spend more time
at home during this time; carpet is the item housewives
can change most easily in Turkey, Do you think
that it will reflect positively on the sector?
The domestic market should, of course, be taken
separately. People seem to be eager to change household
items such as furniture, carpets and curtains
due to lockdowns spent indoors. There are obviously
new things going on there. What is important is to
have ‘purchasing power’. As I’ve said earlier, we see
the contributing effect of this on e-trade shopping.
Secondly, people have been inclined to purchase
products that serve decorative purposes and that are
easier to give up, disposable or washable with machines,
rather than high quality, classy products. It is not
so just for Turkey; rather, it’s for the entire world. We
witness the positive reflections of such transformation
too.
How about your decorative products? What are the
differences between machine-made carpets and
your decorative products in terms of production
processes?
We, too, switched our attention to products, sought-after
by people during the pandemic period; in
this sense, we produce decorative products in three
different qualities. Machine made carpet is a more
costly business requiring significantly much cash
capital as you need to have ample amount of products
in stock, unlike decorative products. You can produce
any color or patterns with a printing machine. You
have the chance to produce either 1 or 1000 items.
The other thing is that the capacity at machine-made
carpets is up to 1/10 compared to the other product.
One can produce 10 thousand or 20 thousand square
meters of machine-made carpet, depending on the
quality. However, for decorative products, the capacity
may vary between 50 thousand to 500 thousand
depending on the quality. That is clearly the huge
difference between the two. Naturally, the fact that
decorative products are rather cheap and easily
washable is a reason for preference for the consumer.
People prefer washable products to wash themselves
at home instead of sending carpets to carper washers,
creating a serious option for those who pursue
alternative products at the sector.
What about e-trade?
We signed a contract with an international company in
January, 2020 regarding e-trade. Obviously, we have
focused more on e-trade, as a requirement of the
pandemic. We have been active in 12 countries. We
put those countries on a periodical row. We have launched
our e-trade system in our country, plus Qatar,
Germany, the US and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait is next;
others to come soon.
The world of e-trade is now where the marketplaces
of the new world are managed. We have gained considerable
experience, thus follow trends, collect data
about which carpet is sought by which customer, and
which customer has contacted us for which carpet.
We have entered market places in Turkey; and we
conduct our sales through our own e-trade site. Similarly,
we are at the market places of those countries
while we also sell through our own website. We are
planning to carefully grow more and more to reach
the level where we put the bar.
Last but not least, will you please elaborate on the
Festival Academy?
Festival Academy Graduates are sent to their posts
after a 6-month training. We held the academy training
twice. We are on for a new one. We have witnessed
the efficiency of the academy, not only for us
but also for the graduates. Our university graduate
colleagues, expert in their fields, have really been effective
in terms of promoting a Turkish brand in their
assigned countries. As a brand, we enjoy the pride
and joy of this. The satisfactory outcomes that Academy
graduates obtain in those countries are clearly
a motivating factor for everyone involved.
March - April 2021 • DECOR
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