Undoubtedly, Turkey is one of the main players in the global woven fabric market with high diversity and good flexibility in the market. Turkish companies have been able to conquer important parts of the markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
One of the Turkish companies exporting various woven fabrics, which also participated in the Texhibition, Istanbul, is S&M Tekstil. We had a conversation with Mr. Emre Cetin, the CEO of this company, on the sidelines of the exhibition, and you can read this interview below:
Kohan Textile Journal: Would you tell us a little bit about your company and the products you have presented at this exhibition?
S&M Tekstil was founded in 1998 and has been active for 25 years, achieving many successes in the production and export market with its renewed strategy. It also continues its innovations with the equipment and experience it has in the field of fabrics production. Our company always works on the upward trend of exporting its products.
We always have a collection of more than 280 types of fabrics and presented them at exhibitions, always trying to meet our customers’ expectations in the best possible way, while also fulfilling closed contracts with a daily production capacity of 20 tons in the minimum possible time.
Currently, we export to Russia, Italy, and North Africa. Our main work is weaving knitted fabrics. We import our raw materials and after weaving the fabric, we design, dye, and do the finishing process. Our customers are completely satisfied with the final quality of our work in the market.
Our raw materials are mainly high-quality cotton threads made from American cotton fibers that we import. Unfortunately, cotton production in Turkey is low and does not meet the needs of the Turkish textile industry. Moreover, the cotton produced in Turkey has short fibers, which makes it impossible to produce delicate and fine threads from it. Therefore, we are forced to import raw materials from other countries, especially the United States.
Kohan Textile Journal: Turkey has made great progress in textile exports in the past decade and is known as one of the top five textile countries in the world. In your opinion, what is the most important reason for this?
Various factors, such as government policies, exchange rates, changes in companies’ attitudes towards exports, quality, etc., have had an impact on this trend. But the most important factor of all is the export goal announced by Mr. Ismail Gulle, a member of the Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TIM), for which all companies, including ours, have planned and worked hard to achieve. On the other hand, the government has facilitated this for companies by providing export support packages and export credits.
In the past few years, 70% of our production was sold in the domestic market in Turkey, and the remaining 30% was exported. However, due to the increase in demand and favorable export conditions, currently, more than 85% of our products are exported, and the remaining 15% is purchased by Turkish companies for use in the domestic market and then exported as ready-to-wear clothing to international buyers. Overall, it can be said that 100% of our produced fabrics are used in export markets.
Another significant factor that has made exports easier for us is Turkey’s geographical location, which allows us to easily export to Europe, Asia, and Africa, and this is a major advantage.
Kohan Textile Journal: As you know, the textile industry is moving towards a greener and more sustainable world, and leading countries in this field, such as Europe, the United States, and Canada, attach great importance to this issue. How do your company and your products operate in this area?
Our products are entirely biodegradable since we use American raw cotton. In fact, our products are entirely organic and natural. Our products have BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) certification. We try to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions due to our support for the environment and its preservation. Although its implementation is challenging and has its unique international standard costs.
Today, with the increasing awareness of consumers about the harms that the textile and clothing industry can cause to our environment and water resources, they are looking to buy products that have the least damage to humans and nature. For this reason, in recent years, we have seen a growing trend in the production of environmentally friendly, organic, and recyclable products.
Kohan Textile Journal: Mr. Emre, what is your opinion of the TEXHIBITION in Istanbul? How did you find the exhibition?
This is the third time we have participated in this exhibition. In the past two years, this exhibition has been one of the best exhibitions we have participated in. The number of visitors was high, and we had the opportunity to meet with different companies from different countries. Overall, we were pleased with the outcome of the exhibition.
Contact S&M TEKSTİL:
Tel: +90 536 930 05 67
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.smtekstil.com/index.html
