Çalık Holding Textile Group
With a history stretching back to the 1930s, the textile industry is the traditional core industry where Çalık Holding built its foundations. Today, with the high quality denim fabric it produces. Çalık Holding ranks among the leading producers in the global market and is a producer and marketer operating in a diverse range areas of stretching from garment production to cotton yarn.
Çalık Holding's textile production activities take place at its Malatya facility (Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil), its subsidiaries in Turkmenistan (Turkmenbashi Textile Complex, Turkmenbashi Jeans Complex, Balkan Weaving, Serdar Cotton Eğrici and Serdar Golden Century Textile Complex), the fully-integrated garment production facility it opened in Alexandria, Egypt in 2008 and at companies around the world that manufacture for the Group on a contract basis.
In terms of total sales. Çalık Holding's textile operations were not impacted by the economic slowdown experienced in Turkey and globally, because they were able to successfully replace sales lost in the domestic market with increased exports. Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil's operating profit for 2008 reached USD 10 million.
With offices in Treviso/ltaly, New York/USA. Brussels/Belgium, Moscow/Russia and Seul/South Korea and a worldwide network of agencies and distributors. Çalık Holding is a global player in the textile industry. GAP Güneydoğu Tekstil ranks among Turkey's largest fabric exporting companies. The ÇALIK DENIM brand numbers among the industry's most widely known and respected brands.
Broad product range, strong market position...
Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil supplies a broad product line ranging from denim fabric to yarn, gabardine fabric to ready-wear to a diverse international customer base. The company closely follows world fashion trends and derives a significant competitive advantage from the diversification and balance of its product line.
In recent years, the denim sector has been negatively impacted by competition from the Far East. However, companies like Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil that manufacture high quality products have nevertheless succeed in increasing their sales volumes. Proof of this is the market share that the company has acquired, particularly from Japanese competitors, in the Far East itself, the heart of this competitive challenge, where the company has a sales office and logistics center.
Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil's carded, combed cotton, open-end yarn and twisted yarn production plants in Malatya, Turkey and Turkmenistan have an annual production capacity of 110 thousand tons, 50% of which is sold in the Turkish market and 50% of which is exported to the countries of the European Union.
Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil observed the rising popularity of gabardine and, with a production facility it put into operation in 2004, began producing high quality gabardine fabric. With the addition of gabardine fabric to its product line, the company significantly increased its competitiveness in the world fabric market.
Two revolutionary new concepts Çalık Denim introduced in 2008 continued to strengthen its position in the market. The RETINA concept, thanks to special treatment of the yarn, gives the denim lasting color, a clean appearance, high performance, superior breathing ability, a soft handle and high color contrast. The EARTHLY concept uses recycled and organic denim. This is a small but important step in the battle to protect the environment and help to prevent global warming, one of the most important threats facing the world today.
The company works with the world's leading textile brands, and just some of the companies represented in its customer portfolio in 2008 were: Diesel, Replay, GAP, Benetton, Lee, Wrangler, Mexx, H&M, Levi's, Calvin Klein, G-Star, Tommy Hilfiger, Salsa, River Island, Marks&Spencer, Jack&Jones, Zara and Bershka.
Following the signing of free trade agreements with countries in the North African market (Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt), Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil quickly expanded its exports and market shares in these countries, and in 2008 the company was one of the most important suppliers in the North African market.
Gap Güneydoğu Tekstil's unchanging objective is to remain true, in the coming years, to its strategy of product differentiation and continue to be a producer able to surmount the competitive environment and be "sought out and preferred for its superior quality". In addition to being one of the world's leading denim producer.
A growth-promoting systematic investment policy
In 2008, the companies of the Textile Group made total combined investments of USD 1 5 million.
Construction of the Egyptian Garment Factory, which is an important new investment offering significant geographic advantages including raw materials sourcing, workforce competitiveness and market access, was completed and the factory began operations in 2008.
Çalık Holding, in order to ensure the sustainable competitiveness of its textile operations, draws on its extensive experience and know-how to maximize new opportunities and invests in continued growth.