Speaking from his office in Istanbul, Kisacik says the next country where they will open a new store will be Egypt. Taha is the owner of Turkey’s leading casual ready-to-wear brand LC Waikiki -first established as a French firm and later acquired by Taha in 1997.The company opened their first store abroad last year and entered Turkey’s closest export markets, which include Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Iraq and Kazakhstan, in just a year. The number of LC Waikiki stores in Turkey has increased from 21 to 340 in the past 14 years, representing rapid growth. The group has textile production facilities in Egypt and Bangladesh from where they send products to Turkey and neighboring markets. Kisacik says they employ 5,000 workers in Bangladesh, while there are 2,500 workers in their three production facilities in Egypt.“These facilities also sell products to such well-known ready-to-wear brands as Tommy Hilfiger and US Polo.” He says they increased their apparel exports from Turkey by 18 percent in the first five months of this year over the same period of 2010. “This was a growth which paralleled the growth in Turkey’s textile exports in the same period.” Taha also increased exports to Egypt by 30 percent last year over the preceding year. The group’s biggest export market is the UK, followed by France. Kisacik says they suffered “very little” during a recent uprising in Egypt; they ceased production for only one week. “Local people provided support and protected our facilities from any possible looting in Egypt,” he explains. Kisacik says they are going to open their first LC Waikiki store in Egypt shortly. The company manager says they are concentrating on growing through first opening new stores in markets with whom Turkey has strong trade relations. They also have plans to establish production facilities in countries with whom Turkey has a free trade agreement (FTA) with in the long run..
Date:6/16/2011
Source:Fiber2fashion