Target is to catch over 2019 this year
Founded in 1996, Reha Tekstil is a family owned and operated knitted textile manufacturer, serving to the ready-to-wear sector internationally. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Hande (Olguntürk) Kartal, Marketing Director of Reha Tekstil, discusses the market for knitted and light fabrics in Turkey, its dependency on various factors and how it got affected by the global pandemic.
How would you describe the market for knitted and light fabrics in Turkey? What factors have a huge influence on this sector?
As I have mentioned before, Turkey is at a very strategic point especially for Europe in terms of its location, therefore it is a country that develops itself day by day in fabric production, which is its main ingredient, and makes serious investments in this field.
Therefore according to changing technologies and changing trends, we are constantly researching and investing in sustainable techniques, and we are improving this day by day, both in knitted and light woven fabrics.
For example, we are working hard on the development of different yarn types, dyeing techniques, printing techniques and even technical fabrics which are sensitive to the human body as well.
What is the story behind formation of the company Reha Tekstil? Who are the founders? What is your employee strength as on date?
Reha Tekstil is in textile industry as a family- owned company since 2001. However, as a family business Reha Tekstil has over 45 years of experience as a knitwear manufacturer in textile industry. The current CEO of our company is the second generation of the family. As a company our aim is to give our customers a perfect service with our high quality and diverse products which we produce by employing environmentally friendly production methods and considering ready-to-wear brands' needs.`
How has the pandemic affected your fabric production business?
The pandemic has highly affected us in every part of our business. At the beginning, whole brands have been shocked and their first reflex was to immediately stop everything. Of course, their reactions immediately affected all our raw material sources as well. However, as we have long-term relationships based on mutual respect and trust and with our mutual efforts with all our customers; we believe that we managed this painful process very well with mutual devotion.
Regarding fabric – since one of our most important strength is to present our own collection; we had some difficulties to be able to create “design to sell" styles because of the general price increases and it was really hard to work on prices with all ups and downs.
But besides all these negative impacts; we all know Turkey has a very strategic position in resource and production speed especially for European market and since all our customers’ demands are based on quick response, as soon as we realised that there is going to be a real big problem about raw material, we took immediate actions about our capacity planning. On the other hand, as a country, we have our very own strong local fibre and yarn factories; therefore, we were quite lucky that lack of material situation has affected us not as much as we were thinking.
Which are your major markets? Which new markets do you plan to explore?
Our major markets are Germany and UK. Our aim is to keep our current status in Europe and to enlarge our business with other continents as US.
What are your core competencies for export markets?
Since we are a company that offers its own collection in line with the trend information, which we have from all over the world, our most important feature is our design service and our speed in this matter.
On the other hand, our understanding of transparency, fast service, correct communication and high quality in production are the most prominent features that distinguish us from others.
What challenges does your industry face and what measures have you taken for the same?
Unfortunately, as we all know, the textile sector has the most negative impact on the environment. As a part of this sector, it is imperative that we all act with environmentally friendly production ethics.
The volume of our industry is over 1 trillion USD worldwide, according to 2019 figures. In other words, we are talking about a huge tree whose branches are scattered all over the world. For this tree to benefit us, we must give as little chemicals as possible to the nature that nourishes it, and we must grow healthy by taking care of each branch. In other words, what I want to say in this metaphor is that we are talking about a comprehensive sector that will be beneficial for us the less damage we do to nature and the more we value the employees of this sector.
So how do we do that? While working on the target prices of the products they want, brands should do it fairly and with sustainable and humanitarian values in mind. Of course, they should revise their store sales prices accordingly.
Now, in our changing world, we are aware that the final consumer in the store is also more sensitive to environmental factors, so at some point he will be able to understand the reason for this change in prices.
Only in this way can we provide working conditions in line with the humanitarian values we target and realise production with minimal damage to nature. Therefore, as a sector, we must establish and adopt general rules, not regional, fairly. The work done by the brands should be done specifically for each region and should be generally applicable at the optimum level.
Our goal is to continue with an understanding that is sensitive to nature and sustainable at an appropriate level.
As Reha Tekstil –we take care to prepare our collections with more sustainable and environmentally friendly materials every day and to offer these products to all the brands we work with. In this context, we reorganise our entire supplier network and continue our journey with business partners who have a sustainability understanding.
Which fabric has the most demand as per yardage across the various countries that you supply to, and of course within Turkey?
Since our own local fabric resources are very strong, we have a very high capacity in line with the demands in both knitted fabric and light fabric qualities.
What is your annual production capacity according to type of fabrics you produce?
Approximately 12.2 million pieces.
Globally, there is more focus on sustainability today. What are your commitments towards sustainability and reducing carbon footprints?
First of all, we think that digitalisation is of great importance in this regard. Therefore, we are trying to present both our design products and samples at the production stage digitally and to establish the approval processes with our customers mutually.
We have been offering both design and production samples to our customers with our 3D design programme for about 2 years. In this way, we think that we have made a serious contribution by reducing both our sample shipments and our travels.
In addition, we take care to create all our products in our supply chain from companies that are sensitive to sustainability and energy saving and that have studies in this field.
Which are some of the major brands/retailers you cater to?
We work with large retail brands located in Germany, England and Denmark.
What are your future plans? Any new product to be launched or announcement to make this year?
As Reha Tekstil, we decided to spread our design and production experience in the sector to a different area with our own ready-to-wear brand Luokk. Our goal is to expand our own brand, which we launched in Turkey at the beginning of last year, and put it on the European market this year. Of course, we will continue to develop and grow in our own field in the light of technology and new trends.
Please share details of the last two fiscal years and the targets set for the next two years.
These are confidential information; therefore I cannot share exact figures with you. However, because of the pandemic we could not catch up with the previous year in 2020. This year, our target is to catch over 2019.
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