ATU Duty-Free –a TAV Airports, Unifree/Gebr. Heinemann joint venture- has promoted its new staff uniforms designed by Hakan Yildirim, who is applauded on the world fashion scene with his label Hakaan. Leading names of the Turkish business and art world attended the evening held at Istanbul Modern. During the event, ATU employees exhibited their new uniforms with a dance performance choreographed by Tan Sagturk.

ATU Duty-Free General Manager Ersan Arcan stated, “ATU, Turkey’s leading brand in duty-free operations, has been focusing on customer satisfaction since its establishment. We strive to provide a quality shopping experience for our customers offering the widest range of products. Our employees play a major part in this effort. We know that customer satisfaction is achieved through happy employees. We set out to design uniforms that they would make them feel comfortable, confident and stylish, working with the leading names in this area.”

Claus Heinemann, the president of Gebr. Heinemann which currently operates 179 Travel Value/Duty-Free Shops at 48 airports in 19 countries said, “We have had a successful partnership between TAV and ATU for the past 12 years. We overcame the global economic crisis successfully and continue to progress. This is an example of a valuable partnership between Germany and Turkey. We are closely following Turkey's development, which we find impressive. Duty-free business at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul is in an enhanced position in comparison with the average growth in Europe.”

Currently operating at eight airports in five countries, ATU collaborated with the world-famous Turkish designer Hakan Yildirim for the project started last February. Yildirim designed six different uniforms for six job descriptions in line with employee input. Every aspect was taken into consideration to create a smart and comfortable collection including the selection of fabric and colors. The new creation will be worn by approximately one thousand ATU employees.

The feature color in the personnel uniforms is vermilion which is the corporate color of ATU Duty-Free. The 58% cotton content in the fabric stands out as a factor to prevent sweating during long working hours. The 37% polyester content prevents creasing and enables easy ironing. 5% lycra gives the fabric the stretchiness it needs for comfort. The length of the fabric used for the dresses and jackets to be worn by employees working at the Domestic and International Terminals is 4,500 meters.

ATU personnel promoted their new uniforms through a rather unusual presentation. As part of the project which was supervised by Tan Sagturk and directed by Ozlem Demir Pacaci, ATU employees went through a special training given by Tan Sagturk and his team. At the end of the three week training, ATU employees shared the stage with professional dancers.

TAV Airports