“Clothing Retailing is Also Attracting Foreigners”

Esel Çekin is Beymen General Manager. She implemented changes in the company in order for it to take a greater share of the rapidly expanding retail clothing market. She says that thousands of small retailers account for 75 percent of a US$6 billion market. She notes that there are 150 organized retailers and around 4,000 outlets. She states that this and the recovering economy mean that retailing is attractive.

“Clothing Retailing is Also Attracting Foreigners”
In the last year Beymen, which is the brand of A and A+ class consumers in Turkey, has been undergoing a process of renovation and change. The company, which, like companies in every other sector, has been implementing new strategies since the crisis, starting by changing its general manager. Esel Çekin, who was appointed General Manager of Beymen Boğaziçi Alboy Mağazacılık, answered our questions:

Let’s start with clothing retailing. How big is this sector in Turkey and how fast is it growing?
According to a study published by the Retailing Institute, we can say that the clothing retailing market in Turkey is worth around US$6 billion. New brands are being added to the sector every year. Since 2000 the quality and intensity of competition has increased. Foreign retailers are also following Turkey with interest and it has become a market which has rapidly begun to take establish itself.
But the crises of recent years have meant that the Turkish retail market has shrunk in size. In 2002 it began to right itself. 2003 was a year of recovery and 2004 one of growth. From now on the settling of the balances in the economy, the establishment of political stability and positive developments in the EU accession process will mean that the market will continue to grow.

What kind of growth has Beymen undergone in recent years, what has been happening in the company?
As a result of the crisis we established a strategy of continuing to increase productivity and creating a difference. We formulated a game plan of making our existing business leaner and more productive and we identified the areas which we could develop and we accelerated investments in Beymen brands. The projects on which we have worked so meticulously since 2001 are finally beginning to bear fruit. At the moment, in addition to world famous brands, Beymen Stores offer Beymen Man, Beymen Woman, Beymen Home and Beymen Club collections. As a result of all of these changes, our turnover has increased by 50 percent in US dollar terms since 1999.

NEW TARGETS IN ANATOLIA AND ABROAD
How do you look at Anatolia? What are you doing?
Anatolia is very important if you want to have a say in the retail market in Turkey. If you want to grow you have to go to Anatolia. At the moment, outside Istanbul, we have stores in Ankara, Izmir, Mersin, Antalya and Adana. In the future we shall continue to expand across Anatolia with both Beymen Club and Beymen Man. We shall open Beymen Club stores in Eskişehir, Bodrum and Diyarbakır this season and in Samsun, Kayseri, Konya and Trabzon in summer 2005.

What about your activities abroad?
Domestic activities had an important place in our strategies for 2004. In European countries the demand for many of the global brands being sold in Beymen stores has already reached saturation point, so, instead of going there, we decided to look at countries in the region, close to Turkey. We are opening our first store in Cairo in February 2004. In August we shall open a second, more luxurious Beymen store of 4,500 square meters in the shopping center on the basement floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo. Next up is Iran. Our target for the future is to open one store abroad every year.