The 17th Istanbul Apparel Conference organised by the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD) was completed successfully with both the topics in the program and the high number of participants. The event at Çırağan Palace Kempinski on October 16-17, featured conference presentations on the first day and B2B meetings on the second day. The conference emphasised that Turkish textile manufacturers should reorganize themselves by focusing on new market opportunities.
At his opening speech, TGSD President Ramazan Kaya said that the industry has been in a contraction process in the last two years in Türkiye and around the world due to geopolitical and economic crises. Kaya noted: “We are gradually losing our profitability, especially as manufacturers. Our capital and energy are also extremely limited. Therefore, we are in a period where we need to use our resources more correctly and positively. However, we believe that we need to focus on the opportunities within the crisis for our industry to rise again.”
Underlining the importance of strategic collaborations, he argued that this increases the durability of the supply chain while also providing strength in innovation and sustainability. Kaya said: “By working together, we can both optimize costs and make our production processes more efficient.”
War and natural disasters negatively impact global supply
Emphasizing that the war in the Middle East and Europe and the natural disasters in Southeast Asia negatively affected supply, Ramazan Kaya continued his words as follows: “There are serious disruptions, especially in the supply chain extending from the Far East to Europe. At this point, the importance of close and secure supply, and therefore Türkiye, is increasing. However, as Turkish apparel manufacturers, we are experiencing difficulties due to last-minute orders during this process. In order to use our current capacities more efficiently, we need to work more planned with purchasing groups. Correct planning that we will make together will also increase our efficiency and competitiveness.”
He stated that global collaborations are also of great importance for the industry to achieve its sustainability goals and noted that it must adopt a responsible production approach. Reminding that the theme of the conference this year is Redefine, Realign, Refashion, he relayed that they emphasized changing trends, technological innovations and sustainability demands with this.
In the sessions held on the first day of the conference, the radical changes and innovations in the apparel industry in areas such as the impact of changing consumer demands on production and fashion, digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence, transparency and traceability in the supply chain, new legal regulations, sustainability, and new management styles of businesses were discussed.
B2B meetings open doors to new business opportunities
The B2B event on the second day of the Istanbul Apparel Conference turned into a platform that brought together local manufacturers and purchasing committees. B2B Speed Network Meetings, where representatives of global purchasing groups and e-commerce websites operating in Türkiye came together with local manufacturers, contributed to the sector creating new collaborations.
Ramazan Kaya provided the information that manufacturers held approximately 1500 meetings with over 50 purchasing groups and e-commerce websites. “The intense interest shown by both global purchasing groups and e-commerce websites and our domestic manufacturers in the bilateral business meetings we organised on the second day of the conference shows that our industry is ready for this cooperation and that we can reverse the decline in our exports and other difficulties we have experienced for the last two years. We hope that the business meetings held at our conference will turn into solid and long-term partnerships,” he said.