Turkish denim manufacturing giant Taypa Tekstil, supplier to brands including Levi’s and Calvin Klein, is investing US$800m in what it says will be the largest textile facility in Algeria, in a bid to double production capacity in North Africa and diversify its product offering.
Headquartered in Istanbul, and with facilities in Turkey, Egypt and Algeria, Taypa is one of the largest producers of denim in Turkey, exporting 80% of its production to around 50 countries. It is also setting up a ready-to-wear facility in the Balkans, which it hopes to commission by the end of 2018.
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The company hopes to begin construction of its facility in Algeria in 2019. The project will be undertaken in three phases, with completion expected by 2025.
The site, in the Relizane region of Algeria, will be a fully-integrated facility established on an area of 2.5m sq metres, producing a variety of yarns, fabrics and finished product. Annual production capacity is expected to be 30m pieces, 50% of which will be for the Algerian market, and the remainder for the EU and US.
“Algeria has a free trade agreement with EU,” says general manager Burak Karaarslan. “It is also extremely favourable in terms of logistics. We will have employed 10,000 persons in the first phase, while the number will reach 25,000 upon the completion of the third phase. In addition to ready-to-wear, our second and third phase investments will also involve productions in the field of hosiery, knitwear, and home textiles. Nowadays, we sell ‘speed’, instead of product. In the textile industry, buyers started to prefer companies that are able to make swift delivery, instead of focusing on low price.”
Taypa’s ambition to grow in North Africa have already seen the company invest $20m in ready-to-wear in Egypt in 2010. Its annual production capacity in Egypt currently amounts to 6m pieces, and it predominantly sells products from Egypt to the US market.
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By GlobalDataAs well as its ready-to-wear facility in the Balkans, the company is also planning to open an office in New York at the Turkish Trade Center where it will conduct the marketing for its Egypt operations. An office is also planned for London, which will host marketing as well as departments such as showrooms and a design unit.
Taypa invests around 5% of turnover on innovation, and recently cooperated with fashion designers Emre Erdemoglu and Niyazi Erdogan. Around 21% of the company’s turnover is from its own designs but it is hoping to increase that rate to 50% or more.
The firm says it is the sole Turkish supplier with whom Japanese giant Uniqlo works.
“We visit famous brands like Zara, each month, with at least 50 products,” says Karaarslan. “Things have changed in our industry. Before, companies were visiting us, asking us to produce their design. Nowadays, it is us who are asked what we design. Pieces from our designs, which obtain approval, appear in the collections of famous brands. We also recently started to work with New Look and Jack Wills. As for the internal market, we exclusively work with Mavi.”
