Has been active for 41 years in the industry, Elsan Elyaf, the first producer of polypropylene in Turkey, expands its market coverage with its squared carpets and contract carpet solutions offered for offices, hotels and residences…
Established in 1974 in Orhangazi, Bursa, Elsan Elyaf company is the first factory in Turkey to produce polypropylene fibers. “We have been producing with a mission to produce better products thanks to the latest developments in technology,” says, Hakan Sirin, Domestic Sales Manager, who emphasize on being a trustable solution partner for its customers. “We are continuously developing our management standards and our product varieties by utilizing eco-friendly materials. We work hard in this regard, in our central office in Camlica, Istanbul where our quality improvement activities were also carried out.
He said, “We have been an active player in carpet production industry for 20 years, especially in the special production of boucle carpet which adds value on our brand equity. We export most of our production and we have been in all the markets we should be in. Having a production capacity of 10 million sqm. non-woven kinds have the highest potential in markets. Recently we have increased the production of home type of high quality fair carpets. I can say that we are the biggest producer of non-woven carpets in Turkey. We have niche products for hand knitting yarns.”
Latest target of the company is to get a share in contract carpet market that has 4.5 million sqm. potential sales. Having partnership with foreign companies, the company plans to enter this segment with products that will be sold under Elsan Collection name. “This potential excites us”, says Haluk Cakar, Domestic Sales expert. “We have great expectations for Elsan Collection. We entered to offices with squared carpets, to high segments with contract carpet varieties. We can also produce carpets on project basis depending on the color and pattern choices of the customers. Though very young in the segment, we already have won two great hotel projects. Presently we buy products and materials from abroad, however, we will produce them domestically. There seems to be a potential for 4.5 million sqm. sales in this category. Our objective for the short term is to get 5 % share, than up to 15 % in the future.”
Middle Eastern countries and neighbors of Turkey are major markets for carpet trade. Gurkan Ildas, foreign trade manager, explains, “Actually, the first half of the year was highly successful for us. Closing of Libyan market was the beginning of stagflation, than came the problems in Palestine and Syria. Iraq is a major market for us, 33 % of our production is sold in this market. Palestine’s share was 23 %. England market follows suit with a share of 22 %. Customers in England buy hand-knitting yarns. Problems and developments in these countries recently we encountered halted our exports. Terror waves in the region are a serious problem for exporters and us. These and other developments in domestic market have forced us to seek new market, new opportunities and new products to backlash our sales.”
