Festival Carpet General Manager Cebrail Şahin: “We want to be the representative of Turkish carpet in the world”
Festival Carpet company, being among the largest carpet brands in Turkey, has been taken into Turquality Program in 2019. The third brand in the Turquality program in the carpet sector, Festival Carpet General Manager Cebrail Sahin gave information about the issues that this program will bring to brands and their overseas activities. In addition to help them to grow, Cebrail Sahin underlined that this program will contribute to the establishment of a corporate culture in the company.
Can we listen from you about the story of Festival Halı since its inception?
We started manufacturing first in 1983. Until 2008, the company continued to grow. In the following years, it was necessary to increase the number of companies and brands to be profitable. That’s why we started using the Festival brand in 2008. With the acquisition of several different companies, we have now become a group company. We currently have around 800 dealers in the domestic market as Festival brand. It’s not easy to manage so many dealers from a single point. Because, we have to direct contact with our customers in the field with our own staff. We manage our main stocks from the center here. This is a great strategy in itself. There are no other brands currently using this system.
Do you also use this strategy in exports?
After we put this system into operation, we said why not do the same it abroad. We opened warehouses in Germany and Saudi Arabia and started to implement this system in our exports. We currently have warehouses in nearly 10 countries, including Germany, Arabia, China, Bosnia, Albania, Kuwait, Qatar and Indonesia. We have an important mission; To be the representative of Turkish carpet in the world. We currently have investment projects abroad. These will become clear later.
As the Festival brand, we aim to fully strengthen the sales network in the next 5 years and have sales in 50 countries. We are currently active in 20 countries. But we are working to achieve this goal in the coming periods. We have 4 sales networks. First, we make sales to related large warehouse and customers directly. The second is to build our own warehouses and sell from here. We currently have a total of 13 warehouses and make sales from these warehouses. Third, opening stores and directly reach the retail customer. We are currently partnered with 23 stores. We will increase this number in the future. We have a classic sales network, as well. We haven’t already taken our hands out of this line. Finally, we are considering E-Commerce. The latest arrangements are being made. We did a similar thing abroad. We deal with one of the best companies in the world.
Can you give us information about your Festival Academy? What does this program offer to students?
We have training projects in cooperation with Istanbul, Konya and Gaziantep Universities. These projects consist of trainings given by lecturers and instructors who are proficient in sales, strategy and marketing. The Festival company already has an Academy team. We train new graduates at the Festival Academy to prepare them for the relevant units of our management. The academy started in October 2018 and ended in April 2019. Afterwards, friends who were successful in their own fields started to work 6 months later. Currently, 17 of our friends who have graduated from this academy are doing their jobs abroad.
Are you included in Turquality Program as a festival brand? What benefits will this innovative program of Turkish government bring to your brand?
It is very useful for the government to start such an incentive campaign in this field. When we examine the incentives applied in other countries, we can say with peace of mind that this privilege that was offered us ranks at the first place. If we consider all the sectors in Gaziantep, we are the 10th in this sense and the third in the carpet sector.
If we were a company without a big goal, we would have thought Turquality would not be useful to us. But we already have hot sales to over 40 countries, 13 warehouses in 10 countries, and stores and sales staff in most countries. With the power of our own brand, we have no doubt that we will take bigger steps with the support of the state in this way. In fact, the state supports you in this sense. Turquality’s goals and our goals coincide with each other, giving us a great path for further growth. On 15 August 2019, we received this document and it has become official then we are preparing our projects accordingly.
In addition, the Turquality program actually organizes us to advance on the corporate platform. If you are in a corporate structure, you should know how make your purchase. The program says that you should organize your sales, place and space designs and HR works accordingly. Your staff imposes certain sanctions on you under the following conditions. On the one hand, while giving good incentives for our goals, on the other hand, there is a great sanction for establishing the corporate culture that we will control ourselves.
How did you plan your production in line with new targets?
At the end of 2019, we had a sales target of 60 million dollars. As of now, we have achieved the target of approximately 40 million. We think we’re going to hit the target by the end of the year. If you are aiming to grow 3 fold then your institution is regarded as successful. Having a lot of carpet company in Turkey, it does not require you to make huge investments in production. If you operate the sales network properly, you already have many partners to purchase the products of other producers. We are currently receiving products from 18 companies. We want to fulfill unlimited requests with limited resources. It is not healthy for each product to be produced by ourselves. If something is going to be laid down, we do it. We work with our partners who are experts in the desired product. Today, there are different products that China, India or Arab countries are experts in. We are in favor of working with experts in every business. We also have a new restructuring plan for Algeria and Tunisia. We will make the final decisions in the coming period.
