As our colleague, Jeroen Lichtenauer, reported last week on the Dutch site (praktischturks.nl), the huge Dutch fashion brand, Mexx, was taken over and rescued from bankruptcy by a Turkish company, Eroglu.
As Jeroen pointed out, words and numbers about how great Turkey’s economy is doing are nothing compared to seeing the facts like this at home. No doubt this news will come as somewhat of a surprise to many Dutch.
Eroglu’s CEO is quoted as saying in the Telegraaf, ‘Mexx has 500 stores in 56 countries and annual sales of €1.2bn. We hope this takeover will allow us to expand our brand in the global fashion market.’
Eroglu Holding has more than 600 outlets in 38 countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Germany. Its brands include Loft and Colin’s. The company says it plans to open 100 new Mexx stores in Turkey within the coming five years.’
Evidently, this decision has been made to expand growth overseas as well as within the domestic market which is seeing a rapid upwardly-mobile middle-class: See this article for how Turkey could become high-income country within five years.
Turkish businesses take over European businesses
This latest news comes after a November takeover of United Biscuits, a British snack manufacturer, which produces a host of famous brands (including McVitie’s) and boasts over 25% of the British snack food market.
United Biscuits was taken over by the Turkish food giant, Yıldız Holding, who outbid the giant American corporations Kellogg’s and Burton’s in a fierce bidding competition.
Yıldız which literally means ‘star’ in Turkish has 160 brands and exports 2,700 products to over a hundred countries. The company employs 41,000 people in 10 different countries.
Interestingly, in a recent interview with Skylife magazine, Murat Ülker, Yıldız chairman, gives us an insight into the Turkish business approach:
‘I believe that travel and tourism are the most important activities that bring people together in the world. This way people can exchange their knowledge about food, traditions, and songs, in short, their own culture. As they learn about these the prejudice against another culture diminishes.
Murat Ülker, whose father founded the biscuit company in 1944 is now worth around $4bn according to Forbes and is now Turkey’s richest man . He continues that, ‘I think that “doing business” opens a just as significant road as tourism does in terms of cultures getting familiar with one another. It was the same for us as well. We made friends in each country we did business, and likewise, our foreign partners who came to do business with us loved our country just as we did. They kept on doing business.’
‘They kept on doing business’
This insight reiterates the importance of building relationships when doing business in Turkey or with Turkish firms.
What is also remarkable about these stories is the quiet, gradual but continued prominence of Turkey on the world stage.
It is also worth pointing out that with this current trend, European companies can no longer take traditional relationships for granted and must now be willing to actively court and woo Turkish business. With a worldwide presence and conveniently positioned on the centre of the World’s axis, Turkey’s companies will no longer need to ‘bend over backwards’ for European business.
HandsOnTurkish believes, from the very outset, that a basic grasp of the Turkish language and business etiquette are fundamental to making inroads into the Turkish market.
HandsOnTurkish is a new and innovative eLearning course of the Turkish language available online and for smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android). Companies can make HandsOnTurkish available to staff to help them prepare linguistically and culturally for doing business with – or dealing with – Turkish companies.
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