TMCnet News
Foreign brands boost investment in Turkey after an unexpected flow of customers(Turkish Daily News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Shopping centers such as Kanyon and Cevahir have attracted many famous foreign brands of food, cosmetics and clothing. Although their existence in Turkey is just over two months old, foreign companies are simply stunned with the unexpected interest of Turkish customers. Despite their short presence in the Turkish market, their performance has had such a positive effect on their central levels that Turkey has hit the top of the list in foreign companies' investment portfolios. As a result, famous brands decided to revise their investment targets and to expand in the Turkish market. Companies, visited by thousands of customers daily, started to search for new locations for new stores in Turkey. Among the major companies that plan to invest more in Turkey, are Germany's cosmetic chain Douglas, British retail giant Debenhams, Japan's famous restaurant chain Wagamama, Britain's clothing brand Wallis and famous luxury ice cream brand Haagen-Dazs. Wagamama's Turkey store, which has broken a record by hosting 40,000 people in just two months, has been monitored carefully by the company's London center. A group of Wagamama's top executives visited Istanbul recently to determine new investment strategies for Turkey. General manager of Wagamama's Pizza Restaurant in Turkey, Aslan Saranga, said: "We expected Turkish customers would show a vast amount of interest in the Wagamama restaurant, but we did not expect this much popularity. We are so happy to see this picture." Another example of Turkish customers extreme interest occurred at the Cevahir shopping center. The British investor Debenhams' Cevahir store hosts 2,500 people daily. Yet again, the Douglas store in the Kanyon shopping center climbed to the top of the list among their stores in different countries. Douglas in Kanyon in the top 10 among 940 stores: Douglas stepped into the Turkish market in May with a store in Kanyon. Some 40,000 customers have visited the store up to date. A major portion of the visitors not only visited and looked but also did some shopping, said the general manager of the company, Taner Kenar. Their store in Turkey entered the top 10 list among all 940 stores worldwide in terms of turnover, added Kenar. They had to revise their marketing strategies after the success of their Kanyon store. "Only two months after we opened our first store in Kanyon, we had to expand our target for Turkey. We increased the target number of our stores in Turkey to 10 after the seeing the intensity of the Turkish customers' demand," Taner Kenar explained. Each day 2,000 people eat ice cream at Haagen-Dazs: The world's biggest seller of luxury ice-cream Haagen-Dazs has also been in Turkey since May 2006. The first customers of Haagen-Dazs were foreign travelers who knew the brand very well. The number of customers started to increase in parallel as the name of the brand, Haagen-Dazs, spread around. Now, every hour of the day some 10-15 people queue in front of the store to buy ice cream. The daily average number of customers of Haagen-Danz is 2,000. Haagen-Dazs plans to introduce a new take away system in Turkey. This service has only been applied in Greece. Haagen-Dazs will open a new store on the Anatolian side of Istanbul in a couple of weeks. Managers of Haagen-Dazs started negotiations with relevant officials and property owners in Antalya, Izmir and Ankara to open new stores. Wallis sold 7,000 units in Ankara: The famous British clothing brand Wallis came into the Turkish market with a store in Ankara, not in Istanbul. Wallis has something special to offer to Turkish customers much different than other clothing companies: Wallis' "petite" collection, which is prepared for women of a height around 1.57 centimeters, is characterized by its different sizes in the clothing sector. The clothes of this collection are generally between 36 and 48 and the company sold nearly 7,000 units in two months. After the intense interest of Ankara customers, Wallis has diverted its attention to the Istanbul market for new investments. This company will open new stores in Istanbul's shopping centers such as Metrocity and Beylikduzu Marka City in the near future. Twenty-five pct of Debenhams' visitors do some shopping: The British retail giant Debenhams opened its 5,000-square-meter new store with a magnificent ceremony in April. This company made a $10 million investment. Nearly 2,500 people visit Debenhams daily and 25 percent of these customers do some shopping. A new store of Debenhams will be opening in Istinye Park Shopping Center soon. Italian Cobipel will open big stores in Anatolia: The Italian Cobipel Company opened its first store in the Kanyon Shopping Center in July. "We are so happy with the customer interest. Firstly, they want to know something about our brand. They ask about the origin of the brand. Their interest grows when they find out that it is an Italian brand," said PR expert Nevin Kepenek. This company plans to open new stores in Izmir and Adana in one month. "Our store in Kanyon is 850 square meters and our new stores will be bigger," added Kepenek. Wagamama breaks customer record in Turkey: The famous Japanese restaurant Wagamama has broken the customer record by hosting 40,000 people in two months. The company changed their target of five branches in five years after the unexpected interest. The new target of Wagamama now is to open five branches in three years. The next shops will be located on Bagdat Street and in Nisantasi, both posh districts of Istanbul. The general manager of Pizza Restaurants, Aslan Saranga, said: "Customers have been highly interested in our restaurant since the opening on May 28 in Kanyon. In two months, more than 40,000 customers have visited our restaurant. This figure is a record among 60 stores of Wagamama all around the world. We host nearly 1,000 people on weekdays and 1,500 customers at weekends. We are so happy with this enormous positive reception." Performance of Fresh Line Turkey nears Fresh Line London: The natural cosmetics chain Fresh Line operates in four countries and the center of the company is in Greece with a branch in Turkey opened two months ago. Fresh Line has nearly 200 customers a day and 40 percent of these buys things. "Our products and presentation in Fresh Line Turkey is a first for Turkish customers and this boosts interest. In spite of the conventionally low season of summer, we have a very satisfactory customer turnout. The performance of Fresh Line Turkey is getting close to London and the St Petersburg branches. This is a great success," said a company official, Pelin Elis. Fresh Line plans to open five to six branches in Turkey. kutu kutu....... Other side of the story: Turkish brands have to make overseas investments to compete with foreign brands. Turkish brands accelerate their overseas investments to compete with foreign brands in the market. Today, Koton already has 36 branches, Mavi Jeans 140 branches and Damat Tween 20 branches in foreign countries. Meanwhile, such Turkish brands as Macka and Ipekyol continue opening new stores in foreign countries. "Turkish brands have to make overseas investments to cope with foreign brands in the domestic market. Turkish brands have to expand to a similar capacity of foreign brands and this can only happen when Turkish brands make overseas investments. Some leading Turkish brands have already opened many stores in foreign countries and this expansion has to be continuous. Our products and services are as high quality as theirs," said United Brands Association (BMD) head Ali Murad Kiziltas. Copyright 2006 Turkish Daily News. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Middle East Intelligence Wire. |