“We will Increase Our Share in the World Market by Increasing Our Fabric Variation”
Interview: Özge Çağıl Sütcü
The journey that Özsar Tekstil started as a small business in Zeytinburnu in 1988 turned into a factory of 32 thousand square meters in Tekirdağ Velimeşe Organized Industrial Zone, which produces with the latest technology machines. Özsar Tekstil, which still continues its production in this factory, it will start capacity investment works in the last quarter of 2023.
The company, which is mainly producing in its knitting mill (Yarn, Three Yarn, Single Jersey, Scuba, Double Face, Thessaloniki, Camisole, Rib, Pique (Lacoste), Interlock), exports 60% of its production.
As Tekstil Teknoloji magazine, we interviewed Ali Yasin Sartık, Deputy General Manager of Özsar Tekstil for our September special issue. Ali Yasin Sartık talked about their investment plans, export markets and sustainable targets, and shared his thoughts on the textile industry with us.
“Producing Our Orders with 100% Customer Satisfaction Makes Us Different from Our Competitors”
“We respond to the needs of the ready-to-wear sector thanks to our productions. In addition, we also produce special fabrics according to the requests of our customers. What makes us different in the sector: With more than 30 years of experience, producing our orders with 100% customer satisfaction with our facility that respects nature, adheres to the principles of sustainability and has high recycling. This is our most important feature that distinguishes us from our competitors.”
Ali Yasin Sartık said that the most important thing they pay attention to when purchasing machinery is that it is the latest technology and works with high energy efficiency. Sartık said: “In 2022, we invested 10 million euros and renewed all the machines in the dyeing, knitting, quality control, packaging, storage, laboratory and R&D departments of our factory. With the fix our machine park over, we have greatly increased our production speed and quality. We take action faster and respond to our customers’ requests faster.”
“The Future is Possible with Sustainable Production”
Sartık explained the starting point of Özsar Tekstil’s “Clean Environment A Better Future” slogan, which adopts a sustainable production approach. Ali Yasin Sartık: “The future is possible with sustainable production. We strive to leave a livable world for future generations. We prioritize waste management and energy efficiency in all our production processes.”
Emphasizing that customer satisfaction is their top priority, Sartık said: “All our coworkers work hard to meet the needs of our customers. As well as meeting the demands, our after-sales support team also manages the feedback carefully. Our sales, planning, customer service, laboratory and quality control teams work in full harmony to ensure that both our customers and our company benefit. The most important thing for us is the positive feedback from our customers after sales. Thanks to this feedback, we believe that we have taken our company to a better level.”
“We will Start Working to İncrease the Capacity of Our Knitting Factory”
Stating that they aim to increase their production capacity next year, Sartık talked about their current investment and R&D plans as follows: “We will purchase a new factory area right next to our current factory area and we will start working to increase the capacity of our knitting factory in the last quarter of 2023. We aim to increase our production capacity by close to 100% by mid-2024 by including our new factory in the capacity increase we have made to meet the demand of the sector.
Özsar Deputy General Manager, who made a sector situation assessment, said that the demand for textile consumption has decreased worldwide: “In the globalizing world, the trust and consumption of textiles has decreased significantly. Competition is increasing day by day accordingly. We are one of the most important actors in knitted fabric production in the Turkish market. We carry out our production in Turkey, but 60% of our market is located worldwide. Our knitted fabrics are exported to more than 30 countries around the world. We follow international fairs to meet new markets and new customers. We adopt the win-win trade model by establishing correct communication without deviating from our principle of honesty. The leading garment companies of the sector both at home and abroad closely follow our quality and performance and consider us among their first choices.”
“I Think Our Company Managed the Crisis Successfully with 30 Years of Experience”
Sartık stated that the global raw material and energy crisis negatively affected many local and foreign manufacturers, but Özsar Tekstil successfully managed the crisis with their 30 years of experience. The raw material crisis created opportunities as well as cost increases for manufacturers. As Turkey’s leading company in knitted fabric production, our strong equity capital and financial strength facilitated our access to raw materials and ensured that we were minimally affected by the crisis.
“We Defend Young and Dynamic Organizational Structure”
As a company that attaches importance to the employment of women and young people, Özsar Textile carries out university-industry collaborations to address the problem of qualified personnel in the sector and carries out studies to raise awareness among students. Sartık made the following statements about this: “We attach importance to women and young people in our business. We trust the energy of young people. We value everyone who loves to learn, wants to succeed, strives and works hard. That is why we adopt a young and dynamic organizational structure. We want to progress with our employees as a family for years. Like other companies in the sector, we also have problems with intermediate staff. Especially in the business department, we have problems in finding personnel, as is the case in the sector in general. I think we can overcome this issue by raising students’ awareness about the future and by developing vocational high schools and industry-university collaborations.”