Firms are Waiting to Join the Next Season

The companies participating in the IFCO Fair, which brings together all product groups of the apparel and fashion sector under one roof, are already taking action to take part in the fair in the next period.

The fair, which also made a name for itself on the international platform, brought together over 600 participants with industry professionals in nine halls on an area of 100 thousand square meters. The leading companies in the Turkish apparel sector, which showed interest in the fair, which lasted for four days, made evaluations after the fair.

“Our country needed a fashion fair”

Nihat Onuk, a participant of the IFCO Fair from the DS Damat brand, stated that they were delighted with the fair in general, in line with the bilateral meetings we had during the fair, and that they were considering participating again. Reminding that our country needs a fashion fair and that the fair is beneficial, Nihat Onuk continued, “This year, we are in a hall specially created for Turkish apparel brands. Creating such an area is also beneficial for the image of the Turkish Apparel Clothing industry. In other halls, many large and small companies have grown very well in Turkey, especially in the retail field, representing themselves with small units. Almost all of those companies express themselves on the wholesale side. Each of them operates in the sector with a serious fashion concern. There are reputable brands from Turkey in our section. These brands create serious interest and are in demand in Turkey and abroad. I think the presence of these brands in the fair area will reach a serious potential in determining the market correctly on the visitor side and ensuring the correct organization. On the visitor side, we have visitors, especially from distant countries. In this period, when we were all distraught due to the earthquake disaster, some of our guests could not come to our country. We hosted many visitors from old Russian geography and European countries. We studied our lesson well beforehand.”

“We achieved very positive results”

Emphasizing that as İpekyol, they participated in the IFCO Fair for the first time and achieved very positive results, Ertuğrul Yalçınkaya continued as follows: “We hosted many visitors and buyers and held bilateral meetings. We talked to buyers mainly from Russia, Middle East countries, and European Union countries. Especially the first two days of the fair were hectic. In the following days, we had many meetings. We received excellent feedback from buyers who visited our stand. Foreign buyers see Turkey's important apparel brands together in a special hall. Of course, we had a quieter fair due to the earthquake disaster in our country.

“I believe very much in IFCO Fair”

Mehmet Akif Sepek from Nefise, another company that participated in the fair, stated that they have participated in the IFCO Fair for three seasons and had a very productive period. Expressing that it is a more successful fair every year, Sepek said, “Comparing with the previous seasons, we can say that the fair has improved a lot in terms of visuality. We are in a bad mood as we’re going through a terrible time as a country, but it was a good fair nonetheless. Even buyers came from Panama and Costa Rica. There are also those from South America, Colombia, Russia, Belarus, Lebanon, and Dubai. There are countries like Egypt and Algeria where the potential is very high. We would love to see these countries in the coming seasons. We believe that our negotiations will turn into sales. We continue to work with our customers from previous seasons.”

“We even made sales at the fairground”

Unal Cesur from Max Cavalera, who evaluated the fair's success, said, “We gained many new customers and had the opportunity to enter a different market. We have participated in the previous seasons of the IFCO Fair, and we will continue to participate from now on. In this season of the fair, we acquired many new customers from the USA and EU countries. Since our products appeal to African countries, we also have many black customers. We have prepared specially for this fair. Generally, we start our preparations three months before each fair. We determine our suit collection. We display our show products with our mannequins here. We even made sales in the fair area. We think we will receive orders from the customers we interviewed. We look at this fair as a long-term investment,” he said.