Turkish firms eye global branding

By Tuba Sahin and Gokhan Ergocun

BURSA, Turkey

Executives of leading firms in Turkey want to see more Turkish brands marketed globally, participants at a large business summit heard on Friday.

Traditional Turkish food chain Simit Sarayi is negotiating with another chain which has 85 locations in London to run them under the Turkish brand, company head Abdullah Kavukcu told the 7th Uludag Economy Summit in the northwestern province of Bursa.

Simit Sarayi already has dozens of branches in London, he stressed. The company also has hundreds of branches in 22 countries, according to its website.

"We will enter two countries this year, and we will penetrate the Far Eastern market in 2019," he added.

Kavukcu said the chain hopes to open 1,000 new branches overseas within five years and added:

"We open stores in the world's best places. We want to make our brand name well-known around the world."

Gulden Sonmez, who serves on the board of leading Turkish clothing chain Koton, said developing and globalizing the Turkish fashion sector and Turkish brands are the most important opportunities in the Turkish ready-wear sector.

She said Turkey's clothing sector could easily create global brands.

Omer Kizil, the CEO of soft drink maker Uludag, also said Turkish brands should adopt smart branding strategies to grow abroad.

Kizil added that Uludag's drinks are popular in German stores, where their lemonade became a "phenomenon".

He said Uludag's mineral water has a better quality than world-famous brands, and they should capitalize on this.

Umit Zaim, the CEO of leading Turkish leather company Deriden, said that they first hope to become a regional brand name and afterwards enter the European market.

The two-day summit, organized by the Capital and Ekonomist magazines, is being attended by nearly 1,200 businesspeople from around the world.