When people want to buy goods from Turkey they usually take the attitude of approaching the larger companies who export their brands all over the world. This can be a good thing as they are reputable companies and have the means to produce quickly but at the same time due to the bigger workloads sometimes your order can take more time than promised. Goods are still made to order as they keep no stock as such. The factories I am referring to are in the top five manufacturers in the country.
When we began work in this sector we visited most of the bigger companies who were, of course very oblidging as still to this day the export managers call me asking if we can do something together.
The main problems I saw were timescale and prices. When we asked for example mattresses to be made sometimes it took them up to two weeks before we got a result. Then when we wanted to change part of the design it took them another two weeks. The way to avoid this would be to buy one of their designs but I found that the buyers nearly always wanted to make a brand for themselves.
Their prices are set with no chance of getting a bargain.
As time went on we eventually got in touch with a smaller family run mattress factory. We began to show this to our buyers who would tell us what they wanted in the morning and the samples were ready in the afternoon. Prices were then negotiated and the deal done the same day. No time wasted and our clients go home happy and content. I will add that we were so much more competitive on price that the large companies who have bigger overheads. I remember one day sitting in the export office of one of these larger factories where there was glass partitions seperating us from other staff. Across the coridor was a meeting salon with thirty people sitting around the table. Buyers are paying all of those wages. When we meet in the smaller factory we have the boss in the office and no-one else.
Since then we have built up a steady, trustworthy relationship and become partners with this factory.
So make up your own mind. Is bigger better? Maybe sometimes but in my opinion not always. It pays to shop around.
