This is best illustrated by outlining two examples of upholstery fabric producing companies in the Turkish textile industry.

Erol Türkün Tekstil

Türkün is a company rich in tradition in this field, a tradition going back through three generations.

Sixty years ago, this company began to produce women’s outerwear fabrics on eight looms equipped with jacquard. At the end of 1960, production was concentrated on upholstery and decorative fabrics, and by the following year the company had already attained the lead position in this branch of the industry in Turkey. Today Türkün , with its 560 employees, produces 600,000 meters of high grade fabric per month, equally divided between upholstery and decorative fabric. In order to do justice to having the reputation of being the largest weaver of high grade upholstery fabrics in Turkey, the owner Erol Türkün, who at the same time is president of the Industrialist and Businessmen’s Association of Bursa and also an executive of the Bursa Association of Exporters, places emphasis on two important factors. Firstly, investment is ongoing and is concentrated on improving quality and flexibility. Secondly, to attain these goals using its own means, the company is vertically integrated.

Today the company operates three weaving facilities in the production of upholstery and decorative fabrics with subsequent finishing and is also involved in another weaving operation. Additionally, the manufacturing program is consolidated by the production of tablecloths, napkins and bed sheets and also pillow covers at a cut and sew facility owned by the company. With its latest investment in fabric printing, the company has added another component to this vertically integrated undertaking.

Aided by the most modern CAD/CAM systems, 12 in-house designers form the basis for the company’s own collection, out of which 350 patterns are registered at the patent office. Some of the fabrics are subjected to special finishing processes to produce goods that are stain resistant and fire retardant. On request, customer generated ideas and patterns are developed and corresponding fabrics produced. This gives the company a leading position in being most creative, not only in the domestic market, but also overseas with its own brand name, ”Vanelli“, 35% being sold overseas. Exports covering in excess of 20 countries, and in addition to the well-known Western European countries also include deliveries to the United States and Japan.

In 1990 the first DORNIER rapier weaving machines were installed, and today this number has grown to a total of 42 machines spread over the various weaving operations. Says Erol Türkün, ”The high degree of flexibility and sturdiness of these machines, together with the low supply parts consumption and minimal maintenance led to the initial purchase and subsequent reordering“. Although initially along with the 180 cm nominal width HTVS machines some 320 cm machines were also installed, only single width machines are being considered for future purchases due to flexibility and quick response to market demands and requirements. All machines are equipped with 8-color filling selectors and electronic jacquard machines.

The multiplicity of filling yarns woven by these DORNIER machines illustrates the high degree of flexibility, ranging from chenille yarns with a count of Nm 3/1, through rayon yarns in counts from Ne 6/1 to Ne 50/2, cotton yarns from Ne 2/1 to Ne 60/2, and filament polyester yarns of between 70 and 300 denier.

Prestij Mensucat

A multiplicity of materials is also processed by this second customer, Prestij Mensucat. This company with 24 rapier weaving machines, type HTVS8/J, with a nominal width of 180 cm and equipped with jacquard shedding, produces 120,000 meters of upholstery and decorative fabric per month.

Prestij Mensucat was founded 20 years ago as a trading company dealing in upholstery fabrics and is one of the typical newcomers in the Turkish textile industry that initially began its own weaving operation four years ago with a total of 60 employees. Ahmet Yasar, company owner, quickly recognized that inflexible deliveries of fabrics on order were caused by commission finishers. In order to respond to market needs more efficiently, the company built its own dyeing and finishing facility this year, resulting in the number of employees increasing to 200. As a result, on the one hand this enabled the company to easily expand its fabric collection of some 400 patterns, and on the other hand, cut delivery times to below the current level of 15 days demanded by the market.

With the production being solely influenced by what customers order, short orders of up to 50 meters are not unusual. Creativity and a high level of quality are the cornerstones for the sales success achieved by Prestij. In Turkey, the fabric collection produced in-house generates 60% of gross sales through sales offices located in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya. The balance of 40% of gross sales is exported, being generated in an entirely different way. Exclusive patterns are developed and produced to a great extent in direct collaboration with customers located in Arabia and the Far East.

The DORNIER family of weaving machines in upholstery and decorative fabric production

In order to achieve an even shorter throughput time in processing, in other words quick response, the first Turkish weavers of upholstery and decorative fabrics have now also installed DORNIER air jet machines. An exemple, since the beginning of 1996, 6 air jets with jacquard machines and 6 filling colors operate alongside 28 rapier weaving machines at the plant of Aydin Tekstil in Istanbul. Further specialized technical developments in air jet weaving (see report on page 6 of this issue) have provided the degree of flexibility that this market segment demands.

Together with the rapier weaving machine, this gives the upholstery and decorative fabric weaver optimum flexibility in the production of these fabrics.