Yeşim increased its target in Egypt with Jade Textile

Jade Textile, a subsidiary of Yeşim Group, which started its production journey in Egypt in 2008 to produce for the American market, is making a distinguished name for it with the successes it has achieved and the projects it has implemented. Jade, which has succeeded in being Egypt's largest ready-made  apparels exporter for the last four years, is planning to reach 12 thousand employees by 2025, increasing its exports to 250 million dollars and making an additional investment of 100 million dollars with the strategy workshop it held.

Jade Textile, which started its production journey in Egypt after the first facility commissioned in 2008 in Alexandria, Egypt and realized the third production facility in Ismailia in 2019 after the second facility in Cairo, has achieved a serious growth and development curve in the region. Jade, which has achieved the success of being the "Biggest ready-to-wear - apparel exporter" for 4 consecutive years and added Tommy Hilfiger to the brands it produces from the region according to the results of "2021 Egyptian Apparel Exports", has determined the strategies and plans for 2025 with the strategy workshop held in Cairo with the slogan "Vision 2025, Transformation has begun".

Jade Textile strategy workshop, which was organized last September under the leadership of Yeşim Group Co CEO Selim Şankaya, has brought together the senior executives of the Group. Egyptian and Turkish teams has had the chance to make various comparisons and improvements by sharing their projects in the workshop organized to determine Jade Textile's strategies for 2025 and to draw the Group's future roadmap.

Selim Şankaya, Yeşim Group Co CEO, who stated that they continue to work with the title of "Production for world brands, at world standards", has stated that they prioritize the philosophy of "people first" in every step they take. Şankaya, who stated that they left 2021 behind as a growth-oriented year where losses were compensated after a challenging 2020, has stated that they maintain their upward momentum in production and exports within the scope of their future targets. Şankaya said that “we are producing in 2 more countries, Egypt and Moldova apart from our facilities in Turkey. Egypt has become an important production and solution center for world-famous brands. We are making our future plans visible by holding strategy workshops both in Turkey and Egypt in order to further establish our presence in the region. We held our strategy workshop in Turkey in 2020 and the one in Egypt in the past months. We have achieved significant success by sticking to the main strategies we have set forth with the workshop we held in 2016 and we focused on brands with strategic growth potential such as Lacoste, Ralph Lauren and Under Armor. Furthermore, we have achieved the growth we targeted in Turkey, Egypt and Moldova. It slowed down our pace in 2020, when the pandemic was effective, but with our high performance, we achieved a growth of 45 percent in the Group in 2021” by emphasizing that the operations they carry out in Egypt create added value for Turkey as well.

 “We will undertake very serious works in the capacity of revolutionize for the digital field.”

Emphasizing that, as of the current point, they have established an integrated structure in Egypt and can provide faster service to their customers with short delivery times, Şankaya continued as follows: We set out again with similar strategies today and keep expectations of customers on the foreground. We do not thing to add new customers to our existing customers. Despite the demand coming from the large strategic customers both in Turkey and Egypt, we certainly do not include this in our program at the moment. Our strategy is to build capacity and add value to them by focusing on our current customers. We renewed our target of 'being the strategic production partner of the world brands’ as 'strategic production and indispensable partner of the world brands' for the year 2025. It is essential for us to "create capacity" along with performance in order to achieve this. It is required to invest in automation in order to continue making excellent products in an environment where competition and costs are increasing. Increasing capacity with automation will become very important for us. We will undertake very serious works in the capacity of revolutionize for the digital field. Sustainability is one of our top priorities. We are talking about sustainability in every subject. Sensitivity on the subject of people and environment is especially important for us. We have great responsibilities towards the environment and nature. We have serious goals in this area on the way to 2025. We will reduce our carbon footprint. We are targeting to recycle and reuse 70 percent of the water we use both in Turkey and Egypt. Beside this, we will devote a significant amount of time and budget to human and leader development. We are required to be a ‘human development’ company that I have mentioned in Egypt. We will be supporting our 2025 strategy with a strong performance and career planning system and talent development and retention works.

“Our export target for 2025 is 250 million dollars.”

Stating that Egypt has always given him a completely different excitement and energy, Şankaya said, “Currently, Jade Textile is one of the most important ready-made clothing companies in Egypt due to the employment it provides and the exports it performs. We are at a point to be proud of when looking at from this point of view that is required to be proud of. We are adding great value to the country. In 2021, our export from the country reached 145 million dollars. We have a target to increase our exports to 230 million dollars in 2025. We have a young, dynamic and strong staff at Jade Textile. Our facilities are ready to grow and we are also financially strong. We established one of the world's leading paint shops 2 years ago.”

Şankaya continued as follows: “We are sending our ready-made apparel products to the American market, especially for Nike and Under Armor brands, from our facilities in Egypt. Egypt is a strategic investment for us. The American market is a huge market. The free trade agreement between Egypt and America is very important and you have the opportunity to sell duty-free goods there. Egypt has positioned the ready-made apparel industry as a priority sector within its growth targets until 2030. We are also setting up our growth moves in line with this strategy. Our employment in the country has reached 7 thousand 500 people. Thus, we have become one of the largest employment opportunities provided by a Turkish company abroad under a single roof. Our goal is to reach 12 thousand employees. We are believing in Egypt's potential and aiming to grow further in the region in the next phase with an additional investment of $100 million. As Jade, we have achieved a 3-fold increase in export and employment values in the last 5 years. In the next 3 years, we will have doubled both exports and workforce. Although there have been political problems between Egypt and Turkey in the past, we are close societies whose peoples have lived together for centuries and have established family and business ties. This is what matters to us. The government also needs the workforce we have created as a sector. We will not slowdown and we will grow bigger in Egypt. Coups have occurred in the country. Although many international companies left Egypt at that time, we, as Jade, have continued our investments. We continue our work without slowing down. We have carried the kindergarten service, which we realized and continued in Bursa in 1988, to our Ismailia facility in Egypt. The kindergarten service of Yeşim, which is set an example in many international platforms, is also a first for the Egyptian industry and the production area where the facility is located. In addition, we have also launched the "Gender Equality and Economic Empowerment of Women" unit within the facility. We are aiming to spread the culture of gender equality in Ismailia through the unit. In line with our global vision, we are trying to align the good practices we have implemented in all our other facilities, especially in our factories in Egypt, with those in our Bursa central facility. This is the requirement of being a global company. The trainings to be carried out in this unit will return as social benefit in the medium and long term”.