Terrific Turkey

Turkey holds the leading position amongst the jewellery exporting countries. The country has a large manufacturing base and provides for cheap labour along with an increasing number of designers have helped Turkey becoming an important jewellery making centre. Besides, the country’s important geographical location helps bridging East and West, Asia and Europe, which makes it an important distribution and re-export centre.

Turkey’s jewellery industry received a huge boost with government decisions taken in the early 1980s to liberalize the gold trade and foreign exchange, according to the Turkish Jewelers Association (TAJ). The TAJ promotes the export of Turkish jewellery, advances the interests of the Turkish jewellery sector internationally, and supports the activities of the Turkish jewellery export sector.

Well-known Jewellery Brands

Gilan
The family story and its love affair with luxury begins in the town of Gilan, where four generations ago, the great- great- great grandmother of the founders had designed and sewn tailor-made dresses for the Ottoman pashas. It picks up again, in 1980, where the brothers Muharrem and Ferhan Gilan opened the first 1.5 sq mtrs jewellery store. Their hereditary passion for design and luxury led them to move to Istanbul and to set the basis of Gilan which is a world known jewellery house among socialites and the affluent today.

Urart
Inspired by the history of Turkey, fine jewellery brand Urart artfully fuses ancient styles with modern motifs and technology. From the Ottoman, Byzantine and Seljuk cultures to the ancient Sumerians and Phrygians, Urart’s collections often focus on one specific period, exploring the themes and motifs of the past through decidedly modern jewellery.

Atasay Jewellery
Atasay Gold is the leading producer, exporter and importer of gold jewellery in Turkey. Atasay Jewelry, a company with roots in the Turkish Republic’s formative years, has been a leader in the Turkish jewellery sector for three generations. From its founding in Çivril, Denizli, in 1937, Atasay has risen to become a leader for the transformation of Turkey’s jewellery-making from small business operations into an industry.

Altınbaş
Altınbas, launched in 1975, now has a number of locations across Istanbul and offers a wide variety of styles to suit any taste. Altınbas collections, by the expert design team, the team, following world trends and innovations, and Turkish motifs from history, emerges as an aesthetic interpretation of the universal dating back to the line. ISO 9001 quality certified production, Turkey’s largest gold factory with a closed area of 15 thousand square meters in Istanbul, Beylikdüzü, equipped with the world standards and the latest technology, is taking place in Altınbas Factory.

Jewellery Demand
According to the Gold Demand Trends Q1 2017 report, after the usual Q4 uplift, demand in Turkey sank to a four-year low of 7.7t. Continued currency weakness in Turkey meant that the price of gold in lira rose more than in any other currency during Q1 (+12 per cent), undermining jewellery demand. The fragile economic and political conditions that have beset Turkey over recent years were again a key factor behind the weak Q1 number. The mid-April referendum on changing Turkey’s constitution from a parliamentary to a presidential republic weighed on demand for the sector. And the outlook for the market is weak as the local price remains prohibitively high for many at a time of deteriorating economic indicators.

Turkey also witnessed far lower levels of recycling during the most recent quarter. Price and currency moves played their part here too, but the constitutional referendum was also a factor: the populace was reluctant to sell its gold holdings in the face of an uncertain political outcome.

Trends
According to a report published in 2016 by Euromonitor International, in 2016 overall value sales of jewellery demonstrated a 15 per cent current value decline, as a result of rising gold prices and political instability in the country. The terrorist incidents in Ankara and Istanbul in 2016 had an effect on the jewellery industry as the people were averse of going out, especially to crowded places and shopping centres. This decline in the overall category stemmed from the 22 per cent current value decline in fine jewellery, which accounted for a 72 per cent value share within jewellery. Gold is purchased not only as an accessory, but also as a means of investment in Turkey. This means that people buy gold when gold prices are at their lowest, and they sell gold when prices go up. In 2016 Turks sold the gold they owned rather than buying new gold accessories, since in the first quarter of 2016 the unit price of gold was considerably higher than at the end of 2015.

Competitive Landscape
In 2015 jewellery remained very fragmented with small independent local companies, covered under “others”, accounting for a 69 per cent value share. The leading chained jewellery companies were Atasay Kuyumculuk San ve Tic and Altinbas Kuyumculuk Ith Ihr San Tic, with 7 per cent and 6 per cent value shares respectively in 2015. These companies are established in the market and are active in terms of marketing, states the Euromonitor report.

Promoting Business
According to reports, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Ankara, Turkey in collaboration with the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka and Export Development Board (EDB) of Sri Lanka, organised a promotional programme on “Business and Investment Opportunities in Sri Lanka” from 15th to 18th May 2017 in Turkey. The recent event was organized to make a concerted effort to achieve the target in the desired time frame, while cashing in on the conducive business environment that has been growing steadily since the end of the civil war. During the event, the Istanbul Jewellery Exporters Association expressed its keenness to collaborate in joint ventures involving Sri Lanka companies, which are engaged in the sector. Since Turkey is the second biggest jewellery manufacture in the World, it offers an immense trading potential to Sri Lanka’s precious and semi-precious stones.