A LC Waikiki, the first Turkish brand to extend to South American countries, was interviewing executive candidates for the stores it opened in Ecuador and Peru.
The manager candidate who applied for a job in Peru entered the interview conducted by LC Waikiki’s team from Istanbul. In the interview, it was discussed which country’s brand LC Waikiki is. The manager candidate was asked:
– Do you know which country LC Waikiki is headquartered in?
The manager candidate experienced the uneasiness of not knowing the question asked:
– Unfortunately, I do not know.
The manager who conducted the interview answered his question:
– LC Waikiki, Turkey’s brand…
The Peruvian executive candidate was astonished when he heard the name of Turkey:
– I don’t even know where Turkey is on the map. I’ll look into what continent it’s on right away.
Chairman of the Board of LC Waikiki Vahap Little, He explained this situation they encountered in Peru at the opening of the logistics center of 175 thousand square meters, which they established on an area of 40 thousand square meters in the Eurasia OIZ in Yalova, underlining the following point:
– With more than 1200 stores in 56 countries on 4 continents, we have an area of 1.8 million square meters. “accessible fashion” we offer. As LC Waikiki, we realize our foreign investments with our own capital without the support of the Turquality program of the Ministry of Commerce.
He stated that they are the 6th largest clothing retailer in Europe:
– We are the market leader in 22 of the 56 countries in which we operate. We aim to be among the top 3 clothing retailers in Europe in 2025.
LC Waikiki Yalova Logistics The Minister of Treasury and Finance inaugurated the Center. Nureddin Nabati with the Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank performed.
Among the business people attending the opening Sefik Dizdar, Ramazan Kaya, Hamza Kaya, Onur Soysal, Ömer Faruk Celik, Fettah Tamince, Sahin Nalbant, Adnan Basdemir, Abdullah Buladi, Ahmet Celik, Yunus Akdas, Nurettin Yasar, Ozen Kuzu, Ahmet Guler, Hasan Kaytan took place.
Vahap Little, He stated that LC Waikiki, especially in Istanbul, Ankara and Yalova, has a logistics area of 685 thousand square meters in the country and 100 thousand square meters abroad:
– The total area of our logistics centers has reached 785 thousand square meters. In 2021, we shipped 550 million products from our logistics centers. 600 million products will be shipped this year.
He summarized the importance of logistics centers with the following sentence:
– In the fashion retail industry, sending the right product to the right store in the right quantity on time is one of the key points of success. To this end, we continue our investment in logistics centers, closely monitoring technological developments and integrating them into our business processes.
Incidentally, he also focused on the production side of the group:
– The total size of 11 production facilities in 6 different cities of Yavuz, Taha, Talu, Özen and Fetih Tekstil, which are our subsidiary Taha Group companies, reached 230 thousand square meters.
He emphasized that they took care to shift their production to Anatolia:
– We even made investments in some of our cities for social responsibility purposes. One of them was Erzurum. We employ 1000 people in the city.
He stated that they will enter 8 new countries this year:
– These countries will be in South America and sub-Saharan Africa, especially Chile and Argentina. By the end of the year, we will open 120 new stores abroad and 30 new stores in the country. Thus, we will have reached a total of 1350 stores by the end of the year.
He also shared his 2022 turnover expectations:
– This year, we aim to increase our turnover by 80 percent compared to last year and hopefully increase it to 66 billion liras.
Minister of Treasury and Finance VegetalHe underlined the tax they paid last year, taking into account that .
– In 2021, we paid 2 billion lira corporate tax.
Taha-Tema Group not only made French LC Waikiki, which they bought from its founders in 1997, a brand of Turkey, but also made it a global player with 1200 stores spread over 56 countries.
LC Waikiki is taking firm steps towards entering the top 3 in Europe in 2025…
1200 suppliers make products, employment reaches 210 thousand
LC Chairman of the Board of Waikiki Vahap Little, He stated that employment on the production side of the group is around 10 thousand:
– Our employment on the retail side is at the level of 50 thousand. Thus, the total employment reaches 60 thousand.
He reported that they had a total of 1200 suppliers make production in different provinces of Turkey:
– The total employment of our suppliers reaches 150 thousand people. If we take into account our direct employment, an army of 210 thousand employees emerges.
In 2021, we provided 12 million pieces of clothing aid and supported 15 thousand students.
LC Chairman of the Board of Waikiki Vahap Little, back in 1997 when they bought the brand:
– In those years, the share of clothing in household expenditures was around 9 percent in the calculations of TURKSTAT. Today we see that it is at 5%. We think we have salt in this soup, too.
He emphasized that they allocate more than 10 percent of their net profits to social benefits every year:
– In 2021, we donated 12 million pieces of clothing. We supported the education of 15,000 children.
I hit the fence coming out of LC Waikiki, they didn’t realize I was the minister
INDUSTRY and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, stated that they are customers of LC Waikiki as a family:
– We recently shopped at the LC Waikiki store. On the way out, I touched the fence in the parking lot of the store with the car. I gave the staff my phone, told them to call me to pay the cost.
He smiled and continued:
– Store managers called later. The officers did not recognize me. store manager, “Mr. Minister, thank you for shopping from us. The issue of repairing the fence is not a problem” said.
Our President’s visit to Prague will contribute to the EU accession process
TURKEYAmbassador of Prague (Czech Republic) Egemen Bagis, President in weekly video sharing Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s today (6 October 2022) “European Political Community Summit”He made the following assessment of his participation:
– Our President will take place in Prague “European Political Community Summit”participation will contribute to the revitalization of our European Union (EU) accession process.
He also gave the following message about the effects of the summit on the EU:
– The summit will increase Europe’s resilience to recent challenges.