The story of the unavoidable rise of Turkish stones in global markets

Turkish stones were not in demand in 1990s

In 1990s Turkish Stones were not well known in the World..

We were having difficulty trying to sell our stones for even low prices. To be even worse we were not educated about more technical issues such as marketing and exportation. We did not have standards either.Business people involved in this sector did not have good education at the time.

The global increase in demand in 2000s

In 2000s stone consumption went up globally. We started to sell markets like America which brought about the opportunities for us to get more involved in the business and gain much more practice through visits to such countries, exhibitions and export practices etc.

Thanks to such closer efforts in the sector the manufacturers/exporters became aware of the importance of packaging, standardization and the necessity to speak foreign languages. Thus this was in a way the beginning of a new era in the sector.

Improvement in the sector

Business owners then aware of the importance of education sent their children abroad to learn languages and establish relationships there etc. Standards of personnel quality and management efficiency went up substantially. Then Turkish exporters were ready for a much better performance in export sales.

More  companies come into the sector

In the meantime some other companies in other business fields noticed there as good profit in stone business and ones with sufficient funds and opportunities came into this sector as well, to make the army of exporters even stronger to challenge in the world markets. This certainly brought about local competition as well which in return lead to more diversified products with even better quality and reasonable prices.

Prices and profit margins

A net profit marginof 20-30 percent is usually targeted in the sector.

To overcome low profit handicap due to tough competition in stones such as travertine, companies prefer to develop new designs/Stones with different finishing such as sand-blasting, satin look etc.In other words they are now able to diversify thier products to get rid of price pressure.

Markets for Turkish stones

Turkey currently supplies blocks to countries such as China, India, Spain and ItalyAnd finished products to countries such as Middle East states, United States, Russia, Gulf, England, Germany, France etc.

Advantages of working with an agent in Turkey

Turkey has so many alternatives for many items and similar products for most stones in the world and for convenient prices as well.

Also there are many suppliers which provides the opportunity of having different alternatives.

On the other hand it is by all means recommendable to partner with a local stone agent company to make sure there are not losses until the local market is known to the buying party. Because such agent companies provide full service to cover information as to where best alternatives with most preferable quotations are available and documentation and shipment etc.

Alper OZULOĞUL
Natural Stone Expert