Furniture Industry

Furniture production in Turkey dates back to the 19th century and was done in small workshops as artisan production. However, by the rapid globalization and all other aspects, present furniture industry is becoming a fashion sector.
In Turkey, furniture is produced both in workshops and industrial-scale manufacturing units.

Furniture production is highly fragmented among a large number of small workshops. These small workshops play an important role in producing hand carved and handmade furniture.

Workshops are flexible establishments in nature and have enough capacity and labor force to expand their production line in order to supply large orders.
Large-scale furniture firms produce standard models by using automated mass-production techniques and most of their production is oriented towards export.

In accordance to data from Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), in 2012 furniture production was realized as 10,3 billion Turkish Liras.

According to the recent General Census of Industry and Business Establishments (2012), the furniture sector employs 151.904 people and the industry has 33.924 companies manufacturing various furniture.

Moreover, capacity data of The Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) reports 40 companies who have over 250 employees and 155 companies who have over 100 employees. Besides, Istanbul Chamber of Industries list of the top 500 industrial establishments of Turkey includes six furniture companies.

Furniture production in Turkey is concentrated mainly in İstanbul, Ankara, Bursa (İnegöl), Kayseri, İzmir and Adana. The most important furniture production districts are İstanbul and the region of Bolu-Düzce, which is famous for its production of wood products.

The well-known furniture-manufacturing district in Turkey, called “Siteler”, is located in Ankara. The number of registered small and medium sized enterprises in “Siteler” is over 10,000. In Ankara, there are many labor–intensive small enterprises manufacturing classical-handmade furniture and there are about 10 major furniture manufacturers who have mass-production capabilities.

The wood industry is developing rapidly in the Bursa-İnegöl area, the third most important furniture production region, which is surrounded by forest areas. The furniture industry of the İnegöl area is small sized but has great potential to improve itself. Another important furniture region is Kayseri, which has large capacity for the production of sofa beds, couch beds and seven of the twenty two largest manufacturers of Turkey are established here.

İzmir also has a furniture production districts called “Karabağlar and Kısıkköy” which supply furniture to the Aegean Region.

PRODUCTION

In Turkey, furniture production can be classified in accordance with materials used as wooden furniture (massive and veneered), metal furniture and others. Wooden furniture has a major share in total furniture production. As it is known for good quality furniture, the types of wood used and plywood inputs have to be taken into consideration. The main types of wood used in the manufacture of massive furniture in Turkey are ash, beech, oak, pine, linden and mahogany. In veneered furniture, oak, beech, walnut and mahogany areused.

Turkish furniture factories use the latest technologies in producing furniture, which is always up to world standards. Since 1990 the application of advanced technology and the use of CNC benches in the Turkish furniture industry have been increasing. Today, all of the large enterprises in the furniture sector use CNC benches. Most companies are equipped with modern machinery which allows the production of good, export-quality products.

Quality control starts from the stage when the raw material is produced and continues till the end of the packaging process. Most of the companies have already obtained ISO 9000 certificates and other required quality certificates. The large scale firms comply with world standards in their packaging processes. In packaging PE, PP, foam, poly-urethane and cardboard boxes are used. Many of the large companies have special packaging sections.

As with many other consumer products, furniture production is sensitive to changes in fashion. Since furniture design is an important aspect of marketing, Turkish designers are constantly following consumer preferences in foreign markets and introduce new designs and make model variations and improvements.

Source: Trade Ministry