Giant chain stores have become an important part of trade in Turkey as has always been in developed countries. We frequently see domestic and foreign trademarks and also witness their cutthroat competition.
An important leg of this competition is being experienced in hardware stores. We have seen several of them in the wake of conventional stores, but now, hardware stores are really spreading in Turkey very fast. Praktiker, Koctas and Tekzen are the leading trademarks in the competition.
Praktiker has been in Turkey since 1998 and celebrates the 25th anniversary of its foundation this year. We were in Greece last week within the scope of this celebration. Hence, we had a chance to evaluate Turkish-Greek commercial relations, by examining these ties from the other side, in addition to getting to know Praktiker more closely.
German Praktiker has continued to grow in Germany after opening its first store in Luxembourg in 1978. A year later, it began work on opening four more stores in that country. The next country it went to was Greece. It has opened seven stores there since 1991. There are also seven stores in Turkey as well.
The company attaches much importance toTurkey and Greece and other countries in the southeastern part of Europe. Its working style is almost same in both countries. This is because there are lots of similarities between the two societies - climate, geography, habits, tastes, food, music etc. The only significant difference is that Turkey has a larger population and potential for development. The German director of Praktiker, Werner Muller, underlines this fact while comparing the two countries.
While talking about the customer profiles, it was as if Muller and Praktiker’s director in Greece, Selalmazidis Ioannis, were talking about the same people. For instance, the ‘do-it-yourself’ philosophy, which is quite popular in northern Europe, did not win general approval there [in Greece] as was the case in our country.
It seems impossible though at market places, but I guess there is no other European country where bargaining at shops and trade are very commonplace as is the case over there.
Even the irregular city planning resembles that of our country.
Many other things could be conveyed... However, because of one reason or the other, we see that trade remains very weak between the two countries despite these similarities. As for the reason, the political problems always come to the fore. The Greek government sees the solution of political problems as a precondition for developing commercial relations, nevertheless, it avoids actions that could put a lot of strain on current relations.
The [Greek] citizens you come across in the streets, particularly the ones who have seen Turkey, greet you warmly. I thought to myself, ‘we could get along nicely if the governments do not cause problems.’ However, in the big European map I saw in Athens, Praktiker proved me wrong right away.
Countries where has Praktiker stores are shown in yellow and borders are drawn with bold blue lines. I saw the Cyprus map. I looked at it carefully. It was as if there is a mini ‘war’ on it. In the original map, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and the Greek side were separated by blue lines. But later, this border was covered with yellow bands and the south and the north were merged. Then someone had attempted to remove the yellow bands but he/she was only partially successful.
The period that trade between Turkey and Greece began to revive started in 1996, when the Customs Union Agreement we signed, was put into effect. After that year, there was a steady growth in our exports but imports were floating. We already have trade surpluses. Trade volume that increased to $897 million in 2002, was below standards.
Greece has a free, introvert kind of economy thanks to the European Union (EU). It has the smallest economy in the EU after Portugal and an income per capita average of 145,000 avros.
The most important sector that keeps the economy afloat is tourism. It is one of the rare countries that hosts tourists more than its total population, but it is not possible to say that the service quality there is better than that of Turkey. Prices are too high.
The share of the manufacturing industry in the economy is very low, around 10-12 percent.
The average growth rate, which was 1.7 percent in the 1980s, doubled after the accession to the EU. The motor behind this growth is the EU funds, most of which have been used for infrastructural investments. Source funds that the EU has earmarked for Greece between 2000 and 2006 is to the tune of $30 billion.
For the acceleration in trade, which started with the Customs Union deal between the two neighbors, to go leaps and bounds, depends on the situation in Cyprus and Turkey’s EU schedule. Similarities are not enough.
September 24, 2003
