The company's production facility in the Russian city of Rostov, which came to life at the end of 2008 after a $50 million investment, is working at full capacity nowadays in the rush to satisfy demand from Russians and the former Eastern bloc countries. Even the company's factories in Gaziantep are working three shifts daily, seven days a week, to decorate Russians' houses with Merinos carpets and rugs.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Merinos Group Chairman İbrahim Erdemoğlu noted that the company hired 400 new workers in the last four months, bringing its total employment to 3,000 in the midst of what is for many an adverse investment environment in the wake of a global financial crisis.
The Merinos Group, which produces furniture, home textiles and blankets as well as carpets, is targeting 15 percent growth in 2009. "We don't feel a need to revise our growth forecasts despite the crisis. On the contrary, we have improved our performance," he said. Indeed, the crisis has not caused serious problems in the carpet industry, and virtually all companies in the business continue to operate smoothly.
Erdemoğlu said behind the success of his company lie the diversification of products and markets, an increase of productivity and a decrease in profit margins. He said the Rostov facility's annual capacity is 6 million square meters of carpet.
The group as a whole enjoyed $700 million in annual turnover and exported to 50 countries, earning $100 million from international sales in the last year, 70 percent of which came from carpet sales. It plans to reach the same figures this year, too.
Merinos has three plants in Gaziantep, a carpet factory in Russia, a furniture factory in İzmir, a wall-to-wall carpet manufacturing facility -- under the Dinarsu brand -- in Çerkezköy and a blanket manufacturing plant in Uşak.
