ISTANBUL, Turkey—In just ten years, Boyteks division of Boydak Holdings has come from nowhere as a startup supplier to in-house furniture divisions Istikbal, Bellona and Mondi to a full-fledged mill now serving many outside customers.

Boyteks claims production of  1.2 million meters of upholstery per month on 200 looms with more to come through a major expansion in the next two years. This is expected to expand the mill from 24,000 square meters to 48,000 square meters on 10,000 square meters of land purchased near the existing Bursa based factory. A three-story building is planned. John Haley, International Textile Marketing Ltd., Shaw, Oldham, UK agent for Boyteks with Seyit Ali Koksal, Vice General Manager, Boyteks; Mustafa Yildrim, General Manager, Boyteks with Haci Boydak, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Boydak Holding.

Mevlut Baydar, marketing director of Boyteks, during Evteks, confirmed these details to F&FI during the Evteks Fair in May.

“We are selling to 60 different countries today and to key accounts like IKEA, Marks & Spencer, Robert Allen and Kravet.” Russia and especially Europe account for the bulk of export of Boyteks that is 90 percent of overall sales. This company now generates $150 million in sales, Baydar says with half in mattress ticking and the other half in upholstery.  He forecasts $200 million in sales within five years.

Boyteks has also added woven velvet production to its product offering with additional ranges planned for outdoor fabrics in polyester, polypropylene and solution dyed acrylics. Boyteks has also added contract fabric, including wool, in the way of panel fabrics, chair fabrics. It now competes with Camira (UK)  and Victor (Canada) in this arena.

F&FI places Boyteks on the top 10 list of woven upholstery fabric mills for 2014. This list used to be dominated by large American mills but in recent years, mills in India, Turkey and China have come to dominate this list with the departure of such major American mills as Quaker, Mastercraft and Joan. Only Valdese remains at the top of the list. D’Décor is now recognized by F&FI as the largest mill in the world for the first time, well ahead of the second closest competitor, Valdese Weavers and twice the size of  Kadifeteks, number three.

Four years ago, Boyteks spotted the fashion change from chenille to warp knits. As a result, Boyteks bought looms from Carl Mayer in order to develop warp knit fabrics which now generate 400,000 meters a month in this business alone. It sells this product line to the domestic Turkish market for upholstery.

Boyteks also has a branch in Iran and Georgia.

As part of its marketing approach, Boyteks has created five franchised dealer showrooms to sells its complete upholstery production to the Turkish furniture trade. The outlets and corner branches are in Inegol, Ankara, Istanbul and Adana.