Ahmet Gulec is chairman of the Turkish furniture federation and of manufacturer NDesign.

The Istanbul Exporters Assn., a group representing Turkish furniture manufacturers has signed a three-year lease in the International Home Furnishings Center, making its first coordinated appearance at last month’s High Point Market.

The group hosted a dozen Turkish furniture companies in its showroom, IHFC C-661, with plans to increase both the size of its space — initially more than 13,000 square feet — and the number of participating companies, according to Ahmet Gulec, chairman of MOSFESD, the Federation of Furniture Associations.

Gulec is also chairman of Turkish furniture manufacturer NDesign, one of the exhibiting companies. Other companies in the initial group of exhibitors included Kupa, Ozzo, Guner, Ada, Bienal, Rengorenk, Windy, Gabba, Ersa, Saloni and Area. Companies spanned the full range of furniture categories.

“We are here for the long term,” Gulec told Furniture/Today. “Our goal is to become one of the important furniture producers of the world.”

Speaking with Furniture/Today at the 2015 ISMOB furniture fair in Istanbul, Gulec had expressed the goal of raising Turkish furniture exports to the United States from their estimated $24 million level in 2013 to $3 billion over the coming decade.

Gulec claimed that Turkey has increased its global furniture share by a factor of 10 over the past 15 years. He expressed the intent to grow the country’s showroom space at High Point by a similar margin by 2020. He also noted there are more than 36,000 furniture manufacturers in Turkey, about a third of which are currently exporting.

Similarly, Gulec said the country intends to create a Turkish Design Center in the United States, also by 2020. “Our goal is to become the furniture factory of the world,” Gulec said.

(Source: Furniture Today  Author: Bill McLoughlin)