About Us

Turkish
Cosmetics Cluster

Turkish Cosmetics Clusters is a cluster that was formed by the initiatives of İKMİB (İstanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters Association) in order to foster innovation and prioritize the efforts and firms who has innovative aspects and collaboration potential for the future business endeavors through a funded project. Keeping this in mind, İKMİB is an integrated part organizing and supporting the whole initiative.

Turkish Cosmetics Cluster consists of 46 cosmetics companies located in Turkey, including the leading ones. The main purpose of the project is to increase the market reach of its member companies via carrying out specially designed initiatives aimed at boosting competitiveness. Strategic consultancy services are provided at firm level, "Trade Delegations" and “Buying Missions” are formed, companies' participation at selected exhibitions are supported and required training is provided within this endeavor which is carried out by İKMİB Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters Association. Some of the activities organised by Turkish Cosmetics Cluster since 2012 were at the markets such as Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Panama, Mexico, Nigeria, Ghana, England, France, United States, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Cambodia, Japan. A huge part of Turkish cosmetics exports are held by our members and the figures are increasing every year. Training, consultancy and international marketing activities will continue in the future.

Read More

About
IKMIB

İstanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters Association (IKMIB) was founded in Istanbul in 1991 and currently has around 8000 members. The main aim of the organisation is to help its members increase the export volumes and the success of their companies in the chemical products sector. In addition, IKMIB is also commited to increasing the competitive edge of its members in their everyday business operations.

The organisation also looks to provide sectoral collaboration, support its members with any problems relating to export/trade activities, organising trade fairs, arranging promotional activities and founding laboratories. Furthermore, it arranges national and international meetings for its exporters, organises ‘trade missions’ composed of Turkish exporters to the target markets and prepares annual reports on the performance of the sector as a whole, as well as its target sub-sectors. The members of IKMIB cover a broad spectrum of exporting industries such as plastic housewares, plastic packaging materials, cosmetics, medical equipments, pharmaceutical products, paints and varnishes.To summarize, the tasks of the Association are as follows;

  • Arranging "Trade Delegations" to target markets.
  • Organizing and participating in national / international trade fairs.
  • Organizing "Buying Missions".
  • Monitoring and providing sectoral data, reports and market research studies.
  • Developing co-operations with international institutions.
  • Organizing training courses, seminars and meetings related to the industry.
  • Solving problems and difficulties arising from the legal transactions that the member firms encounter.
  • Examining foreign trade regulations and laws of importer countries so as to keep the member firms informed about the international rules.

Read More

About
Clusters

Business Clusters is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers and associated institutions in a particular field and includes all sectors and organizations that contribute to the existence of its economic assets. Business Clusters include a wide range of actors from complementary product manufacturers to distributors and customers. Business Clusters often gather around universities, standardization bodies, think tanks, vocational training institutions and public and private enterprises which provide technical support. Therefore business Clusters is an economic phenomenon that exists independently from any intervention, organization or project. Clusters road map is a stractegic guide identifying the relevant activities and/or activity groups, in another words Clusters actions, to determine the vision and strategy of Clusters initiatives. Clustering practices have been successfully pursued and have yielded effective results in many countries from Western, Eastern and Central Europe to United States of America; from People’s Republic of China to Japan.

It is not legal obligation but inter-institutional trust and colloboration that hold Clusters together. Clustering practices are of great importance for economic development because of the fact that companies in a Clusters perform more effectively and creatively than those which operate singlehandedly. Clustering facilitates business networks and corporations between a number of suppliers, customers, competitors, universities, research centers and other actors within a particular geographic location and accordingly contributes to increase the performances of companies.

Development of Clustering Policies Project (DCP) has contributed a lot to raise awareness on Clustering, to develop a common language and led to preparation of pilot Clustering road maps. In line with its principle of sustainability adopted for each activity, the Ministry of Economy further develops these road maps by conducting higher levels of activities. The experience with Clustering has also been enjoyed by the Government Policies for Export Subsidies. In this respect, a support mechanism has been formed to ensure support for our institutions on every level of internationalization by the projects of cooperating institutions.

The objective of the support mechanism is to provide assistance for the industrial and / or commercial institutions or the companies providing software Service to meet their expenditures on education and counseling Service for strengthening their competitiveness in international market and to meet the expenditures of the cooperating institutions for the projects approved by the Ministry of Economy. The cooperating institutions to prepare projects for their member companies are as follows:

Turkish Exporters Assembly, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, Foreign Economic Relations Board, Exporters Associations, Provincial Chambers of Commerce and / or Industry, Organized Industrial Sites, Industrial Sites, technology incubators, Sectoral Manufacturers’ Associations, Sectoral Foreign Trade Companies and the associations, unions and cooperation of the producers.

Cluster is a result of a project funded by the initiative of named UR-GE. UR-GE Project (Supporting The Development Of International Competitiveness) is a sectoral cluster project for developing export capacities of Turkish manufacturer companies. The companies gathered by the Exporter Association, by the sectoral associations and federations that they a member of, participate in activities approved by Ministry of Trade, to improve their knowledge of competitiveness.

Read More

Turkish Cosmetics Sector

In Turkey, in scientific terms, this sector has first emerged at the beginning of 1900s in the last era of the Ottoman State particularly as a result of initiatives taken by the entrepreneurs who have studied pharmacy and chemistry abroad and who then started the first pharmacy sector activities in Turkey and launched hand care and skincare creams of their own production. In the period of 1950-1960 being the first step of industrialization process of Turkey, the sector activities have first started with the efforts of foreign investors or multinationals aimed at penetration into the Turkish market with their products, and the sector Cosmetic sector is mainly dominated by import goods at the beginning has gradually proceeded towards the local industry. However, the dependence on foreign sources for active ingredients or raw materials has continued till date and is still continuing.

Union, the adaptation of our national cosmetics industry to the requirements of the said basic EU directive is among the important issues on the agenda of this sector. The number of manufacturing firms or persons registered in the Ministry of Health is above 1.370.

Depending on the economic development in Turkey, both production and consumption of the cosmetic and personal care products are also increasing rapidly. The hair care products hold the greatest share in the sector product range, and shampoos account for approximately 59% of hair care products. Other items included in the sector product range are shaving products, depilatories, bath and shower products, soaps, lip and eye make-up materials, deodorants and antiperspirants, perfumes, eau de colognes, skincare and baby care products.

Thanks to its continuously improving R &D and production abilities, Turkish cosmetics sector has being gained a considerable competitive power. Optimal quality and cost alternatives are provided by the sector both for domestic and foreign buyers. An overview of the distribution of trade among countries and the structure of EU cosmetics sector published every year by COLIPA (European Union Cosmetic Toiletry Products and Perfume Manufacturers' Association) leads us to think that while the overall yearly increase rate is around 4-5%, the higher rates of increase in our exports to these countries in the recent years point out the enhancement of competitiveness of our products in terms of quality and price.

In cosmetics production, particularly for the high technology products, the university-industry cooperation and the local raw materials production must be encouraged so as to cut the costs and to reduce the dependence on foreign sources.

Read More