Why Haven't We Been Affected by the Crisis?

It’s possible to see natural stone from Turkey not only in Miami but also in all of America’s growing cities. Between 2000 and 2005, Turkey’s market share of the natural stone industry in the U.S. rose from 10.9% to 38%. During the same period, Italy’s share decreased from 32.4% to 9.4%.

During the first nine months of 2008, exports from Turkey to the U.S. of unprocessed marble, semi-processed marble, granite, and travertine reached $386 million. Turkey, which has a third of the world’s marble reserves, is attracting attention with the unequaled products that it offers the market.

With more than 50 different products in gold, noce, and ivory colors in stock at Sefa Stone, the city’s only expert is on location at the company. Selçuk Çevik, Sefa Stone’s General Director, says that, “Having our own quarry and factories in Turkey is the most important source of our confidence in ourselves.”

In the American market, Sefa Stone offers customers its main products of gold-, noce-, and ivory-colored travertine in different dimensions and thicknesses. Çevik says, “Our leadership in the travertine market in particular was proved in 2007 by our high performance in exports.”
 
SALES 40 PERCENT UP
Beginning in 2008, besides continuing its leadership in the travertine market, Sefa Stone has also entered the marble market. With the diversity of its products increasing by the day, its sales figures compared to last year’s figures have gone up by 40%--despite the global economic crisis.

General Director Çevik summarizes the strategy they have been following during the crisis: “We hear that business in the sector is going badly, that many firms have closed their offices, that some of them have reduced their staff. However, we as a company have not felt the need to make any major changes during this difficult period. For us, the crisis has not brought any serious loss. The reason for this is that our customers’ satisfaction, the diversity of our products, our products’ quality and consistency, and the trust and harmony we have created in our company.  These have been the main keys to our success.”  

During the economic crisis that has become especially apparent during the last quarter of 2008, even if Sefa Stone’s sales rates drop significantly because of dependence on other businesses, in this difficult period the company does not anticipate that its end point for the year will be below target.

The economic crisis, which became a reality in 2008 and has caused some of the world’s largest companies to go bankrupt, is affecting real estate and consequently the natural stone sector. It is expected that the sector can be revived when the excess stock of houses, which is reducing demand for new construction, is depleted and there is a renewed need for houses.

Çevik emphasizes that in this crisis, which is directly affecting the natural stone sector, they are managing the crisis by buying the right merchandise at the right time and at the right prices.

The young director adds: “From our point of view, the stagnation in the American market that has affected competition in the natural stone market has become a real opportunity. The reasons for this is that small and medium-sized companies are unable to weather the crisis and are closing down. Let me also mention again our customers’ trust in our company and our products. At this point, I see it as a point of pride that a question mark doesn’t come to anyone’s mind when Sefa Stone is mentioned. We are sure that we are going to handle this tough time which affects all world and we will continue serving our customer as good as possible. We will keep improving our services for our customers and we will keep doing this kindly and more effectively, our main goal is always to meet our customer needs have them all satisfied on the other hand of course increasing our sales. I want to finish this nice interview by saying "Keep watching us we have not done anything so far.”