Crazy Duzce people teaching saddlery to Tuscans

Yasemin Salih

Created Date: December 28, 2024 04:00

Desa, the world’s leather garment giant, started production in the factory in the Tuscany region of Italy in 2023, and brought the Anatolian saddlery tradition here. General Manager Burak Çelet said, “The friends we took from the hazelnut field in Düzce and brought to our academy are now teaching Italians in Tuscany how to produce bags. We took 16 masters. “To date, we have trained 5 thousand people at Desa Academy,” he said.

KGENERALIZATION It’s like a book of interesting stories… Italian food company Ferrero establishes a company in the Black Sea region, the homeland of hazelnuts, and brings its managers. On the other hand, Desa, the leather garment brand established in the Grand Bazaar, takes young people to the factory it established in Tuscany, the world’s capital of leather design, where it collects the hazelnuts from Düzce’s hazelnut gardens and teaches the craft of saddlery… This is actually the visa-free journey of money and knowledge.

Recently, we met with Desa’s second generation representative and CEO, Burak Çelet. I heard the interesting story in Italy from him. We talked about how the company founded by his father Melih Çelet in 1972 became the production center of world giant brands. Almost all the luxury brands you can think of in leather bags pass through Desa. I learned from Çelet that although he could not disclose their names yet, they are in the process of making agreements with new big brands that have never produced bags in Turkey before. By the way, it is necessary to open a Samsonite parenthesis; With this brand, Desa is in a partnership that includes the Turkish market as well as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Syria and Northern Cyprus. They are following the situation in Syria closely. There are plans to open stores in both Aleppo and Damascus.

Murat Yazıcı, Hüseyin Alp, Hasan Tektek, Hanife Kökçü, Çiğdem Gülmez, Meral Kurnaz, Sıdıka Kurnaz, Mahmut Töremiş, Lale Baş, Bahadır Eden are some of the people from Düzce who taught bag craft to Italians in Tuscany.

So what’s the secret? Saddlery did not have a good 2024. As of the third quarter, Desa has achieved a turnover of over 2 billion TL and an EBITDA margin increase of 32.1 percent. Numbers are not the main subject of this article. I wondered how they managed to attract global giant brands for a special product like bags. Çelet attributed this success to its production system combining technology and hand craftsmanship in four factories in Istanbul, Çorlu, Düzce and Tuscany. He talked about an operation network consisting of 1,500 employees. But when it came to the factory in Italy, which started production in 2023, I said, “This is it.”

‘BRANDS COMING AFTER ITALY’

Italy is the world capital of fashion and especially leather design. Tuscany The region is also famous in this regard. VillageThe factory in which 3.5 million Euros was invested is also close to this region. However, the company chose to take its masters from Turkey. Behind this lies the role of the academy, which has been invested in for 20 years. Burak Çelet said, “We trained 5 thousand people here and taught them crafts. The friends we took from the hazelnut field in Düzce and taught at the academy are now showing Italians how to produce bags in Italy. We have 16 friends there. When we went to Italy, we looked at who we could take with us. They took Italian lessons for six months. In Italy, we opened business courses with the local government of Tuscany. There are very good worker training incentives. Our friends trained new craftsmen here. “We trained more than 100 people and employed 60 of them,” he explained the process. Some of the people from Düzce who left took their families with them and built a life there. Stating that they have advantages in Italian conditions, Çelet also explained that they come together frequently.

According to the information given by Çelet Italy After the investment, giant brands that had never produced anything in Turkey came to make deals. “Because they saw us there,” said Çelet.