“BAL TEXTILE” COMPANY – CARPET LEADER OF KAZAKHSTAN
A well-chosen carpet is an exquisite decoration for any interior. The correct texture and color scheme of this product will add coziness and warmth, comfort and convenience to the room.
In the modern market, manufacturers offer a huge range of coatings of this type, and among all the proposals it is quite difficult to make the right choice, such that the buyer is fully satisfied with the quality of the carpet, the price of the product and the possibility of uniqueness.
Shymkent company “Bal Textile” in a short time was able to become a leader in the production and sale of carpets in our republic and, moreover, exported to near and far abroad. How did she do it?
WHERE DID IT ALL START?
The company has been professionally producing carpets and rugs since 2013. During this time, “Bal Textile” has formed a positive business reputation among clients who have appreciated the impeccable quality of products, as well as mutually beneficial terms of cooperation.
“Bal Textile” LLP is a joint project of Kazakhstani entrepreneurs and the Turkish company “Kartal Karpets”, the largest exporter of goods, which is among the top ten in the carpet industry in the Republic of Turkey.
There is one more important player, without whose help “Bal Textile” could not have taken place. “The state has created a special economic zone in South Kazakhstan region to develop, among other things, carpet production. A road, gas, sewerage, water supply was connected to the enterprises on the territory of the SEZ, we only have to stretch 500 meters of electrical cable from the substation. We don’t pay corporate, land and property taxes, raw materials that we import are not subject to customs duties. Land – 6 hectares – we were given a free lease for 10 years, then it will be necessary to redeem it at the cadastral value. In addition, there is a cheaper labor force and a mild climate in Shymkent” – the director of the company Talgat Iskhakhov lists the advantages of working in the Ontustik SEZ.
The project consisted of several stages, of which two have already been fully implemented: the first stage – putting the factory into operation – was carried out thanks to investments of investors in the amount of 1.1 billion tenge. Manufacturing products, in 2015, at the second stage of the project, Kazakh businessmen put into operation a workshop for the production of polypropylene yarn, which made it possible to reduce the price of carpet products by 20%, and expanded the production of carpets.
The second stage was carried out thanks to the DAMU fund within the framework of the “Ondiris 2” program and funds in the amount of 1.4 billion tenge were disbursed.
“At the first stages, it was hard for us,” Iskhakov admits, “because people did not believe that we could produce quality goods in Kazakhstan, and did not want to buy our carpets.” The businessman’s words are confirmed by the analysis of consumer behavior prepared by DAMU Research Group in 2012: 61% of the respondents preferred Turkish-made carpets and only 11% – native.
Local producers consider Uzbekistan as their main competitor. “Their labor is cheaper and there is serious state support: carpet production is subsidized, and 120% excise tax is levied on the import of carpets into the country. Uzbekistan, on the other hand, sells its products abroad even below the cost price in order to ensure the inflow of foreign currency into the country,” explains Zhomart Kerimsheev, executive director of “Bal Textile”.
Perhaps the import preferences of Kazakhstanis are associated not only with a skeptical attitude towards “made in Kazakhstan” goods, but also with the fact that the republic doesn’t produce enough carpet products.
According to the National Agency for Export and Investment Kaznex Invest, by the end of 2015, consumption amounted to about 12.3 million square meters of carpets and carpet products (in 2014 – 12.4 million sq. m.) and only 20% of the needs (2.4 million sq. m.) are covered by native enterprises (in 2014 – 15%).
The situation with sales of “Bal Textile” in 2014 was broken by the visit of the President of Kazakhstan. “The head of state said that it is necessary to support native producers. The visit was shown on many TV channels, covered in newspapers. It became a very good advertisement for us,” says Iskhakhov. The company also played into the hands of the victory in the same year at the regional stage of the competition “The best product of Kazakhstan” and the second place in the republican competition “Altyn Sapa”.
INNOVATION, POWER AND EXPORT
Today the production capacity of the factory is quite significant – 5 million square meters of carpets and rugs, 4,000 tons of polypropylene yarn per year.
In addition, it should be noted that carpets are woven on innovative equipment – on a weaving machine “Michel Van De Wiele” (Belgium), and the necessary yarns of the types “BCF”, “HeatSet”, “Freez” for weaving are made on machines “Oerlikon Neumag” (Germany).
“Bal Tekstil”, which has more than 2000 designs in its assortment, for a short time due to the quality and democratic price has earned the sympathy of the people, won prizes at native and international quality competitions. Here you can buy perfect quality carpets in a variety of materials, colors and sizes.
The first batch of 100 thousand sq. m for IKEA was manufactured in April 2016. The carpets produced at “Bal Textile” will be sent to Russia, the USA and China. “We have an open-ended contract with IKEA. They want us to start producing three more types of carpets for them. We also have a great desire to cooperate with them. But will the available production capacity be enough?” – Iskhakhov asks. He hopes that the LLP will be able to implement the third phase of the factory construction and fulfill the requests of foreign and local buyers.
In addition, in order to control and improve the quality of products, manufactured goods are tested in domestic and foreign laboratories of such countries as Russia, China, India, Germany, Great Britain, thus receiving quality certificates.
FIGURES AND FACTS
2013 – to date:
- 8 807 123 sq m of carpets were woven,
- 4,030,122 kg of polypropylene spinning yarn were produced.
FEATURES
The priority principle of the company is the principle of an individual approach to each client. All work is based, first of all, on satisfying requests, on accounting and fulfilling the wishes of customers. The company makes sure that every customer is satisfied with the product.
Strict adherence to deadlines is a distinctive feature of the “Bal Tekstil” company. The company pays special attention to planning, all work is carried out strictly according to the developed time regulations, each order is completed on schedule.
Owing to our own production of threads, prices for products are significantly lower than foreign analogues. “Carpets are woven from three types of threads,” says the director of the enterprise Talgat Iskhakhov, who has been engaged in the wholesale of carpets since 1994. – The transverse warp thread is jute, which is produced in Bangladesh, where we buy it. The longitudinal thread is a blend of cotton and polyester. We import it from India or China. We make the pile thread ourselves from polypropylene. But polypropylene has to be purchased in Russia. We took trial lots of raw materials in Pavlodar, but their samples did not fit. Now they want to build a gas processing plant in Atyrau; if its polypropylene suits us, we will buy raw materials there, which, of course, will reduce the production cost”.
TEAM AND SOCIAL ASPECTS
The company employs universal qualified specialists, many of whom have completed training in manufacturing in Turkey. The enterprise employs over 250 workers, including five large families, 15 orphans left without parental care. “We have a delivery service for all three shifts. Employees eat in the canteen at the expense of the company. A hostel is open for visitors. We pay scholarships to specialists who are trained at a factory or go to study in Turkey,” says the director.
Within the framework of the project of social responsibility of business in 2016, the company carried out the reconstruction of the children’s and youth sports school No. 5, located in the village of Zhuzimdik of the Baidibek district of the South Kazakhstan region, in the amount of 22 million tenge, and in 2017 the improvement of the children’s sports ground in Medeu district of the city of Almaty in the amount of 5.8 million tenge was completed.
WORTHY PRODUCTION – WORTHY AWARDS!
In 2014, “Bal Tekstil” products were awarded in the category “Best consumer goods” at the “Golden Quality” competition among domestic producers of goods.
In 2015, the company was recognized as the best taxpayer among medium-sized businesses in the South Kazakhstan region.
In 2016 in Geneva (Switzerland) “Ball Textile” deservedly received the “Gold Star” – the ISAQ prize in the “Best Quality” nomination.
In June 2017, at the regional competition “The Best Product of Kazakhstan”, the company again won first place in the nomination “The Best Consumer Product”.
The “Bal Textile” project is a unique example of attracting foreign investors to the country and the effectiveness of international cooperation, which in the world market for goods and services is one of the effective indicators of a favorable business climate in the republic.
You can buy the company’s products throughout Kazakhstan – more than four hundred distributors work in the republic, and you can get acquainted with the proposed design options (by the way, over 500 of them were created during the work) and the size range of products on the website www.baltekstil.kz.
A large selection of products, our own production and direct sales, impeccable quality of all goods, affordable prices – all this is the company “Bal Textile”!