Located in the flatlands about one hour on the E80 highway from Istanbul, is one of Turkey's great textile centres, with more than 300 factories set in zones on the outskirts of the city as well as large outlets dealing in discount clothing and other products.

Prominent in the area is the factory of Istanbul-based Isil Tekstil, one of the country's leading manufacturers, producing and exporting all types of plain dyed and printed knitted fabrics. A long established customer of Monforts, Isil Tekstil has newly added a Toptex 8000 and a Montex stenter to its production line, which already featured 10 older Montex and Thermex machines.

Isil's technical manager Mahmut Mitil says the main reason for buying the new equipment is to ensure the company stays ahead in competitive terms, as they add both quality and efficiency to the production process.

We intend to stay a leader

"Our intention in investing in the new equipment is not to grow bigger," he says. "We want to continually improve our quality, and our ability to meet demand. We are not interested in increasing our size. We are a leader and we intend to stay a leader."

Mr Mitil says that right from the beginning, when Isil Tekstil was founded in 1986, the company had used Monforts technology at the heart of its production process. "Monforts is the world standard," he says. "The technology is the best, the service is the best, and we work very happily together."

The new machines were supplied and installed by the Monforts representative for Turkey, Masters Tekstil, with engineers from Monforts coming from Germany to supervise the setting up and commissioning of the equipment.

Isil is active in knitting, dyeing, printing and finishing, and employs 600 personnel at its Çorlu factory, which has a complete area of 50,000 square metres. The production capacity for knitting is 10 million kg per year, with the same capacity for dyeing and a capacity of 4 million kg per year of printed production.

Major exporter of fabrics

The company is a major exporter, sending 4.4 million kg of goods to markets that include the European Union, United States, Canada, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia and Russia.

"About 40% of our output is directly exported," says Mr Mitil. "Another 40% goes to Turkish companies for onward export. The remaining 20% is for the domestic market."

The dyeing plant occupies more than 30,000 square metres and has a capacity of 35,000 kg/day. All kinds of knitted fabrics made from cotton, viscose, Modal, Tencel, polyamide, polyester and blends of all of these are dyed here, the dyeing being carried out by HT-Jet dyeing machines in various capacities from 25 to 900 KG, Pad Batch or Monforts E-Control dyeing systems.

All types of knitted fabrics can be printed by using reactive, pigment, discharge, dispers and acid printing techniques. New designs from customers can be developed by Isil's own design department, or customers can select designs from the wide range available from the company's own collection.

Universal and modular technology

According to Monforts, the universal and modular Monforts technology offers, when required, an individual adaptation to all the required finishing effects. The Montex stenter features a wide range of energy saving solutions providing reduced running costs, improved efficiency and productivity, and has an integrated heat recovery system fitted as standard. The Toptex shrinkage unit is designed for both woven and knitted fabrics, and is said to offer outstanding performance values for achieving a reproducible minimum shrinkage that in most cases far surpasses international shrinkage standards.

The new Montex stenter is handling about 1,500 tonnes per month, says Mr Mitil, with fabric weights of 20 gm and 450 gm per square metre and widths of 90 cm and 240 cm.

"We have increased our production efficiency by 15% with this new installation," he says. "This means we have the speed and efficiency and extra flexibility to meet new orders, help develop new products, and to produce whatever is required. This in turn helps us to maintain our leading position in what is a very competitive market."

The Isil dyeing plant works 24 hours per day, generally on a six-day-per-week basis, increased to seven days when the volume of orders demands it. Mr Mitil believes that quality and fast response to demand are two of the main factors that help Turkey to remain as one of the great textile and garment producing countries in the world. Çorlu, being so close to Istanbul with its seaport and airport, and with a plentiful water supply, has seen much of Turkey's textile production setting up factories here over the past few decades.

"This is an ideal location for producers, with the added benefit of a large and skilled workforce," he says. "But there are a lot of textile companies in Çorlu. You can never, for one moment, allow yourself to neglect the competition. We have always invested for the future, and we shall continue to do so. For us, that means quality, service, flexibility, efficiency.”

"We operate now at what we consider our optimum size. We have complete confidence in our production processes and in our abilities to meet all the demands placed upon us. But we can never relax and become complacent, and will always continue to invest in the best."