A European Brand’s Decision to Rebuild Its Supply Chain

A European pet-accessories brand used to source its products from China and assemble them at facilities in Eastern Europe. Today, part of that brand's orders come out of our workshop in Bağcılar, Turkey. Here's how that shift happened — and why nearshoring to Turkey isn't the right call for every product.

"Turkey is close to Europe, so it's an advantage" is easy to say but incomplete. Egypt offers the same geographic proximity at lower labour cost; China and Bangladesh still account for the largest share of EU textile imports. Our own customer base confirms this isn't automatic: some of our wholesale customers still source their basic products from the Far East, because price still decides there. Nearshoring isn't a slogan; it's a calculation that depends on the product, the volume and how much customisation is involved.

A move like this rarely happens in one step, and we don't expect it to. In our experience, it follows a pattern: the buyer shares a current product or technical drawing, we align on material, width and finishing to match their existing standard, and we produce a first sample. Once that sample is approved — sometimes after one or two rounds of adjustment — we move to a small series before scaling to full production volumes. Keeping the sewing workshop and the weaving or braiding under the same roof means each of those steps happens without handing the project to a different supplier.

Short sample lead time, flexible MOQ, and finished-product capability under one roof — put those three together, and nearshoring stops being a slogan and becomes a concrete calculation. If your product needs speed or a finished item rather than a raw component, that calculation is worth running before your next production cycle.