The entire production operations of Oppo, the Chinese phone manufacturer that ceased its production operations at its factory located in Tuzla, İstanbul due to high costs in early last year, in Türkiye were undertaken by AGM, one of Mıstaçoğlu Holding companies, a while ago. Aydın Mıstaçoğlu, the Board Chairman of Mıstaçoğlu Holding, told POSTA about all their goals within the new period. Mıstaçoğlu stated “We established a factory of 52 thousand square meters in the same region. The existing plant will be moved here. The total investment amounts to 100 million dollars. We will make this factory the phone production base of Türkiye. We are willing to increase export operations and decrease import operations in the field of mobile communication.”
1700 INDIVIDUALS TO BE EMPLOYED
Mıstaçoğlu, stating that the total number of Oppo employees will be 1700 including the distribution and other operational services, gave information as follows: "The production will start in March and the sales in April. We will employ 1000 individuals at the factory. We will manufacture 70 thousand phones in average per month. We will manufacture totally 200 thousand phones within the first 3 months. At the first stage, there will be 4 different models. In Türkiye, 12 million phones are sold per year. This factory is excessive even for the domestic market. We will also start exporting after 2025. Our goal is to become the third most successful market of Oppo within two years."
THE FACTORY WILL BE OF FOXCONN MODEL
Mıstaçoğlu, pointing out that they are willing to make this factory similar to Foxconn, the world’s largest phone, tablet, computer and modem manufacturer, continued as follows: "The manufacturers, seeking for entering Türkiye, are establishing factories here. The costs are high. We are putting ourselves in manufacturing the brands other than Apple and Samsung at this factory. That’s to say, we have the potential of carrying out 40 percent of the smart phone production of Türkiye. This factory is our own place. We also do not have any extra costs such as rent. We are capable of meeting the capacity very easily. We can manufacture a different brand on each floor."
ALTERNATIVE TO CHINA
Mıstaçoğlu, reminding that he is also the Head of DEIK Kyrgyzstan Business Council, also underlined that there are currently logistics problems and supply issues in many places of the world. Mıstaçoğlu, stated as follows: "There are major logistic constraints especially in the Red Sea. China is also facing with the sanctions imposed by the USA. China needs an urgent plan 'B'. The greatest alternative to China is Türkiye. Here is the most proper hub in terms of logistics and geographical location. We can get access from here to the entire Europe, Africa and Turkic republics in 3 hours. We do not have any problem in terms of qualified labor. Neither the USA nor Russia has control over us. We are an economy standing on its own."
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED
Mıstaçoğlu, underlining that the most important thing Türkiye has to do is to promote the domestic brands, said "This awareness needs to be started from the public institutions and organizations in the first place. In addition, the business world must also support the domestic production. Thus, the concept of commercial nationalism is impressed upon throughout Türkiye. While establishing this factory, we did not receive any support from the government. Our competitors are the world’s giants. The government aid is a must for us to enter into cutthroat competition with them."
1000 USD PER KILOGRAM
Aydın Mıstaçoğlu, reminding that they completely acquired the Singaporean Omix brand for which they carry out operations in Türkiye approximately 6 months ago, said “We will surely manufacture Omix brand here. We will make a significant breakthrough in relation to this brand. The most important thing in our market share is export operations. The value per kilogram is 1.5 dollars in export operations of Türkiye. However, the value per kilogram is 1000 dollars in our export operations. We need to produce value added technology. Our factory will produce 4 million 800 thousand devices per year."