As many of you know, our Istanbul office was was set up last year and our colleages Efrah and Aycan have been working incredibly hard to make it a success. Franchising is becoming an important part of the Turkish economy. According to the National Franchise Association of Turkey (UFRAD) and the European Franchise Federation (EFF), there were over 1,850 brand chains in Turkey in 2015 and this projected to grow to well over the 2,000 by 2020. 34% of these brands were foreign, 64% were national brands and franchising was used by 78% of these brands. There were 1,471 franchisor chains in Turkey, which was more than in France and Germany.

The total number of franchisors in Turkey has tripled over the past five years. The number of branches of franchisors has reached 47,000 countrywide. Preliminary forecasts show that the volume of Turkey's franchise market has exceeded US$43 billion and was expected to reach well over the US$50 billion mark by 2019. The sector distribution of the chains is 24% in foods, 27% in merchandise, 16% in services and 33% in the clothing sector. Turkey's foreign franchisors include global brands such as McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Burger King, Subway and Caffè Nero. In addition, local giants like Simit Sarayi (food), Koton (clothing) and Istikbal (furniture) use franchising as their primary business model. We expect 2019 to be a busy year for Efrah and Aycan and for franchising in general for Turkey.