Established in 1951, Bossa is one of the largest integrated textile corporations of Turkey with its facility in Adana. It offers a wide range of high quality denim fabrics with a high production capacity in dyeing and finishing. Besim Ozek, director of Bossa, gives an outlook about the world denim market, the changed consumer behavior in the current pandemic situation and the new innovations Bossa has come up with.
What is the global market size of denim? Which, according to you, are the main manufacturing regions?
World denim data:
Installed capacity: 7.5 billion MT/year
Operating capacity: 5 billion MT/year
World cotton production: 25-26 million tonnes /year
10 per cent of world's cotton is consumed in the denim industry.
Fashion has gone seasonless since the pandemic. How has it impacted denim in terms of trends?
We have all in one and seasonless items. We will show our AW22-23 collection soon. For example we have "Warm White" concept. White can be as warm as a burning light. You don't have to wear muted colours or black all the time in the winter. A pair of bright white pants while it's chilly, foggy and gloomy outside can brighten up your mood.
Like this concept, we have timeless and seasonless articles and colours.
Which brands and retailers source their denim from Bossa?
Most of American and European brands and retailers source their denim from Bossa. Like Nudie, Inditex Group, Best Seller Group, Mac, Diesel, Gerry Weber, Brax, Bonobos, Banana, Tommy Hilfiger, River Island, Replay, H&M, Warner, Lui Jo, Mango, Urban Outfitters.
What has been the growth story at Bossa in the last couple of years?
Investment in R&D
Being the solution partner of the brands
Sustainability approach, green factory production methods
Innovative denim collection
What was the impact of the pandemic? What steps have you taken to tide over it?
The pandemic slowed our acceleration. We got closer to our customers. Also Bossa has got a widespread sales organisation all over the world. Although it is banned to travel, our sales teams located in these offices and visited customers regularly to keep in touch.
How many types of fabric varieties do you offer?
We have an archive that we have created since day one. This is a very large archive that we can examine by looking at the 80s, 90s and 2000s of denim. We attach importance to digital transformation. We will launch the Bossa application very soon, where our customers will be able to see the entire archive of Bossa. In denim we have rigid, comfort stretch, stretch, power stretch, high power stretch, jeggings, selvedges, bi-stretch, warp stretch items, colour denims and non-denims.
What are buyers today looking for in denims?
Currently, the strongest demand from brands is sustainability and especially recycled products. And many brands are committed to making their products sustainable and / or recycle in certain proportions. We are happy to be the first supplier of many brands in this regard.
Companies that consider sustainability as an expense will not be able to sustain themselves. Policies such as European Green deal will also force companies to work in this direction.
Due to the pandemic, we see that human behaviour has changed and soft and comfortable products have come to the fore. As Bossa, we have products that contribute to these trends.
Denim continues to be popular in spite of the bad reputation it has earned for itself as a fabric that causes a lot of pollution. How does your manufacturing unit counter this?
Among all textile production denim industry could be the most green and environmental conscious production.
Where do you source your cotton from? How does Bossa educate its end customer -- the increasingly discerning and demanding B2C consumer - on why a denim product from Bossa meets all goals of fair trade?
Our cotton is sourced from Turkey and US. Our aim is to consume 100 per cent Turkish cotton. Unfortunately we do not have enough cotton produced in Turkey.
We have outstanding cotton programmes as follows:
Sagsalim - Bossa started this project with the brands. Our aim is to be Sedex of cotton production.
Organic cotton traceability - For the last 10 years Bossa is deeply involved in organic cotton production. We trace our farmers, land areas, plantation, harvesting, ginning… all details of organic cotton production.
R&D trails with the agricultural ministry of Turkey in order to produce less water consuming cotton seeds.
Any plans of investment or expansion? If yes, kindly elaborate.
Modernisation and investment never stops in a company like Bossa. We want to catch up with new technology.
What is the annual production capacity of denim fabric at Bossa?
45 million metres/year. (PC)
What are the innovations on denim that Bossa has come up with?
Bossa has a lot of innovations. Here are few examples of our latest innovations:
Xupple Stretch
Bossa offers "Xupple Stretch" to the brands and markets all over the world. This is a responsive stretch technology with high elasticity satisfying consumer needs. A lot of body image stereotypes are being broken through fashion evolution in these days. Based on research "clothing size" is also the mental block for the consumers.
Xupple Stretch supports consumers to focus on confidence and happiness rather than measurements.
Besides stretch performances, Xupple Stretch fabrics have soft feel and natural touch without losing authentic real denim look. They are revolutionary fabrics for the future.
Dynamix
Dynamix fabrics are bi-stretch, they have 4 way stretch performance and offer dynamic stretch performance with a mixture of sustainable fibres. Thanks to 4-way stretch performance, Dynamix acts like a second skin and features total freedom of movement. It cares about your comfort and the planet.
We also have some sustainable innovations especially using less water! We have Saveblue and Saveblue+ concepts.
When you talk about the environment, the first thing to come to mind is "water." Water is life. Bossa, carries out activities in water saving, has introduced the concepts of "Saveblue" and "Saveblue+". In Saveblue concept - 85 per cent water saving was achieved in proportion to the conventional dyeing, therefore the same amount of decrease in wastewater was realised. In Saveblue+ concept - 85 per cent water saving was achieved in proportion to the conventional dyeing and also 71 per cent water saving was achieved in the finishing process. Therefore same amount of decrease in wastewater was realised in both dyeing and finishing processes. Being sensitive to energy and water consumption, our company has taken a great step in sustainability by combining natural fibre use with these concepts.
Eco3
In order to use less water, energy and chemicals to reduce the environmental impact of garment finishing, Bossa and Strom collaborated to develop the Eco3 concept! This concept includes sustainable washing technology by Strom and fabrics by Bossa especially for this technology. Fabrics for sustainable washing technology are ozone and laser friendly. In sustainable washing technology - laser is used instead of dry processes (whiskering, sandpaper), ecological spray is used instead of pp spray, reusable ecological stone is used instead of pumice stone and ozone is used instead of hypochlorite. Less water, less chemical and less energy... Let's save the earth together!
Towards zero waste - we are using pre-consumer recycled, post-consumer recycled and post industrial waste. We have also completed projects on producing zero cotton, zero dyestuff and zero water articles. We have many ongoing projects using new Lenzing indigo modal, naturally coloured cotton.
Published on: 12/04/2021
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
