Buy from here. Sell from here. Or hand it over and go.
Türkiye is used three ways by companies that already know it: as a supply base, as a regional distribution point, and as a market in its own right. Each has a different failure mode — and a fourth question nobody plans for, which is how the arrangement ends.
Supplier search and verification, distributor and dealer development, marketplace operations, and the physical flow underneath all of it. Then the part almost nobody sells: transferring the operation to you, or closing it properly.
We plan the ending at the start. It is the only time it is cheap.
Somebody has to walk into the factory.
Sourcing from Türkiye fails in a predictable way. A supplier is found at a fair or online, the samples are good, the first order is fine, and the third order is not — because the company that made the samples is not the company running the line, or the capacity was borrowed, or the quality system exists on paper.
Registry and financial checks catch some of this. The rest requires somebody to go and look, ask awkward questions on site, and report what they actually saw rather than what they were shown.
Photographs sent by the supplier are not verification. Neither is a video call at an agreed time.
Why sourcing needs someone physically hereThe shortlist matters more than the introduction.
Anyone can produce a list of companies in a sector. What determines whether a distributor relationship works is whether they already sell to your customers, whether they carry a competing line, what their financial position looks like, and what happens to your brand when your interests and theirs diverge.
- 01
Longlist built from trade data, not directories
Who actually imports and sells your product category, at what volume — rather than who appears in a sector listing or pays for placement.
- 02
Verification before the meeting
Registry position, financial standing, competing lines, existing customer base. The awkward facts surface before you are emotionally committed to a candidate.
- 03
Negotiation support, including the exit clause
Territory, exclusivity, targets and termination. If you expect to go direct eventually, that belongs in the first agreement rather than a later negotiation from a weak position.
- 04
Marketplace and digital operations
Store setup, catalogue, integration, campaigns and the fulfillment behind them — for categories where the Turkish market buys online first.
Where the arrangement involves goods physically moving, the commercial decision and the customs decision are the same decision. See customs and foreign trade for how the import route shapes what you can charge.
The stage most providers
leave out entirely.
Every provider in this market sells entry. Very few describe what happens when the project finishes, the joint venture ends, or you decide to run Türkiye yourself. The silence is commercially rational and it leaves the client holding the hardest part alone.
There are two endings, and they are different projects.
Handover
People, processes, supplier relationships, system access and the document history — moved into the organisation you have built, on a planned date. A client who outgrows us and takes the operation in-house is the outcome we design for.
Designed forClosure
A real project. Statutory waiting periods under the Turkish Commercial Code, and a tax review triggered by the closure filing. Whoever is appointed to run it carries personal exposure for what surfaces afterwards.
Plan earlyNoteCompany liquidation procedure sits in the Turkish Commercial Code, Law No. 6102. The single thing that makes the closing review uneventful is having had the accounts certified each year rather than reconstructing them at the end — which is a decision made in year one, not year five.
What companies ask at this stage.
From conversations with manufacturers sourcing here and brands distributing from here.
How do you verify a Turkish supplier?
Registry and financial checks first, then the part most sourcing goes wrong on: somebody physically goes to the facility. Capacity, equipment, quality systems, whether the production line matches the catalogue, and whether the company owns what it claims to own.
Photographs sent by the supplier are not verification. A trade fair stand is not verification. Neither is a video call at an agreed time.
Can you find us a distributor?
Yes, and the useful part is the shortlist rather than the introduction. Anyone can produce a list of companies in a sector. What decides whether the relationship works is whether the candidate already sells to your customers, whether they carry a competing line, and what their financial position actually looks like.
We check those before the meeting rather than discovering them in year two.
Should we appoint a distributor or sell directly?
It depends on margin, service intensity and how much of the customer relationship you are prepared to hand over. A distributor is faster and cheaper to start and much harder to reverse — they hold the customer, the price point and the market data.
If you expect to go direct eventually, that intention belongs in the first agreement rather than in a later negotiation you will be conducting from a weak position.
Can we hold stock in Türkiye for regional distribution?
Goods can be held in a customs warehouse under customs supervision with duty and VAT suspended until they enter free circulation. Whether that fits depends on where the goods go next and how long they sit.
There is a wider question about holding and re-selling stock from Türkiye to third countries that we are currently taking formal tax advice on. We will publish the detail when we have that advice rather than before.
What does handover mean in practice?
The operation we have been running is transferred to the organisation you have built — people, processes, supplier relationships, system access and the document history. It is planned as a project with a date, not improvised when a contract lapses.
This is the outcome we design for. A client who outgrows us and takes the operation in-house is a success, not a loss.
And if we want to close instead?
Then it is a liquidation, and it is a real project. Company closure runs through statutory waiting periods under the Turkish Commercial Code, and the closure filing brings a tax review. Whoever is appointed to run it carries personal exposure for what surfaces afterwards.
The single thing that makes that review uneventful is having had the accounts certified each year rather than reconstructing them at the end.
Legislation named on this page: Turkish Commercial Code, Law No. 6102. The Official Gazette date and issue for each is on the key figures page, read at source rather than restated here — a citation does not change, but a copy of the law goes stale.
Closing a company in Türkiye
Timeline, the review the closing filing can trigger, and who carries personal liability for what surfaces.
Operate Türkiye
If the existing operation is not running well, growth makes the problem larger rather than smaller.
Customs & Foreign Trade
The import route decides your landed cost, and your landed cost decides your price.
Tell us what you want to do
Including if what you want is to hand the whole thing over and stop.