Lighting Industry in Türkiye

The Turkish lighting industry was established in the 1960s by the production of incandescent and fluorescent lamps. With some investments in the years thereafter, the country began manufacturing decorative lighting fixtures at the beginning of the 70s. The volume of investments in industry continued to increase, so the sector further expanded at the beginning of the 90s leading the industry into present day.

The country’s Export Promotion Center IGEME underlines that the industry has shown substantial growth in the past 15 years in terms of production capacity, product quality, design and range. The demand for lighting fixtures has raised parallel to Turkey’s industrialization, increasing per capita income, urbanization, architectural lighting and the changing lifestyles of consumers, as well as the increasing number of residential and industrial buildings, offices, shops, sports halls, restaurants, cafes, hotels. So currently the industry produces a wide range of products in the line of indoor lighting, outdoor lighting and industrial lighting ranging from lighting fixtures for residential buildings, offices, sport halls, restaurants, cafes, etc., to lighting fixtures for lighting landscapes, building vicinities, emergency lighting, safety lighting fixtures, lighting fixtures for special applications.

The Turkish Export Promotion Center shares that to keep up with the increasing demand and ever changing customer needs and tastes, especially the large scale companies in particular have been involved in research and innovation activities in line with their production. Production technologies have been improved continuously, as well. The large companies realize custom lighting solutions for their clients by implementing lighting projects using CAD techniques.

The sector has an industry association located in Istanbul called “Luminaries Manufacturers’ Association”, or AGID for short in Turkish. The Association was established in 1997 and represents 32 Turkish companies active in the lighting industry. Its main objectives include: to facilitate networking between members, to encourage and facilitate research and development activities in member companies, to assist member companies in manufacturing products which comply with national and international standards, to represent and promote member companies in international marketplaces.

Another industry organization, the “Turkish National Committee of Illumination” (ATMK for short in Turkish), supports scientific national and international research in the industry. It was established in 1995 and is one of the members of the “Commission Internationale L’Eclairage” (CIE). ATMK organizes symposiums every two years, and aims to bring together scientists, designers, professionals and producers. Their goal is to ensure the exchange of information and knowledge between parties in the industry, as well as to support the development of the Turkish lighting industry. The committee is represented in the Board of Directors of “Lux Europa”.

The Turkish lighting industry is estimated to grow about 6% to 10% each year. Some of the biggest industry trends are the urban transformation, increasing use in residential and non-residential buildings and increasing outdoor lighting application. Works conducted for efficient use of energy and directives applicable for this purpose create new opportunities. Attractive for investors is the fact that lighting culture and awareness in Turkey are newly developing and increasing number of lighting units per household/housing/building are major opportunities for lighting industry.

Currently, there are approximately 350 lighting manufacturers which operate on the market, and 50 of them are large-scale companies. Most of the companies in the Turkish lighting sector are located in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir (according to their density order). They predominantly produce high-tech products which have high quality and in accordance with international norms and standards. Companies are producing according to international quality and safety standards such as ISO 9000, ENEC, VDE, and are using CE mark on their products. In the current issue of South-East European Industrial Market Magazine we present you with another market research on the players of the Turkish lighting industry. The information about each company is taken from their own corporate websites.

• Aimtech
• AKTEL
• Altez
• Baytas
• COMM Lighting
• Damla
• KARMA LIGHTING
• LITPA Lighting
• Pedas
• Pelsan
• Signify
• TD Lighting Solutions
• VEKTA LIGHTING
• YILDIZLED