Lc Waikiki Magazacilik Hizmetleri Ticaret A.S. (Turkiye)

LC Waikiki Magazacilik Hizmetleri Ticaret Anonim Sirketi is a company located in Istanbul, Turkey. It was founded in 1988 by three French partners as a wholesale brand. Initially, the company gained attention with its t-shirt and sweatshirt designs. Over time, one of the founding partners left, and LC Waikiki became solely owned by George Amouyal. In 1997, Tema Tekstil, the producer and licensee of LC Waikiki in Turkey, acquired the global rights of the brand. After the acquisition, Tema Tekstil, which belongs to Taha Group, changed its name to "LC Waikiki Magazacilik Hizmetleri." A 7% stake in the company was transferred to George Amouyal, who acquired all the naming rights of LC Waikiki. Although George Amouyal is not actively involved in the management of LC Waikiki, he still holds approximately 7% of the company's shares. Taha Group, established in 1988, acquired LC Waikiki and brought it to its current level. The journey of the brand began with Taha Tekstil, a start-up founded by Taha Dış Ticaret partners and Mustafa Küçük, which operated in the import-export operations of the iron and steel sector at the time. Taha Tekstil was initially established as a sample sewing and cutting workshop in a small area of approximately 150 square meters on the ground floor of an apartment in Zeytinburnu. To meet the increasing orders, printing, embroidery, labeling, quality, and short-term production demands of LC Waikiki, Taha Tekstil made production investments over time. In 1994, the companies established as printing, embroidery, labeling, knitted fabric, knitted dyeing, and different garment workshops were brought together under Taha Holding, with Mustafa Küçük assuming the General Coordination. Later, Taha Tekstil was established with a 50% partnership between Taha Holding and Şefik Yılmaz Dizdar. The share of Taha Tekstil, which was the main company at that time, was transferred to İsmail Hakkı Kısacık, the production manager, increasing the number of partners in Taha Tekstil and Taha Holding to three. Although the founding/managing partners responsible for the management of each company established within Taha Holding were not shareholders in the main company, they joined the Taha Group family due to the partnership shares of the companies they managed. After Taha Tekstil started production for LC Waikiki's export purposes, due to the high demand for the famous monkey t-shirt models in the domestic market, the license of LC Waikiki in Turkey was acquired by Taha Holding through Tema Tekstil, established in 1991. Subsequently, wholesale sales and corner dealership methods were used to enter the domestic market. Vahap Küçük, the brother of Mustafa Küçük, was appointed as the managing partner of Tema Tekstil, established by Taha Holding to manage LC Waikiki's wholesale sales organization. The first retail LC Waikiki store was opened on Halaskargazi Street in Şişli. Although other retail stores were opened in different cities, they could not achieve the intended profitability and growth due to the financial crisis in 2000. During the financial crisis in 2000, Taha Group faced difficulties in maintaining cash flow balance and had to sell some production companies to meet their cash needs. These difficulties led the company management to make radical decisions. As a result of these radical decisions, the production group and the retail group were completely separated from each other, and the focus shifted entirely to retail. Taha Holding's production companies were brought together under the coordination of İsmail Kısacık, and Tema Holding, along with its subsidiary Tema Mağazacılık, focused entirely on the retail sector. LC Waikiki operates with the vision of being one of Europe's top three clothing brands. They continue to grow with their own stores domestically and with franchise partners in countries where legal obligations exist. As of the end of 2022, they are proud to have achieved a net sales of 66 billion TL, approximately 60,000 employees, 1 billion USD in exports, and more than 1,200 stores.