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Pictured at the launch were (those not in uniform, l-r) Gebr Heinemann Board Member Claus Heinemann; TAV Airports President & CEO Sani Şener; TAV Airports Chairman of the Board Hamdi Akın and ATÜ Duty Free General Manager Ersan Arcan |
TURKEY. Leading travel retailer ATÜ Duty Free has launched a new look for its staff uniforms, created by well-known designer Hakan Yildirim.
Leading names from the Turkish business and art world attended a launch evening hosted by the retailer – a joint venture between TAV Airports and Unifree, in which Gebr Heinemann is principal shareholders – held at art museum Istanbul Modern. During the event, ATÜ employees exhibited their new uniforms with a dance performance choreographed by Tan Sagturk, a leading figure in Turkey’s dance scene.
ATÜ Duty Free General Manager Ersan Arcan said: “ATÜ, Turkey’s leading brand in duty free operations, has been focusing on customer satisfaction since its establishment. We strive to provide a quality shopping experience for our customers, offering the widest range of products. Our employees play a major part in this effort. We know that customer satisfaction is achieved through happy employees. We set out to design uniforms that they would make them feel comfortable, confident and stylish, working with the leading names in this area.”
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Designer Hakan Yıldırım (centre) led the project to recreate the retailer’s staff look |
Gebr Heinemann Co-owner Claus Heinemann said: “We have had a successful partnership between TAV and ATÜ for the past 12 years. We overcame the global economic crisis successfully and continue to progress. This is an example of a valuable partnership between Germany and Turkey. We are closely following Turkey’s development, which we find impressive. Duty free business at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul is in an enhanced position in comparison with the average growth in Europe.”
ATÜ, which operates at eight airports in five countries, worked with Hakan Yildirim for the year-long project. Yildirim designed six different uniforms for six job descriptions in line with employee input. The new creation will be worn by around 1,000 ATÜ employees.
The feature colour is vermilion, which is the corporate colour of ATÜ Duty-Free. The 58% cotton content in the fabric is said to prevent sweating during long working hours. The 37% polyester content prevents creasing and enables easy ironing, said the retailer, while the 5% lycra enables the fabric to stretch for comfort.
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Staff present the new uniforms with a spectacular dance show |
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About ATÜ Duty Free
ATÜ Duty Free was founded in 2000 as a partnership between TAV Airports, Unifree Duty Free and Gebr Heinemann. ATÜ is the sole duty free operator at Istanbul Atatürk, Izmir and Ankara, in Turkey, at Tbilisi and Batumi airports in Georgia, Enfidha-Hammamet International Airport in Tunisia, Skopje and Ohrid Airports in Macedonia and Riga Airport in Latvia. It operates 63 stores and 14,500sq m of space in these five countries.
