Supplier meeting 2021
After two years, a virtual meeting and countless e-mails and telephone conversations, the time had finally come last week, our annual Supplier meeting. This took place this year in Istanbul and it was so nice to see everyone again after such a long time!
We held the annual presentations at a very special location, namely the Dutch Consulate in Istanbul. Consul General Arjen Uijterlinde and S. Ceren Coroglu invited us to come here with our suppliers.
During the presentations we discussed various points, such as what is going well, what we can improve and what new developments we are working on. We also introduced our suppliers to Aware and Coats. As in previous years, the Supplier of the Year Award was again awarded to the best supplier, who won usd 3000 for his team. This year, UFS took home the prize.

At Schijvens we are busy looking at how we can work on women empowerment in the factories. For example, last year we started an introductory training and we are now looking at how we can realize opportunities for ambitious women in the factories, for example in managerial positions. Our owner Shirley Schijvens gave a presentation on this subject and explained why it is so important as a value circle to change this together. We hope to be able to take major steps in this direction in the coming months.
Day two was all about recycling. Recycling is a subject that we deal with every day and where major developments are still taking place. It was therefore very interesting that we paid a visit to our recycling factory Gama in Düzce. Here we have seen up close how the recycling process works step by step.

We inspired each other, laughed a lot and learned. It is wonderful to see all those cultures go hand in hand and work together towards a more sustainable textile industry. Teamwork makes the dream work!