A hotel furniture factory in Turkey can be checked from your desk before anyone flies out. The company register, the exporter register and the factory’s own paperwork answer most of the questions. What is left (drawings, samples, inspection, packing) shows in the documents the factory sends back when you ask for them.
The checklist
| # | Check | Where the proof comes from | A good answer looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Legal company | Trade Registry Gazette name search; MERSİS number; tax number | One trade name, one 16-digit MERSİS number, the same address on the quote, the invoice and the registry |
| 2 | Export record | TİM membership lookup by tax number | Member of an exporters’ union; can name the ports or border gates it ships through |
| 3 | Engineering | Sample shop drawings from a past order (names removed) | Section views, joints, hardware, edge and finish codes, sizes in mm, a revision box |
| 4 | Samples and mock-up | Finish panels, fabric, hardware, then one built room or key pieces | Signed sample board; mock-up comments closed before bulk production |
| 5 | Quality control | Written QC plan and a filled inspection report | Named tolerances, a sampling rule, photos, a pass/fail per item |
| 6 | Packing | Packing spec and a photo of a packed piece | Corner guards, edge protection, ISPM 15 marks on any solid-wood crate or pallet, labels by room |
| 7 | Documents | List per destination | Commercial invoice, packing list, origin or movement certificate, the emissions or fire papers your market asks for |
| 8 | Payment | Draft terms | Deposit, balance tied to inspection or shipping documents, a stated currency |
| 9 | People on the floor | Who follows the order | A named person who reports progress with photos and dates |
Legal company
Every Turkish trading company sits in the trade registry. The Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi (run by TOBB) has a free trade name search that shows whether a name is registered and with which registry office. MERSİS, the Ministry of Trade’s central system, gives each company a 16-digit MERSİS number, printed in the gazette and on the tax certificate.
Three names should match: the one on the quote, the one in the registry, and the one on the bank account the deposit goes to. A trading company that buys from a workshop is a different thing from a factory. Both can work; the buyer should know which one is quoting.
Export record
The Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) runs a public lookup: enter a tax number and it shows which exporters’ union the company belongs to. A hit shows the firm is registered to export under its own name. The next question is where it has shipped and how: by truck to Europe, by container from a Marmara port, or by both. A factory that has shipped to your region already knows its documents.
Engineering and shop drawings
Hotel furniture is built from shop drawings, not from the designer’s elevations. The factory (or someone on its side) redraws every item with real joints, board thickness, hardware and edge details, and sends them back for approval before anything is cut. A sample set from a past order shows if the drawing office exists: it has section views, a hardware list per item and a revision history.
Samples and the mock-up
Samples come in two rounds. First the finish samples: veneer or laminate panels, lacquer colours, fabrics, metal finishes, handles. Then a mock-up: one room built in full, or the key pieces of it. The mock-up is where sizes, clearances and hardware get tested against the real room. Comments from it go back into the shop drawings before bulk production starts.
Quality control with numbers
A QC plan without numbers is a promise. Two references help:
- Tolerances. The North American woodwork standard ANSI/AWI 0641 sets limits by grade. For example, flushness at mitred or butted joints may not exceed 0.3 mm in the top grade, 0.4 mm in the middle grade and 0.6 mm in the lowest. Your spec can name a grade, or set its own numbers.
- Sampling. ISO 2859-1 sets how many pieces to pull from a lot and how many defects a lot can carry before it fails, indexed by an acceptance quality limit (AQL).
A good factory answer names the tolerances it builds to, the sampling rule it uses, and shows a filled report with photos.
Packing standard
Furniture that leaves the factory perfect can still reach the room scratched. A packing spec says how a lacquered top, a headboard and a wardrobe door are each wrapped and boxed. Any solid-wood pallet or crate leaving Turkey falls under the ISPM 15 rules: heat treated to at least 56 °C at the core for 30 minutes and stamped. Turkey published its current regulation on this in March 2025. Labels should carry the room number or zone, so the installers don’t sort a container by hand.
Documents per market
The papers change with the destination. A few common ones:
| Destination | Papers often asked for |
|---|---|
| EU | Commercial invoice, packing list, A.TR movement certificate under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union |
| United States | Commercial invoice, packing list, TSCA Title VI labels on composite wood (MDF, particleboard, hardwood plywood) |
| Any market | Fire test reports for upholstery and mattresses where local rules apply; emissions papers for boards |
A factory that ships often will list these without being asked twice.
Payment terms
The usual pattern is a deposit with the order and a balance before shipping, or against shipping documents. A letter of credit under the ICC’s UCP 600 rules ties payment to documents a bank checks. Many buyers tie part of the balance to a passed inspection, and the currency belongs on every figure.
Who is on the floor
The last check is the simplest: who watches your order while it is made? A factory’s sales office is not the same as someone on the floor who sees the panels cut, the finish sprayed and the boxes packed. The answer names who reports, how often, and with what (photos, dates, the inspection sheet).
Where Rovers fits
Rovers Contract does this check on the factory side, so the buyer doesn’t have to repeat it for every project. We read your drawings or BOQ, price every line with the Turkish partner factory that fits the job, send shop drawings for approval, run samples and the mock-up, follow production on the floor, inspect before packing, pack, ship, and install outside the US, with one team answering for the package from start to handover.
What to send us
Send the BOQ or the drawings, the city, and the date you open. No list yet? The drawings, or just the room count, are enough to start.
- Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi (TOBB): trade name search · accessed 2026-10-04
- MERSİS, Ministry of Trade central registry system · accessed 2026-10-04
- Paraşüt: MERSİS number is 16 digits; where it appears · accessed 2026-10-04
- TİM (Turkish Exporters Assembly): membership lookup by tax number · accessed 2026-10-04
- ANSI/AWI 0641-2019 Architectural Wood Casework, aesthetic requirements · accessed 2026-10-04
- ISO 2859-1:2026 Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes (AQL) · accessed 2026-10-04
- IPPC: Türkiye regulation on heat treatment and marking of wood packaging (ISPM 15), March 2025 · accessed 2026-10-04
- EUR-Lex: Decision 1/2006 of the EC-Turkey Customs Cooperation Committee (A.TR movement certificate) · accessed 2026-10-04
- US EPA: Formaldehyde emission standards for composite wood products (TSCA Title VI) · accessed 2026-10-04
- ICC: Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600) · accessed 2026-10-04