Welcome to F&L, where senior freight logistics leaders gain trusted outside-in perspectives, share knowledge to tackle obstacles from wider vantage points & make faster, better-informed decisions in an increasingly complex business environment.
Why attend? For international leaders; meeting face-to-face with peers in Türkiye is an essential step to better understand Türkiye’s critical influence and support, to determine implications for own plans and to identify strategic opportunities. For Türkiye-based leaders; outline domestic strategies, understand key priorities of international community. All: network, better understand areas of mutual benefit and collaboration, stronger & new commercial partnerships. You will only be able to enter with an advance ticket.
Meeting date & location. 24-25 September 2026, Istanbul, Türkiye.
What to expect. Confidential, high-level strategic commercial dialogue across industry sectors and transport modes between a diverse senior international community of Türkiye-based and international supply chain & logistics leaders. On 24 Sept – leaders’ round-table discussion agenda. On 25 Sept – a choice of visits to important industrial sites on the Asian & European sides. The meeting will be held in English only. All participants will meet everyone present.
Costs. €450 card at registration / €500 payment by invoice + relevant VAT. These discounted rates apply to F&L members: non-member companies pay €2,000 + VAT. A small number of leaders will be invited by F&L’s partners in Türkiye.
Help? Get in touch.
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Türkiye: Important Customer, Supplier & Partner
This meeting is for senior business leaders & their teams; people who are actively leading industry today.
Below confirmed, plus others including F&L Member companies and leaders across Türkiye:
Adidas
BSH Ev Aletleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş.
Çalık Enerji San. ve Tic. A.Ş.
Enerjisa Enerji Üretim A.Ş.
HIPP
Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş.
P&G
Pernod Ricard Türkiye
Arkas Port and Terminal Services Group
BATU International Lojistik A.Ş.
Bertan Logistics Industry & Foreign Trade
British Chamber of Commerce in Turkey
Catts
CFL multimodal
Chasquee
CILT Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport Türkiye
Cranfield School of Management
DFDS Logistics
Diam Türkiye
duisport – Duisburger Hafen AG
EP Logistics International
Fr. Meyer’s Sohn GmbH
Francesco Parisi Group
Heriot-Watt University
Interporto Trieste
İstanbul Bilgi University / LODER
Izmir Katip Celebi University
K2Mobility
Kita Logistics
LKW Walter
LODER Logistics Association Istanbul
OG Clean Fuels
Port Boulogne Calais
PSA BDP International Turkiye
RailPort
Saudi Cargo
SGM Lojistik Hizmetleri LTd. Şti.
Stokport Lojistik Danışmanlık
TEDAR Supply Chain Management Association
Trimble
UIRR
UTİKAD Turkish Forwarding and Logistics Association
Wise Tech Global
World Food Programme
**Others will be shown as they confirm
Previous F&L meetings
Participant list for “Priorities & Choices: stuck in Crisis Mode?” (Apr 2026)
Participant list for F&L at Nike (Oct 2025)
Türkiye: Important Customer, Supplier & Partner
Türkiye is an important customer, a key supplier and a crucial partner. No longer simply Europe’s contingency manufacturing base, the country is becoming a permanent strategic node in European supply chain design. And supply chains now sit at the centre of commercial resilience, national competitiveness, customer trust and corporate strategy. The question is: are Türkiye and its European partners making the requirement for supply chain resilience a permanent opportunity? How will this happen? How important are collaborative partnerships, and how do we build trust?
A confidential, high-level strategic commercial dialogue across industry sectors and transport modes between a diverse senior international community of Türkiye-based and international supply chain & logistics leaders. The focus is on market opportunities and value-creation strategies made possible by Türkiye’s position and role in the changing global supply chain landscape.
in-person | Chatham House Rule | no recording | no media | no online participation | no sales pitches
24 September (Thursday)
09:30 - 17:30, Istanbul
Held at Yapı Kredi Bank Headquarters, Çamlik Street, Block D, Levent [European side]
The agenda is led by attending senior leaders including ... (see 'Attending' tab)
Session 1, Strategic overview
- Welcome
- Economic briefing: what we all need to understand about working in the Turkish market: economic & business backdrop
- Strategic challenges versus value-building opportunities
- Panel – if there is global change and if Türkiye is an important part of the supply chain, what reactions and strategic developments are we seeing? [3 Turkish business leaders & international brands, World Food Programme, Stephen Cahill (Director Türkiye)]
- Audience comment / Q&A – what strategic changes do you see and why?
Session 2, Operational evidence of constructive transformation?
- Optimising growth or overcoming challenges? The practitioner view
- Panel – Practitioner’s response to Session 1: how is this reflected in your operations? HiPP Türkiye, Mert Altan (Supply Chain Director), KITA Logistics, Emre Eldener (Vice Chairman and CEO) & others
- Breakouts – how is this reflected in YOUR operational priorities?
- Full audience – teams summarise & justify group priorities
- Results – F&L international Confidence Index
Lunch & roundtable discussions “technology” & “corridors”
Session 3, ABC Acquire, Build from scratch or Collaborate?
- ABC – Given the business environment (session 1) and referencing operational solutions (session 2), what structure works for you and why?
- Panel – P&G, Sophia Skoufaki (Europe Logistics Purchases Senior Director), Arkas, Alp Capa (Vice President), Port Boulogne Calais & others
- Audience comment / Q&A – how much does transaction and cost still rule? How do you build trust? What capabilities must remain internal and why? When & why should companies own logistics assets or is partnership a strategic advantage? Why & when does local expertise outweigh scale? Which partnerships will define the next decade & why?
Session 4, What matters now? Your follow up & ‘the Istanbul View 2026’
- Key priorities from the day & agreed actions (confidential to those in the room)
- Breakouts – considering business environment, operational solutions & organisational structures, your top 3 strategic priorities? Which investments are now irreversible? Which risks are most underestimated? What partnerships create the greatest competitive advantage? Which structural changes are permanent? What decisions should leaders make now? How should European-Türkiye strategy develop over the next 5 years? …?
- Everyone – top 3 strategic priorities each group? Why?
- Further opportunities? Close & thanks (17:00)
Today’s agenda concludes with a networking dinner evening for all participants generously hosted by RailPort (19:00).
25 September (Friday)
09:00 - 15:30, Asian & European sides
Choice of visits to important industrial sites
Parallel visits: innovation, advanced infrastructure, evolving best practices & to understand how operations work behind the scenes:
- New Railport intermodal logistics solution offering ever-shorter transit times between markets and new infrastructure at the crossroads of the continents.
- Turkish Cargo’s SmartIst – Istanbul airport (IST) is a significant global air cargo hub for Europe, Asia, Africa & the Middle East.
- Knapp customers who have implemented intelligent intralogistics/warehouse automation – Iskoop the pharmaceutical wholesaler & retailer.
- The Turkish Straits (Bosporus, Sea of Marmara & the Dardanelles) form a critical global maritime chokepoint. The Directorate General of Coastal Safety (KEGM) manages traffic, pilotage, salvage, and emergency response through the Turkish Straits Vessel Traffic Service (TSVTS).
- Other possibilities may be added.
Türkiye: Important Customer, Supplier & Partner
Legal:
Data subjects’ explicit GDPR consent: The data subject hereby explicitly consents to submit his/her personal data to F&L and to F&L’s processing thereof in accordance with the F&L general privacy policy that is available on the F&L website (https://www.europeanfreightleaders.eu/privacy/). The data subject explicitly consents to occasional silent photographs / filming during F&L events/meetings and to the consequent processing of his/her personal data by F&L in accordance with the provisions of the said general privacy policy. The data subject hereby also confirms that he/she has read, fully understood and entirely approves F&L’s general privacy policy without making any reservations.
F&L events are in principle governed by a tailored “Chatham House Rule”. That Chatham House Rule helps to create a trusted environment to understand and resolve complex matters. When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the tailored Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) in relation to his/her particular content may be revealed externally. Speaker presentations /materials can however be shared with F&L members and participants to the F&L event but should not be shared externally without the consent of the speaker or without his/her anonymization.
A different goal...
… F&L was created in 1994 by shippers & logistics providers who realised that they could not tackle logistics issues alone in their companies, or within a commercial structure. They created a neutral, independent not-for-profit platform for senior logistics leaders and their teams to utilise cross-industry peer exchange to – judge today’s trade-offs – identify new opportunities for resilience and growth – catch blind spots – de-risk decision making – and determine facts, helping everyone build on real world experience to develop more practical, durable solutions and choose their own paths forward, together and separately.
F&L’s mission – to drive improved standards, learnings & the success of Members by leveraging the multi-stakeholder international community to spark knowledge sharing & tackle obstacles from every possible vantage point.
How is this achieved? F&L is structured as a neutral (independent), not-for-profit, confidential, antitrust compliant Members’ forum and is registered in Belgium as a professional ASBL. Multi-stakeholder membership is deliberately balanced to ensure a variety of perspectives across a host of variables. F&L does not lobby but it does have strong relationships with policymakers and many other institutions and communities for its Members’ benefit.
Members are global / regional heads of logistics & supply chain, CEOs & senior management focused on freight logistics across the supply chain, asset owners, founders of critical solutions, all industry sectors and transport modes, based across Europe & globally (list). Unlimited licences are provided for leaders to share the membership with colleagues (no charge).
“The important thing is to avoid the ‘narrow’ trap & the echo chamber”
“Access to informed external views & sheer breadth which it is not possible to organise by yourself”
“Where else can you ask questions openly and listen to others doing the same?”
“Learn, benchmark & challenge”
“We make better, more informed, more robust decisions”
Railport is a brand new Intermodal Logistics Terminal built in the east-west trade corridor with the partnership of Arkas, one of the leading Turkish international holding companies, operating with a total of 67 companies in Türkiye and abroad, and duisport, the largest intermodal logistics terminal operator in Europe. Once finished, the terminal will be providing services in a total area of 265 thousand square meters. Linking the countries in Asia and the EU through the Iron Silk Road (the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway) and the European Railway respectively, Railport’s location was selected to function as a bridge for transportation not only between the countries in Asia and Europe, but also between those in Europe, Balkan and Central Asia (CIS). The new Intermodal Logistics Terminal will integrate Türkiye and Europe with the route from China to Central Asia, which extends to the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Georgia through the Trans-Asian Railway Network within the scope of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The Port of Boulogne Calais sits at the heart of major European maritime, road and rail traffic flows. Anchored on the English Channel coastline, Calais is a European leader in roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) freight and Boulogne-sur-Mer is France’s leading fishing port and Europe’s foremost seafood hub. With DFDS, the port has a new rail freight connection between Sète and Calais offer customers transit times of seven days for freight between Türkiye and the UK.
CATTS and DKM are part of the DKM Group, combining customs brokerage, managed services, consultancy and technology to support international businesses with customs and trade compliance. DKM brings extensive customs brokerage and customs management expertise, while CATTS operates as an extension of clients’ trade compliance teams, supporting areas including classification, origin, screening and broker management. Together, the group provides the operational capacity and specialist expertise needed to strengthen compliance and control across global trade.
UTİKAD was founded in 1986 and, as the Turkish Forwarding and Logistics Association, is the most extensive non-governmental organisation of the Turkish transportation and logistics industry. Members offer land, air, sea, rail, and combined transportation as well as warehousing services, fast cargo and package transportation services, customs brokerage and logistics services in Türkiye and abroad. UTİKAD acts as the voice of the Turkish logistics industry and represents the industry and its members on several platforms at home and abroad. Aside from its efforts aimed at achieving international standards and contributing to sustainable development of the industry and its members, UTIKAD conducts training activities for the fostering and development of a logistics culture in Türkiye as well.
The British Chamber of Commerce in Türkiye is one of Türkiye’s oldest non-profit business organisations and was established in 1887 with a mission to contribute to international trade and investment by bridging businesses in Türkiye with counterparts in the United Kingdom and beyond. Its community, along with BCCT’s team and high profile Board Members provide BCCT with the ability to reach a great number of businesses, while the broad array of skill sets they represent translate into a robust capacity to deliver insightful, practical, value-added business support services that include business development, market intelligence, event management, and PR support.
The Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics in Türkiye is an accredited institution and encompasses all industries involved in freight and passenger transport within supply chains. C.I.L.T. promotes the sharing of best practices, tracks innovations, and offers professional training to its members in five key areas: logistics, freight and passenger transport, transport planning, operations and supply chain management, sustainability, and the global community.
The LODER Logistics Association was founded in 2001 and is an association that accepts only individual membership, not corporate membership, and aims at professional and sectoral development. Among its approximately 750 active members are professionals from companies that receive and provide logistics services, academics, IT professionals, professionals from sectoral equipment sales companies, and members of the armed forces.
Yapı Kredi has been sustainably strengthening its market positioning in the sector since its establishment in 1944 through a customer-centric approach and focus on innovation. Yapı Kredi achieved total assets worth TL 3.8 trillion as of the first three months of 2026. Constantly seeking to increase its contribution to the financing of the Turkish economy with its customer-centric approach, Yapı Kredi enlarged the volume of its total cash and non-cash loans by 40% y-o-y in first quarter of 2026 to TL 2.8 trillion.
HOW – Hub of Warehouse stands as Turkey’s sole end-to-end intralogistics ecosystem. On September 23-25, 2027, you can experience cutting-edge warehouse technologies first hand, ranging from advanced automation to AI-powered robotic (AGV/AMR) systems at the New Generation Warehouse Systems and Intralogistics Fair in Istanbul Expo Center. Visitor info.
Türkiye: Important Customer, Supplier & Partner
“Take Home” deliverables for those attending the Meeting:
- Open peer exchange in a protected environment
- Interactive agenda on key focus areas that matter to participants without commercial sales pitches
- Close the “knowledge gap” about what is happening elsewhere & what is coming next
- Commercial priorities & actions – utilising peer experience and “one key message” to plan to prosper regardless of external challenges
- Building on discussion from F&L April 26 & online insights
- Choices of behind the scenes visits.
High level overview
- Wed 23 Sept – 19:30 welcome dinner
- Thurs 24 Sept – F&L agenda 09:30 – 17:30 + evening dinner programme
- Fri 25 Sept – Choice of industry visits on both the European and Asian side & continued networking
Addresses & Times
Wed 23 Sept
- Discounted 5* sleeping hotel – Wyndham Grand İstanbul Levent, Esentepe, Büyükdere Cd. No:177 D:183, 34394 Şişli/İstanbul (see registration confirmation email for booking code)
- Dinner venue tbc close to hotel
Thurs 24 Sept
- 09:30 – 17:30, Meeting at Yapı ve Kredi Bankası Genel Müdürlük (10 mins walk from hotel)
- Evening – dinner venue tbc
Fri 25 Sept
- Choice of industry visits, each with organised transport from hotel
- (Try to remain with us until 15:30 – some of the visits will end with organised transport to Istanbul airport (IST))
Airport transfers can be booked through Havaist or by the airport concierge desk on arrival. All taxis use cost taximeters according to the km.
Dress Code & Questions
- General businesswear and any F&L members‘ products!
- Questions welcome – please get in touch.
Discounted sleeping hotel
Discount at 5* Wyndham Grand İstanbul Levent, Esentepe, Büyükdere Cd. No:177 D:183, 34394 Şişli/İstanbul (see registration confirmation email)




















