If you travel to Turkiye or for example more specifically Istanbul you might be surprised to see how many well known  Scandinavian brands and companies are represented in Turkiye. I was certainly  surprised . I was surprised because brands from all over the world compete for consumer attention and most of the big brands in several sectors are represented and in this race the Scandinavians are doing very well especially the Danish ones.

 I was quick to recognize brands from Denmark which i have a emotional relationship with, one of them is Lego, i was 5 years old when i got my first Lego set when my parents lived in Copenhagen, and i have spent thousands of  hours as a child building Lego ,i was hooked on the Lego Medieval series with knights and castles from a small age. 

Lego is very big in Turkiye, an example of howe big , when you fly with Turkish airlines in and out of Istanbul you get the safety instructions in front of your seat screen in a lego animated cartoon movie. In Shopping malls you have lego stores , interestingly the prices are almost exactly the same as in Denmark , quite expensive, there is no cheap lego, and in Turkiye the average salary is many times lower then in Denmark, so the Lego buying segment in Turkiye is upper middle class at least while in Denmark with some effort and saving, working class families can buy Lego sets for their kids. While Lego has kept the price range very high for the turkish consumer they have changed the working conditions for workers in Turkiye compared to Denmark. In a small Lego store i could see 3 Lego service employees standing in the middle of the shop chatting with each other while there was a fourth person at the counter desk. You will never see that many employees in a small shop in Denmark, and in Turkiye they have very long working hours in shopping malls and in general , 14 Hour working day is normal in Turkiye and Lego has chosen to not change that tradition,while they are doing this, at the same time they are ignoring all effectivity studies regarding working hours ,which are very well known in Denmark. So a very interesting mix of differences between a lego store in Denmark and Turkiye. 

Tuborg and Carlsberg are two very popular beer brands in Turkiye ,very often it says Denmark on every can of beer placed very visible on the beer can. Ecco, the famous Danish shoe company ,  known for its quality and comfort has many stores in Turkiye, other brands such as Hummel have many stores, Helly Hansen has many stores, as does ,Berg Hansen, Jack and Jones, H&M , all have many stores and a loyal customer base. Turkiye is a very big cotton producing country with a big textile manufacturing base so in many cases these scandinavian brands also manufacture in Turkiye. They manufacture in Turkiye not only for the Turkish market but for other markets also.