Silmo Istanbul creates wonderful circumstances where boutique companies like us can express themselves more effectively and accurately.

Hello Mr. Cinemre… Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us about how you decided to enter the optical sector?
Hello there. I am Kadir Cinemre, I was born in Istanbul, I graduated from Işık University Opticianry Department. I have been in the optical sector for about twenty years. Firstly, in 2006, I started to work in a lens company, which is a pioneer in its sector and a world brand, in order to specialize in the sales and marketing department. Then, in 2010, I continued as a brand sales manager in a company that is a distributor of world brands in the frame department. The variability of the optical sector and its proximity to fashion were the factors that brought me closest to this sector. I think it is a sector that is very open to innovation and we can add a lot to it.

With which aims and objectives did you decide to establish your company?
I met the optical sector in 2006. I worked in different positions in every part of the sector. I worked as a sales manager of different brands in different companies. I was constantly intertwined with brands in lens, frame, wholesale and retail departments. Afterwards, with my vintage curiosity, I rolled up my sleeves to prepare retro glasses for the coming years. After mastering many areas of the sector, I focused on production in line with my goals. The idea of creating local and handmade products with retro lines led me to a very exciting start.

Could you tell us about the Mooshu brand, its customer profile and technical features?
Mooshu brand was born as a 100% Turkish brand from design to production. The name meaning of the brand comes from the word Men with the letter (M); that is, having hard and masculine lines, the letters (OO) represent glasses, (S)(H)(U) comes from the word SHE, which represents women in English; it represents women having curved and aesthetic lines. Ninety percent of our brand’s designs are unisex. It has sophisticated and vintage lines that both women and men can prefer. We attach importance to offering original designs as well as being useful. Our customer profile consists of users who expect comfort in light but flashy glasses with different designs. The most important principle of Mooshu brand is ‘if it’s not qualified, don’t make it’. Every single piece used in production is carefully designed. Each model is revised about five times before it is presented to the users. We keep working on it until we find perfection. All Mooshu models have screwless and weldless designs. We have an innovation-oriented dynamic. We put a lot of effort into improving our production systems, so we spend a lot of time on technological studies and R&D. We already use the technologies that the world offers as innovations in coating in Turkey. We produce long-lasting products with titanium coating.

We make the production of our lenses with our own color chart. All our lenses are anti-reflective coated and consist of PA lenses that provide a clear vision. Our products are cut and assembled with laser technologies. We work with a margin of error of one thousandth. This year we have added a bio-acetate series to our new collection. We offer the combination of acetate body and metal temples to our customers this year. Again, we tend to approach zero carbon consumption with products that are completely compatible with nature, all of which come out of our own workshop in Turkey. Our eyewear cases are made of vegan leather. We design and manufacture them in Turkey.

What are your sales and after sales services?
While we are constantly meeting with our sales team friends, we are actually looking for a partner for our dream. We determine our sales points accordingly. It is very important for us to protect our brand value. It is not our business just to sell products and make money. We spend our earnings, knowledge and values to move our brand forward. Since the production belongs to us, we do not have supply problems with our customers for any model or product. We prioritize the satisfaction of our customers and therefore their customers in terms of spare parts such as all kinds of lens, springs, hooks and terminals. Nobody wants to wait weeks for a spare part. We have to take our share from ourselves.

Which promotional and advertising activities do you use to increase your recognition in the sector?
We strive to use social media effectively in order to bring our brand to better points and make it a well-known and recognized brand. We aim to reach different audiences by collaborating with famous personalities. Influencer studies support us and optical stores to sell our products. The use of our products by well-known and recognized people gives confidence to our customers. Along with social media, we see that participation in optical fairs also provides us with a lot of benefits. We add a lot of innovations to our brand and experience in fairs with new optical stores, employees and young optician friends. At the same time, fairs are the gateway to the world market. This is our aim anyway. To be a world brand.

What are your comments on the present and future of the Turkish optical sector?
I think that the Turkish market has become a market that the world cannot ignore. Especially high value-added products like ours attract a lot of attention in Europe. There is an intense interest in Turkey. Increasing transportation costs and costs after the pandemic reduced interest in the Far East market. I think there is an intense interest in our country. We are preparing for the future by increasing our investments, R&D studies and capacity every year. I think that Turkish brands will soon be among the world brands and our vision will increase every year and add added value to our country.

What could you say about 2023 trends in optics and sunglasses?
Last year and a few seasons before, minimal eyewear were more popular. However this year, large and multi-colored models have become a trend. Large acetate models have been preferred recently. Pastel colors are at the top of the preferences. We prefer products in extraordinary colors and timeless lines in our Mooshu models. The aim here is to create the trend. Instead of presenting existing trends to our loyal customer base, we prefer to offer the trends we create.

You said that you exhibit in fairs… Do you get what you expect from fairs? How would you evaluate the ten-year process of Silmo Istanbul?
We have been exhibiting in Silmo Istanbul for two years and we leave with a smile on our faces after every fair. The new people we meet, dealers and industry followers from abroad open new doors for us. It creates wonderful circumstances where boutique companies like us can express themselves more effectively and accurately. The fact that Silmo Istanbul attracts great interest from abroad is a stepping stone for companies like us that are on their way to becoming a world brand. This year, we think that we will have a much more productive fair process for our sector in the new expanded space of Silmo Istanbul.

Our magazine has made another innovation and continues its publication life digitally. In this way, we establish a more effective and intense interaction. How would you interpret this innovation of 4 your eyes and its work on behalf of the optical industry?

As it is an up-to-date and dynamic magazine, we can find all the innovations in the sector under a single roof. I believe that the magazine is the only place for boutique companies like us to be heard by the whole sector. The fact that the magazine is online is a great innovation. Now everyone will be able to reach you, and therefore us, from anywhere. We can see from social media how important interaction is today. It is a great convenience to be able to interact with your magazine just a touch away in our pockets. We would like to thank the 4 your eyes team for bringing us to a wider audience with this innovation.

August 2023

Could you tell us about the properties of the materials used in the production of Slastik brand and the technology of production?
Slastik is one of the visionary companies that attaches special importance to the issue of sustainability, which has become a trend in many sectors, and acts proactively in this regard and takes action in advance. It has been considering this issue for years while conducting R&D studies based on continuous development. First, it started to produce environmentally friendly products by using Rilsan® Clear G850, a plant-based material that we call bio-based in the production of glasses. This material not only provides high performance with a highly flexible structure for the product, but also allows for a lower carbon footprint. For some time now, the brand has also been developing its eco-friendly credentials by using recycled materials in the production of all ancillary materials, including eyeglass cases and eyeglass storage pochettes.

Let’s talk about the new designs of Slastik eyewear. Is it difficult to implement different designs in your collections produced with a special technology and technique?
Since the collections are designed in Spain, even though we are not involved in the design process, there are periods when we exchange ideas with the brand owner in terms of design. In general, it is not difficult to implement different designs, but the brand focuses on more timeless designs. Even if new models are added to the collection, the brand does not aim to create a new collection every year. Instead, it prefers to constantly improve the color range of the models.

A few years ago, the Slastik brand filed a lawsuit against some manufacturers and dealers in Turkey for producing and selling imitations. Could you tell us about the role you played in this process and how is the case going on?
Actually, we do not have a role in this process. As I mentioned before, the brand owner has been filing lawsuits against manufacturers and dealers who violate Slastik patents in many countries around the world, including the largest manufacturer of imitation glasses in China. Contrary to popular belief, the first lawsuits in Turkey were actually filed in 2014-2015 and resulted in favor of Slastik. The reason for the increased awareness of this issue in the sector in recent years is that the brand owner has contracted with a new law firm that specializes in patent rights. As far as we know, this new law firm acted very quickly as soon as they received the trademark owner’s power of attorney, investigated the sellers and manufacturers of imitation products and initiated the processes within the scope of the law. As I said, we had no involvement in this process, but we did our best to inform the parties involved through all possible channels. We know that lawsuits have been filed against some opticianry establishments that sell imitation products and the lawsuits are ongoing.

We know that you have created your own brand as Optist Optik Ürünler. How is your journey with Blue-Coral going? What is your inspiration for the designs? Do you produce the brand in Turkey?
Creating our own brand has been a dream of mine for a long time and we finally started production this year. Our products are made of acetate material in Italy. When we created the first collection of our brand, we preferred the middle and upper segment reading glasses product type, which we thought was open in the sector. When we chose the name BlueCoral, which means Mavi Mercan in Turkish, we emphasized the marine theme. In our collection, which we started with four models, we determined the model names by considering the marine theme. Although we started with four models, we kept the color scale quite wide. From now on, we will continue to invest in our own brand. We are at the stage of presenting our products to the market and our next step will be to diversify our collection with new designs.

As a company that has been exhibiting in Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair for many years, what are your thoughts about the fair? How would you interpret the contributions of Silmo Istanbul to you and the sector?
Since we do not have a large sales team, it is very important for us to show our presence in fairs. Instead of the cost of establishing a sales team, we prefer to invest in our online dealer portal within the scope of modern shopping trends and reach opticians across Turkey and introduce our brands at Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair. In this way, we try to pull back our sales prices that we offer to our dealers. As Optist Optik Ürünler, we are very happy to take part in Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair since the beginning. We think that your energy, problem solving and positive approach during the whole fair process has created an unprecedented synergy for the sector. In addition to the fact that being an international fair contributes to the export of local brands to nearby markets, we think that Silmo Istanbul is a very effective organization in terms of promoting the brands/products of companies like us that do not have a large sales team, following the developments in the sector and establishing a network.

July 2023

“Silmo Istanbul is an organization that we have been supporting since its foundation, perhaps feeling like its founder like many of our colleagues. We don’t see its success story very different from Novax’s.”

Hello Mr. Murat Balcı… As Beta Optik, we know that you have a highly developed and large facility. Could you tell us about your production process and capacity?
As Beta Optik, we are the pioneer company that brought FreeForm technology to our country in the production of eyeglass lenses. At that time, we were the first practitioner in Turkey of the method of producing eyeglass lenses with software, which was just beginning to be used in the world. In the years we have left behind, we have invested more and more in technology every day, further expanding the advantage given to us by the fact that we took off earlier than all our competitors in the sector. We have made our brand synonymous with technology. This perception, equipped with great efforts spent in the light of science, has made Novax a preferred eyeglass lens brand not only in our country but all over the world. Now, we have our own production culture. We have established our own standards. All this has ensured that a product that meets all the expectations of our colleagues in terms of quality, while also being acceptable in terms of price, reaches the trading houses of our business partners. This is the summary of our success, which has become more easily observable especially in recent years, but which, as I said, is based on many years of labor.

Are all of the brands within Beta Optik produced in your facility in our country? Do you also produce brands abroad? We know that your factory in Portugal can also produce at high capacity. What are the reasons for having such a facility in Europe and why Portugal?
As you know, we made an exclusive manufacturer/distributor agreement for the Turkish market with Zeiss, the world leader in terms of brand perception in our industry. Currently, we produce almost the entire Zeiss product portfolio for our country in our facilities in Istanbul at the same standards and quality level as Zeiss production points all over the world, and again with Zeiss processes. All certifications and periodic inspections of this production are carried out by Zeiss. Being able to fulfill these requirements and easily comply with these standards without any special procedures has been a great opportunity for us to see how much we have been doing the right things in the production field over the past years. On this occasion, it has been a great honor and pride for us to add the appreciation of a world giant like Zeiss to the appreciation we have already received from our colleagues for years. We firmly believe that our cooperation with Zeiss will continue in the future by expanding its scope and becoming even stronger. In addition to our production in Istanbul, we started to produce in our company in Portugal in 2018, which we established in 2014. Nowadays, we are increasing the capacity of this production facility and moving it closer to logistics centers. I think we will complete all our installations and start production with our increased capacity within two months. Our production and management building in Porto is planned as the epicenter of the entire European Union region of Beta Optik. The difficulties we experienced in exporting to European Union countries from our factory in Istanbul, and some conditions that would put us at a disadvantage in terms of preference against our competitors, forced us to establish a production facility in a country within the borders of the European Union. In this way, we have realized the second step of our project “A factory on every continent and becoming a world brand”, which has been on our agenda for years. We have prepared the infrastructure of our factory in Portugal in such a way that its capacity can be increased 3 times more than its current state without the need for any additional time and investment. In the next 2 years, we aim to further expand our already existing exports to the European Union by expanding our exports to all 28 European Union countries. There are two answers to the question of why Portugal. The first is that Portugal is the only developing economy within the European Union, not counting the Eastern European countries. Therefore, it is a market that has become a center of attraction for investors. Labor costs are lower than in other European countries and, above all, the country is willing to receive investment. Secondly, Portugal is both a member of the European Union and a very important gateway to Latin America. With this feature, it is natural for a company like Novax, which exports to all over the world, to be preferred. For this reason, Portugal was one of the important reasons why we chose to establish a factory in Europe.

For 20 years, you have been representing our country in an ideal way by exhibiting in international fairs. Could you give information about your export activities? How many countries do you export to in total?
Personally, I am a big believer in fairs. As you follow, we have exhibited in almost all of the world’s optical fairs since our establishment. There were years when we exhibited in 14 fairs a year. Then, of course, we reduced this number to a manageable level by measuring the benefits of all of them. In the current years, you can see Novax stands in all of the organizations that we can call the signature fairs of the sector, the number of which does not exceed 4-5. Speaking of stands, I cannot pass without underlining the concept, equipment and design of our exhibition stands, which we have maintained for years and have never compromised. For 20 years, we have exhibited in all fairs with the same concept, regardless of where in the world they are organized. We paid very serious prices for this, but at the end of the day, we managed to add a strong brand perception to our product, which we are proud of its quality. The first years were a bit difficult. Although we exhibited in fairs, we could not export in the quantities we wanted, but I can say that we broke this chain after the fourth year. We offered a quality product to the market at a reasonable price and represented our brand at fairs tirelessly. At the point we have reached today in our struggle that started 20 years ago, there are 58 countries where Novax lenses are exported. Among these countries, there are countries of high importance in the optical industry such as America, Canada and France, as well as many Middle Eastern and African countries where we started the export project 2 years ago. In the second half of 2023, with the commissioning of our expanded production facility in Portugal and doubling the capacity of our production line in Istanbul, we aim to increase the number of countries we export to over 100 by the end of this year.

The fact that Turkish brands have distributorships in various world countries strengthens and makes the whole sector proud. We can say that Novax brand pioneered the sector in this regard. In which countries do you have distributorships?
As I mentioned above, the number of countries we currently export to is 58. However this number is very dynamic. It is increasing day by day. Believe me, the days of counting the names of countries are long gone for us. The most important thing I want to say here is that in the past, we used to go from country to country, door to door, so to speak, looking for customers. Now Novax has become a brand that is reached and desired to work with on different occasions. In some countries, we even witness that several companies are struggling to become Novax distributors. In some countries, we have to choose one of several options. This is the distance we have been through. This is what we really need to talk about. Of course, it is our greatest source of pride to be exhibiting in the fair, which we attended years ago as the only Turkish company, now with our other colleagues, as you underlined in your question, to have pioneered them, to have encouraged them by showing them that this is something that can be achieved. We hope that Novax will become a global brand that not only our colleagues but also the whole of Turkey will be proud of, by increasing its penetration and establishing new production facilities in other continents in the coming period.

In 2022, you entered into cooperation with Zeiss, one of the world’s most recognized lens brands. Could you tell us about this cooperation process and the services you will offer with Zeiss in the upcoming period?
First of all, I would like to ask our colleagues and all our followers not to see our business partnership with Zeiss as an ordinary exclusive manufacturer or distributorship agreement, because the scope of our relationship is much different. There is a unity of purpose here, a unity of ideal here. Regardless of their financial size, this is a success-oriented and long-term project of two companies that have adopted quality and success as their motto. Beta Optik has become the “first” third party to produce many of Zeiss’ products in the world, apart from Zeiss’ own production facilities. This clearly demonstrates both the importance Zeiss attaches to this project and its confidence in Beta Optik’s production capability. Going forward, we will rapidly increase the number of products on the Zeiss side, and we will realize many different sales and marketing activities that will help us carry the Zeiss brand to the place it deserves in our country. Our colleagues who know that instead of instant and sensational successes, we plan long-term and lasting successes that are built on hard work in a sensitive and meticulous manner will understand what we mean much better.

How would you evaluate the ten-year process of Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair, of which you have been an exhibitor since the first day?
For me, 4 your eyes and Silmo Istanbul are inseparable parts. Underneath all of them, you have been working for many years. There are works done very well. There is support, there is solidarity, there is very high quality human relations management. Silmo is a world brand in fair organization. Perhaps the name Silmo has become an argument that complements your experience in the sector. Silmo Istanbul is an organization that we have supported since its foundation, and perhaps like many of our colleagues, we feel like its founder. When was it born? When did it speak? When did it start to walk? We honestly could not understand. But one thing we understand is that if you are doing the right things and following the world well in your sector, walking and working in the light of these, very good results come out. That’s why we don’t see your success story as very different from Novax’s. Thanks for your labor and heart. Silmo Istanbul has a support that cannot be ignored in the growth of Novax. In this respect, we owe a debt of gratitude to Silmo Istanbul.

Thank you very much for this valuable interview. Finally, could we learn your opinion on the evolution of “4 your eyes” to digital broadcasting?
As for the digital 4 your eyes, it was a very good decision in today’s world where almost everything has evolved to digital platforms. It is both easier to access and easier to review. While reviewing the digital version, I realized that I read many parts that I had not read in the printed magazine. We wish 4 your eyes success in its next publication life.

May 2023