SARPA OPTİK
The Honest Trade
“Silmo Istanbul, where we exhibited for the first time, was marvellous in its 10th year. It was amazing to meet our business partners, meet new customers and experience that atmosphere.”
Hello Mr Tuncay, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how your path crossed with the optical sector?
Hello, I was born in 1982 in Muş. I started my working life in 1999 in an valuable company serving in every field of the sector. Two years later, when I was only 18 years old, I founded my own company and I had contract manufacturing done by the company I used to work for under the Solingen brand ,and started sales and marketing in Istanbul with my brothers. Later, we started had contract manufacturing done by other factories and expanded to Anatolia. In 2003, we started importing to obtain better and more competitive products. When I look back from today, I am happy that I have been in the optical sector for 25 years, starting from the core of this profession and I am still doing my job with great enthusiasm. In the past, I worked in some non-governmental organisations such as Müsiad and Tobb. Currently, I am the Vice President of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce No. 73 Opticians and Watchmaking Committee. There, together with my committee member colleagues, we are trying to solve many problems of our sector and contribute to the development of our sector.
Could you tell us about the basic values and sectoral vision of Sarpa Optik?
Sarpa Optik was established in September 2001 in Sirkeci, Istanbul, the centre of the eyewear trade. When the 11 September attacks took place and the world economy entered a depressed period, it emerged as a brave example of entrepreneurship and took its place in the optical sector. Since the day it was founded, it continues its activities by growing steadily with the principle of honest trade. Working with its business partners with the principle of Win-Win based on trust, Sarpa Optik has always cared about the opinions, demands and suggestions of its business partners and has taken steps in this direction. Sarpa Optik is fully registered in the ÜTS system implemented by the Ministry of Health and is a domestic and national company and with its own capital, it has the success of launching its new collection steadily every 2 months. Sarpa Optik will continue its successful work in line with its sales strategy and growth targets with determination and determination.
How many brands do you have within the company? Could you share with us the basic features of your brands, interaction groups and their position in the sector?
We are actively in the market with our 6 brands as United Colors Of Benetton, Hemme Paris, Geoffrey Beene, which we distribute, and Grey Flannel, Flannel, Solingen, whose rights belong to Sarpa Optik. United Colors of Benetton is arguably one of the most iconic brands of our time. Its optical and sunglasses collection offers classic and fashionable eyewear for men, women and children, blended with a variety of colour tones that set it apart from its competitors. It offers designs that mix and match bright hues and pastel frames, carefully designed to ensure comfort, fit and attention to detail that is unrivalled by other brands in its category, but never overdone, and that stand out for their own personal identity. Hemme Paris houses optical and sunglasses products made entirely from design and quality materials. The most striking, even timeless designs in our portfolio are found in this brand. Geoffrey Beene offers a range of high end optical products made from quality materials for adult men and women. Grey Flannel consists of top quality optical models that appeal to all age groups and has the widest range of models in our product groups. We have both optical and sunglasses models in our Flannel brand. This brand is positioned below our Grey Flannel brand in terms of price and contains alternative models that appeal to all age groups except children. In addition, the brand stands out with the quality mineral lenses used in the sunglasses models of this brand and classic men’s models. Solingen, on the other hand, has the most economically priced upper group quality optical and sunglasses models in our product groups.
Are there any new brands you plan to add to your portfolio?
As Sarpa Optik, we started with our Solingen brand in 2001, in 2003 we added our Flannel brand, then our Grey Flannel brand to our portfolio. Then we took the distributorship of our Geoffrey Beene brand. Then we took the distributorship of our Hemme Paris brand. In 2023, we collaborated with the UK-based Mondottica company and took the distributorship of our United Colors Of Benetton brand. We will not hold back from adding new brands to our portfolio that we believe will contribute to the sales, marketing and growth strategy of both us and our business partners and at the same time have a story and arouse excitement.
As Sarpa Optik, what kind of management strategy do you prefer in order to accelerate your growth?
First of all, I would like to say that our company has been growing steadily every year since its establishment. In fact, we ranked 169th in the list of tax record holders in 2019 in Istanbul Avcılar Tax Office, where we are affiliated. We have been on the list of tax record holders in other years. This is an indicator of Sarpa Optik’s success and contribution to the country’s economy. For this success, together with all my teammates, we always strive for the development and growth of the company. It is important for the success of the company that all employees in the company work comfortably and happily and their motivation is high. And we provide all kinds of support and contribution necessary for this. Sarpa Optik will continue on its way as a transparently managed family company with a solid infrastructure and strong capital structure.
How does your sales and distribution network function? What do you do to improve these networks?
As Sarpa Optik, we see our customers as our business partners and our only sales channel is our business partners. We care that our products are sold to the final consumer only through eyewear stores and we take every precaution in this regard. We apply the traditional marketing method with our marketing network spread all over Turkey. We have six marketing teams actively working in the field. Each team continues to work in its own region. Our teams go on regular tours every 2 months. When we prepare our collections beforehand, we make the planning accordingly. In each tour, we present to our business partners the new models of both the brands we distribute and our own brands, which we carefully design and contract manufacture in quality factories with the best material selection. We have a commercial relationship based on trust with our business partners and we provide the necessary support in terms of payment, service and spare parts after sales.
How would you evaluate the Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair, which was held for the 10th time with its new and larger service area, from the beginning to today as an exhibitor company?
Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair has become the meeting point of the Turkish optical sector by raising the bar of success since the year it was organised and has managed to be among the top 5 optical fairs in the world. This is really a great success. I sincerely congratulate the entire Silmo Istanbul family who contributed to this success. In 2023, we, as Sarpa Optik, took our place as an exhibitor company in Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair for the first time when it was held for the 10th time in new and larger halls. The fair was great for us. It was amazing to meet our business partners, meet new customers and experience that atmosphere. I wish the success of Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair will continue to increase and I would like to express that we will be happy to be a part of it.
Thank you very much for this great interview. Finally, could we learn your views on the evolution of our magazine 4 your eyes to digital publishing?
Obviously, as in every sector, it is very important to have a magazine or even multiple magazines in our sector in order to learn information from the real source. Before, we used to follow every edition of the magazine and learn a lot of information from there, but now the world is digitalising and many magazines have been digitalised both in the world and in our country. Therefore, we now enjoy every time 4 your eyes is published and we get a lot of information. I congratulate you for this beautiful work you have done and I believe that you will continue to do it in the best way. On behalf of myself and my company, I would like to thank you very much for including me and my company in this interview.
April 2024