Lifestyle

Asortie

MURAT ERAT

ASORTIE FURNITURE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Exporting luxury furniture to 46 countries around the world from its stores in Istanbul, Dubai, Serbia, and Ukraine, young entrepreneur Murat ERAT answered our questions on ASORTIE and AXELL PROJECTS at his store in Masko Furniture City. How long have you been active in the furniture sector? We have nearly 48 years of background in the furniture sector, but we established Asortie ten years ago with the vision of becoming a global brand. By transferring our previous experience with production and wholesale to exports, we became one of the notable furniture brands in the world. Could you tell us a bit more about the foundation of your Asortie brand? Processes of globalization and borders getting closer and closer led to changes in the dynamics of trade, thus leading us to form a global brand. Our goal was to reshape our experience in the furniture sector with the vision of becoming a global brand. To this end, we decided on the name of “Asortie” as it invokes the notion of luxury and splendor in many world languages. With the launch of Asortie brand, we wished to become a significant brand not only in Turkey but all over the world. We were at a point where we could have continued to do business in Turkey with our background experience. But to sell your products in different parts of the world, a strong brand is a must. With that in mind, we formed the Asortie brand ten years ago, and now we are exporting a hundred percent Turkish furniture to 46 countries worldwide. We are now a registered trademark in 53 countries, including European Union countries. What is the style of Asortie Furniture? Unfortunately, people are confining themselves in the molds defined by other people when it comes to decoration. Our production defies these molds. Our style is to provide our customers with designs that evoke comfort and relaxation. We do not categorize our furniture in labels such as classical, modern, and avant-garde. For us, the best piece of furniture is the one that is designed for comfort, relaxation, and elegance. Fitting your dream furniture into given shapes, adorning them with usual patterns, and coloring them with routine options is an archaic style that we consider unbefitting. Our designers draw your dreams, not predetermined forms. But if you insist on giving a style name to our furniture, we can call them “Asortie Style”. Which countries belong to your export network? As Asortie Furniture, we are exporting furniture and decoration to 46 different countries. We are also providing turnkey services for decoration in numerous countries. You can encounter Asortie designs in the United States, Canada, African countries, Middle Eastern countries, and many more.   Do you prioritize aesthetics or comfort when it comes to your products? People are much more discerning when it comes to purchasing decisions now. Thus, they want their furniture to be both sturdy and pleasing to the eye but also comfortable. We have been combining these three fundamental aspects of furniture in the products we manufactured in the past. Similarly, aesthetics and comfort are combined in the pieces of furniture we produce today as well. What are your goals for your brand? When we were setting up the Asortie brand, our goal was to export to 20 countries within a 10-year timeframe. We already surpassed the double of that number. Although we postponed our store openings in Qatar and Russia due to the pandemic, those countries are still on our agenda. Apart from that, we wish to increase the number of countries belonging to our export network to 60 in the next five years. We also plan to increase our production lines by opening a factory with 20 thousand square meters of space in the next one to two years. We already started conducting feasibility studies for this factory in the Düzce Organized Industrial Zone. We will be able to enter the construction phase in a short time. We want to build a factory that will use different techniques, which are not used for furniture production yet. We think that this factory will provide jobs to 200 people instantly. We know that you also invest in different sectors. Lately, you made a serious investment in the Axell Studio brand in the mobile game sector. Can you go into detail on that a little more? As you know, the world continues to be digitized. With that in mind, we wish to be in the online investment sector on top of our numerous offline investments in furniture, farming, livestock, food, and automotive sectors. I am interested in several investment areas for software such as data security, artificial intelligence, and mobile games. Lately, we founded a mobile gaming company named Axell Studio. We established this company with a strong capital base together with my longtime colleague and good friend Emrah Ünal, Chairman of Detex Digital, and one of Turkey’s pioneers in digital advertisement with emphasis on Google ads. We also started this journey with a very strong team. Our other partners are Furkan Bastugan and Onur Eyikul, both successful and young people that headed many ventures. The team’s experience and youth are our strong points against our competitors. With Axell Studio, our first game will be launched in February 2021. We wish to strongly contribute to the gaming sector with the desired success of the games that we design. Furthermore, we also plan to contribute to the education of youth in game development with courses offered by Axell Academia in 2021.

10.11.2020 00:00:00