Boyçelik stands for mattress comfort!

Erol Boydak: “A localization is eye-catching in mattress production in domestic market. Some provinces made progresses at this field and they gained ground but Kayseri is still the leader of this sector.”

As one of the leading companies in the mattress spring manufacturing in Turkey, Boyçelik has been continuing to increase mattress comfort. Talking about 2014 Mr. Erol Boydak, general manager of Boyçelik assessed the current situation of the sector, manufacturers and export potential of Turkey. “I guess that daily mattress production in Turkey accounts for 15 thousand units. Around 10 thousand of this figure is manufactured in Kayseri,” says Boydak and claims that there is no reason not to make it 30 thousand. Boydak answers questions of Sleep Well magazine with a professional way:

Can you make an evaluation about the current situation of the sector?

The late 2014 and early 2015 period has passed more volatile than we could expect. The reason for this is the fluctuation in prices. Since we produce industrial products, we were affected more during this period. In the past when devaluation happened the Turkish Lira would lose against the Dollar. This would help us to be more competitive with the part less than raw materials. But now the money of everybody was devaluated. All countries from Iran to Russia experienced this. An advantage has not been formed in the market for anybody. Even if your selling power has increased the purchasing power of your accepter has decreased. This balance made everything unchanged

The customers in Croatia, Russia, Iran and Europe have become to trade in their own regions. We cannot say that export business has ended, however, it decreased considerably. The countries, whose currencies lost ground against the Dollar, were affected from this scene and their adaptation to this situation has become painful. Turkey’s January export figures recorded a fast drop in general. We have been experiencing such a period now.

How do you think this situation will be formed in 2015?

In fact, it is not easy to forecast this but I believe that the Turkish Lira will continue to lose ground. There is a nominal interest concept representing a rate from 0 to 10%. There is also another concept namely real interest net of inflation. Let’s say that the inflation rate is 8% and interest rate is 10%. The real interest rate of Turkey means 2% then. We hear that the interest rates are high or low. This is not true. What is the scale to measure the rate? There is no such thing to correct everything by reducing the interest rates

What contributions the mattress and furniture industry adds to Kayseri? Is this sector improving with the recent activities?

First of all, Kayseri has an automation-oriented production understanding. This brings high turnover and more units. But the distance has become a problem. There is localization in the furniture industry in domestic market. Izmir has made a progress recently at this manner. Inegol had already made it before. But Kayseri still maintains its leadership in the sector. The main reason of this is the proximity to the raw material sources. The grouping of raw material suppliers such as our company pulls the costs down and leads the way for supplying raw materials cheaper for the manufacturing companies. It seems that Kayseri will not lose its advantage at this manner in the mid-term.

I should say that we did not act in the mattress business as early as we did for the furniture industry. The production cost of mattresses is higher than the cost of soft group furniture. The mattress industry is a difficult investment field requiring manufacturing line and automation systems. Companies have started to consider the mattress business as the second job because furniture promises better profit volumes. Some intelligent companies noticed the gap and started to be expert in the mattress business. I guess the daily quantity in Turkey’s mattress manufacturing is 15 thousand pieces. Probably 10 thousand of this potential is produced in Kayseri. This total figure can easily be doubled.

Mattress shouldn’t be a “promotion” product

Mattresses are given free as a promotional item with furniture in some countries. This is not right. It is always pronounced that one third of life is spent in bed. Such a considerable product shouldn’t be cheap. According to a report we prepared in 2010, a sum of 20 dollars is spent for mattress per capita in Canada but it is 3.82 dollars in Turkey.

You see in mattress commercials that a human is lying with a straight spine. There is no such thing. A mattress will not change the shape of your body and will react against that. It is impossible. There was an idea in Turkey that a foam mattress is not an ideal mattress. But now we see that expert manufacturers prove that the idea was not correct. The customers’ awareness should be raised at this point.

A as spring manufacturer, how do you evaluate spring and mattress relations?

A mattress is a product bearing some deadlocks in itself. Let’s say that we used the motto of “we spend one third of our lives in bed” in marketing. We should fill in this idea too. How should such an important item be for the benefit of our health? Then come the fabric, stuffing materials and springs forward. Fabric is one of the most important materials of mattresses for visuality and for other reasons. A lot of technologies based on R&D studies have been developed in mattress-ticking fabrics. When these come to a certain level then people start considering the inner part of a mattress. Now people have to think two alternatives. Should it be spring or foam? They mostly tend to choose according to prices. When springs become more expensive they tend to foam or vice versa. But spring is preferred more in Turkey because it is less expensive. The higher the springs are, the less stuffing materials are used. This is a correct tending.

There are a lot of products related to the common spring types of pocket and bonnel springs. We have 5 different alternatives only as bonnel springs. They have fairly big differences between each other. There is a feature of number of spring per square meter. This count is asked when buying mattress in Europe and America. There are some mattresses in England with 10 thousand springs per square meter. It increases the comfort.

Individuality at the forefront in mattress

We have been experiencing 4 ages in marketing. We had experienced the production age in 1980s. We had sales age in 1990s and marketing in 2000s. Right now we have been experiencing consumer-drive age. We develop customized products according to the needs of the consumer. If a person is suffering back pain and needs hard mattress, we have to offer solution accordingly. There is no such thing as excellent mattress but ideal mattress for the user.

Companies in Turkey manufacture their own springs and they believe that this is the correct system. This is one of the biggest problems we are having. They think that they can buy machinery for cheaper prices. But that’s not the case. There is a synchronization of spring machine in itself. It is accounted what kind of a load it can carry from the standpoint of health costs. The fibers come through her and the wire enters from there and the cost increases. I mean the work is not easy as it appears. Boydak Group has solved this very intelligently. The Group has separated the spring, foam and fabric from each other and has set up a specialty team at each field. Companies operating with this method can easily develop and grow.