One of Turkish Cuisines essentials is halva… Passing beyond a food for Ottomans, halva became a social constituent of enjoyment, delight, knowledge, culture, poetry, epigram, acquaintance and celebration Speaking of halva in Turkey, one of the outstanding brands is Koska Helvacısı. We spoke with the Board Member of Merter Helva Sanayi Emin Dindar, also as known as the Koska with the blue amulet about the story of the brand, established by 1900s and managed by two separate corporations from a single family today. He told us about the secret of this savor and maintaining this century old family business with the new generations. Koska Helvacısı is one of Turkey’s oldest brands… A reorganization was made a couple of years ago. What has changed in this process? Our Company which is founded by early 1900’s is still run by the same family. Under the fourth generation’s governance today, handing down the company to following generations in strong shape is one of our priorities. Because, in the previous generation 30 years ago, the conflict between brothers caused the company to be separated. Since then, we have been running the Koska brand mutually as two independent companies. In recent years this multi-headed operations created confusion for customers. In order to clear up this confusion entailing serious problems from time to time, we placed a “blue amulet” into the “O” letter in our brand logo. We ensured to distinguish our company, Merter Helva Sanayi, in customer perceptions seven years ago. Since then, we use this new logo with the amulet in our products. This change was positively reacted by our customers. Now they can easily distinguish between the two companies. Your company created a family constitution. Why was a family constitution was required? What do you recommend to other family businesses in this matter? We put vigorous effort in order to avoid any separation in the family’s next generations like we had 30 years ago. In terms of institutionalizing, we worked hard and we are still working. Family constitution was one of the most important steps in this institutionalizing process. By the help of our consultant we stipulated the way company managed today and for the future with the most cognizance possible for the family members’ rights. We elaborated on improving the structure of the existing administration. Besides, we generated fruitful ideas on how the next generations contribute to the company. Nowadays, we observe the benefits of these arrangements. Halva has a great importance in Turkish traditions. Could you briefly talk about the history of halva and the foundation of Koska Helvacısı? The word, helva is originates from the Arabic word “hulviyyat” or “halaviyyat”, meaning sweet foods in Turkish. Hulv means sweet, nice and beautiful in Arabic. Helva goes beyond a desert and became a tradition in Turkish Culture. This tradition stemming from the Ottoman Cuisine is rather a social phenomenon. In Ottoman Palace, halva became a reflection of enjoyment, delight, knowledge, poetry, epigram, aquaintance and celebration. On the plea of halva courses, sophisticated conversations had been held which nurtured many enlightened people. Halva was not only cooked in the palace. There were many halva manufacturers all around Anatolia. Koska’s history dates back to Hacı Emin Bey’s halva shop in Denizli in the beginning of 1900’s. Following this predecessor job, Halil İbrahim Adil Dindar moved to İstanbul with his sons in 1930 and founded a new shop in Koska district. Owing to the fancy those manufactured halvas, Turkish delight and deserts created, the shop became famous as Koska Helvacısı. Then the company registered the Koska as the brand name and used it with its products. We keep going in our journey as a completely domestic family business for 110 years. With more than a century old brand awareness, does Koska have traditional tastes that is still cooked the old-style? Speaking of halva today, Koska is the top-ofmind brand. Our century-old journey started with halva. Halva is still one of our most popular products. Changing technology and lifestyles changed many things. From a small sized halva store, we grew into an integrated manufacturing facility in Avcılar Ambarlı with 350 different products. Since the early 1900’s almost everything but our quality and taste has changed. Since its foundations, manufacturing with the traditional taste and quality is our company’s unwritten code. Every member of the new generations taking over goes on with this consciousness. Keeping the taste exactly as it is accepted by the customers since the old days is one of our prior principles. Although harnessing the technology at maximum, we avoid any automatizing process which might change the taste or the texture of our products. The ultimate goal of this rigorous approach is satisfying our customers. With this aim, we try to improve ourselves constantly. What are the most popular products for consumers? In Koska, we present traditional tastes with modern touches for the favor of consumers with different expectations. New technologies and lifestyles have changed people’s dietary habits. Consumers seek out more practical and healthy products at once. Interest in organic and natural products are also growing. We try to cater to the consumers’ expectations. We provide our products to consumers with the traditional taste and necessary quality concurrent with their needs. In this manner, we extended our product portfolio with organic, diabetic and sugar-free products. Specifically, we work on projects about child nutrition. One of the best examples to this is the “Koska Super Duo”, our tahina-pekmez mixture. This product was liked such that we received many appreciations from several parents. We launched this product within different sized and practical packages in concordance with many different occasions whenever you want such as school, training, traveling, and so on. Our diabetic products also attract significant attention. In our joint studies with the Turkish Diabetics Foundation, it is proved that the consumption of our diabetic products do not cause any increase on insulin levels up-to 40 grams per serving. Our jams sweetened with grape juice extract is another option for the consumers.