Today we’d like to introduce you to Seher Kaplan.
Hi Seher, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Our journey started 10 years ago when we hosted an Italian exchange student, Valerio, in our house in Turkey for a year. It was an influential experience for our family. As a result, we decided to send our children to the U.S. to learn a new culture and language. After completing one year in a boarding school at Kimball Union Academy in NH, our children decided to continue with their education. Our oldest son, Umut, graduated and went to Michigan State where our youngest, Cosku, joined him there two years later.
Going from 300 students to 60,000 was a bit overwhelming for Cosku and they put on a transfer where he ended up in Minnesota State- Mankato and Umut in University of Minnesota- Twin cities.
As my husband and I visited our children over the years we have established wonderful relationships with our children’s friends, faculty and their families. To show our appreciation, we wanted to introduce a part of culture to the community our children were in. We now meticulously produce our premium Extra Virgin Olive Oils from Turkey and work with the small families that have been weaving authentic Turkish textiles for generations and offer our products at our Coccinella. We have been very fortunate by the response of our community and thankful that they made us feel home away from home.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Doing business has its challenges in every part of the world, but it can be even more difficult in a different country. My husband and I have been in insurance and renewable energy industry in Turkey therefore we have an extensive business background. However, trying to establish a new structure in the US has challenges that we have not faced before. Language, accounting and supply chain have been the most noticeable ones. We have been fortunate have a wonderful team and friends who helped us overcome those challenges and they continue to do so!
As you know, we’re big fans of Coccinella. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We consider olive oil as “liquid gold” in the Mediterranean as it is a huge part of our culture and is the essence of our healthy lifestyle. As we know not every olive oil is the same due to their process, we work with local farmers and a boutique factory in Turkey where our family controls the entire process of the production we are able to produce premium extra virgin olive oils that has a high polyphenol content, these are the healthy antioxidants found in an extra virgin olive oils. Our brand of olive oil is called Oleavia. We also wanted to bring our unique textiles. Turkish cotton is known for its absorbency due to its longer fibers but our country is also known for its craftsmanship. We have visited and met with many families in Turkey and only work with the ones that value sustainability and have a strong and fair work ethic. Our textiles brand is Aegean Breeze.
Coccinella is our retail store located at 4946 France Ave. S. and offers our brands to our community. We also have a wholesale operation where we partner with small businesses in MN that carries our brands.
Based on one of our customers’ recommendations, we now offer corporate gifting and had to honor to work with many businesses and individual business professionals.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Reading has always been a big part of my childhood and adult life. I have been involved in theater and am a huge fan of poems. I am also intrigued by art and love meeting with artists and visiting art galleries. A few of the authors and poets that influenced me the most are Nazim Hikmet, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Antonie De Saint Exupery, Jonathan Livingston, Jack London and Emily Dickinson.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.coccinellastore.com
