Turkish puzzle maker ships to Canada, Mexico

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The most popular puzzle that the Anatolian firm produces is Dianne Dengel’s ‘Home Sweet Home,’ which is also called ‘The Picture of Happiness’ in Turkey.

Turkish puzzle maker Anatolian has begun exporting to Mexico, Canada and South Africa. In four short months the company has sold 30,000 boxes of puzzles.

The company produces 400,000 boxes annually and has a sales figure of 250,000 boxes per year with 4.8 million Turkish Liras in revenues, according to Perre Group’s General Manager Hakan Karlar. 

Karlar said he and his partner Aydın Aytekin hoped to become one of the top five global puzzle producers. 

“Even though we’ve only just expanded overseas, our exports are very strong. We sell puzzles in 800 different locations in the internal market,” said Karlar to daily Hürriyet. The company’s catalog has over 400 different puzzles depicting famous art works, for which the company pays licensing fees to 17 different licensing firms in eight countries. 

“We offer free replacements for missing puzzle pieces. For a puzzle lover a missing piece can be very distressing. Not all puzzle firms would be willing to do this. We think of the long-term, so we provide those pieces,” add Karlar. 

Karlar used to run a bookstore in Ankara and Aytekin was a producer of boxes and packaging for firms. The two joined forces to form the Anatolian puzzle brand. 

The most popular puzzle that the firm produces is Dianne Dengel’s famous “the picture of happiness” puzzle.