He Became a Brand All Over Turkey with His Name from Konya

We had a short interview with “Ekrem Coşkun” about Meat Döner. He answered the most frequently asked questions to “The Konya News”.

- Why do you use “Meat Fat”?
E. Coşkun: Meat fat is a kind of fat that comes out on average only 5 kg from a calf weighing 350-400 kg. It is a product that is actively used in products such as sausage and meatballs. One of the reasons we prefer meat fat in our döner kebabs is to meet the extreme sensitivity of the new generation, especially women, to smell of the meat. We use meat fat in our products in order to prevent the smell coming from lamb breast and lamb tail fat. Another reason is that the freezing time of meat fat is longer than other ones. For these reasons, we do not use kidney fat or the other internal fat. In the R&D studies carried out at room temperature, it was determined that the freezing time of the meat fat was 15 minutes, while the freezing time of the kidney and internal fats was 5 minutes.
 

- Why don’t you sell fizzy drinks in your restaurants?
E. Coşkun: We do not sell fizzy drinks at Ekrem Coşkun Döner Express restaurants with the slogan of Human Health First. The most important reason why we don’t sell fizzy drinks is because there are no additives in our products. In addition, our customers are allowed to bring fizzy drinks with them and consume them with our products.
 

- How do you sell döner so cheap?
E. Coşkun: We served meat to people by proving that meat döner can be sold for 8-10 TL. In addition, we offer the products of Turkey’s most important beverage brands below market prices. With the Express concept that we have been working on for 6 years, we kept the business establishment and fixed costs low. We switched to the self-service model and kept our profit margin low, and this significantly increased our kilogram sales. With this move, we reduced the waste rate in döner kebab. We said let’s earn less, let’s earn from stock, so we shared our profit with our people. Our secret is really that simple.

- Does the product go to the branches in frozen form?
E. Coşkun: We supply our products from companies that have all kinds of certificates on food safety, and which are the pioneers in their sectors, producing under hygienic conditions. We serve our döner kebabs fresh, without freezing, on skewers at our branches, and bring them to our consumers. There is a high probability of cheating in the frozen product, and it is also difficult to determine what is used in the frozen döner. In order to prevent this, we offer fresh products to our customers by performing a fresh meat operation. Our products are carried with refrigerated vehicles without breaking the cold chain and are stored in branches and cold storages. Both our suppliers and our branches have the necessary equipments in this regard. You, our valued customers, can see our products by visiting the cold storages in our branches whenever you wish.

- The most important issue in food industry is control. How do you provide this?
E. Coşkun: We are happy that we are perhaps the most controlled brand in Turkey by official institutions, due to the fact that some people are constantly disturbed by the service we provide. Thankfully, as a result of the inspections of the Official Institutions in our branches, no negative results have been found so far. We sometimes share the analysis results given to us as a result of the controls in our accounts, and we will continue to do so. Our people will continue to eat quality meat doner at an affordable price with the slogan “Everybody has the right to know what they eat”.