The Digest | New Jersey Magazine
Issue link: https://magazines.vuenj.com/i/1531110
With a handshake, the rest of his future was decided. at's how Moe Arpacilar recalls meeting his future business partner, Turgut Bekisoglu, at the Miami airport in 1999. "At that second, we knew that we would never be separated again in business for the rest of our lives," Moe shares, referring to the moment as "one of the turning points of my life." Born and raised in Turkey, Moe Arpacilar came to the United States as a young man in search of his future. Aer graduating from college and without a specific direction, Moe decided to stay in the U.S. and try to start a business on his own rather than return to Turkey. His chance meeting with Turgut would provide the direction he desired. Moe and Turgut went on to start Marmiro Stones in 2000, sourcing from Bekisoglu's family-owned quarries in Turkey, home country for them both. Over the last two decades, Arpacilar and Bekisoglu have managed to build a multi-state operation with multiple production and distribution centers along the East Coast. But, as Moe shares, their pathway to success has had a few bumps along the way. "If you love what you do, do what you love, it's inevitable the outcome is success no matter what," he says, referencing his deep love for his line of work and maybe even more so, his deep affection for family–his own and Turgut's– along with Marmiro's team–both in the U.S. and Turkey–who have provided support through turbulent times. e 2008 financial crisis hit the company hard, almost proving deadly for Marmiro Stones who, at the time, was reliant on "the wholesale, dropshipping model." With corporations withholding payments, Marmiro Stones experienced a "90% drop in revenue, 9 years into our business," Moe painfully recalls. For the then Florida-based business, such profit loss put the business partners "into a spot where we had to make decisions of bankrupting and shutting the business, ending our journey, or we were going to get up on our feet, go door by door, brand the company ourselves, and just do it the hard way?" Moe shares. With limited resources, Moe identified that "the only part of VUENJ.COM 67